Friday 7 January: The Colston statue verdict gives a dangerous excuse for lawbreaking

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

761 thoughts on “Friday 7 January: The Colston statue verdict gives a dangerous excuse for lawbreaking”

    1. Well Minty I believe you have been up and awake several hours before the still to arrive Dawn….

  5. The Colston statue verdict gives a dangerous excuse for lawbreaking

    It does when the police stand down and watch them do it.

  7. Has anyone noticed that they no longer call the events at Capitol Hill on the 6th January an attempted insurrection.
    They just say riots, to be fair they weren’t even a proper riot.

    1. Morning Bob. They did try “coup” at the beginning but it faded out in general disbelief!

      1. “Yesterday, CNN’s Kaise Hunt announced: “Tomorrow is going to be a tough one for those of us who were there or had loved ones in the building. Thinking of all of you and finding strength knowing I’m not alone in this.”

        I suspect Dr Spooner would have found her name a bit of a tongue twister….!

  8. Islamists are making a mockery of our asylum system. Spiked 7 January 2022.

    At the time of the terror blast in Liverpool last November, the perpetrator, 32-year-old Iraqi-born Emad al-Swealmeen, presented himself as a Christian convert.

    How sincere this conversion from Islam really was has now been laid bare. At an inquest into al-Swealmeen’s death at Liverpool and Wirral Coroner’s Court last week, senior coroner André Rebello said that ‘both a Holy Koran and prayer mat were present’ when al-Swealmeen’s flat was searched. ‘It was fairly evident that he carried out the religious duties of someone who is a follower of Islam, notwithstanding the reported conversion to Christianity’, concluded Rebello. It has also been reported separately that al-Swealmeen attended an unnamed Liverpool mosque on a frequent basis during Ramadan last year. All of this points towards an insincere religious conversion designed to bolster al-Swealmeen’s long-standing asylum claim.

    One only wonders why he bothered! Tens of thousands of his co-religionists reside in the UK without bothering with this rather eccentric excuse and most with none at all! They know that their chances of being deported are effectually nil! The “asylum system” only exists in the minds of Home Office Civil Servants and even they don’t bother implementing it. Politicians of all persuasions find it useful for deferring criticism but for all practical purposes it does not exist!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/01/07/islamists-are-making-a-mockery-of-our-asylum-system/

    1. The reason’s simple enough – apostates are marked for death by the Religion Of Peace, thus any deportation back to the dump that spawned him could be presented as a death sentence. He’s far from the first Muzzo to *miraculously* discover Christ when his immigration status gets shaky.

  9. Islamists are making a mockery of our asylum system. Spiked 7 January 2022.

    At the time of the terror blast in Liverpool last November, the perpetrator, 32-year-old Iraqi-born Emad al-Swealmeen, presented himself as a Christian convert.

    How sincere this conversion from Islam really was has now been laid bare. At an inquest into al-Swealmeen’s death at Liverpool and Wirral Coroner’s Court last week, senior coroner André Rebello said that ‘both a Holy Koran and prayer mat were present’ when al-Swealmeen’s flat was searched. ‘It was fairly evident that he carried out the religious duties of someone who is a follower of Islam, notwithstanding the reported conversion to Christianity’, concluded Rebello. It has also been reported separately that al-Swealmeen attended an unnamed Liverpool mosque on a frequent basis during Ramadan last year. All of this points towards an insincere religious conversion designed to bolster al-Swealmeen’s long-standing asylum claim.

    One only wonders why he bothered! Tens of thousands of his co-religionists reside in the UK without bothering with this rather eccentric excuse and most with none at all! They know that their chances of being deported are effectually nil! The “asylum system” only exists in the minds of Home Office Civil Servants and even they don’t bother implementing it. Politicians of all persuasions find it useful for deferring criticism but for all practical purposes it does not exist!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/01/07/islamists-are-making-a-mockery-of-our-asylum-system/

  10. I wonder how people feel about being given all this vaccine that does not work. ?

    2. Morning, JN.

      From my experience many are in denial i.e. they will not discuss the matter. Two whom I know admitted to having suffered side effects, one had a stroke after each of his two jabs; the other is continually suffering fatigue, red spots on hands and arms and recurring ‘gout’. Neither are going near the ‘booster’.

      1. My Polish friend, a fit 40 year old, got Myocarditis after being vaccinated. Bee off work for months now.

    3. People still believe it prevents serious illness even if it doesn’t stop them catching it. They think any side effects are just scaremongering and misinformation.

  14. Morning all

    The Colston statue verdict gives a dangerous excuse for lawbreaking

    SIR – As a Bristolian, I sympathise with the motives of those who toppled Edward Colston’s statue.

    However, I am alarmed at their acquittal on charges of criminal damage (report, January 6). The verdict would seem to set worrying precedent: that anyone is entitled to destroy anything with which they disagree.

    Anthony Whitehead

    Bristol

    SIR – I am appalled by the decision at Bristol Crown Court.

    Whatever the cause or the circumstances, jurors must separate the possible prevailing opinion from the charge and evidence before them.

    Mary Seaton

    Tiverton, Devon

    SIR – It is ironic that, 300 years after the death of Edward Colston, the people of Bristol, who raised the statue by public subscription, should effectively have their decision reversed by a jury consisting of: the people of Bristol.

    Black Lives Matter started as a movement demanding fair treatment for black people, but very soon adopted political objectives amounting to the overthrow of the free world.

    In Britain, it has conflated instances of police brutality in the United States with the fact that some of Britain’s major public benefactors in history derived an income from slavery.

    The jury who ignored the judge’s advice to make a decision based on the evidence showed how people have been swayed by this argument.

    Richard Hodgkinson

    Thames Dutton, Surrey

    SIR – Trial by jury is fundamental to the rule of law and democracy.

    William Blackstone, the 18th-century jurist, wrote that it is our “most important guardian both of public and private liberty. The liberties of England cannot but subsist so long as this palladium remains sacred and inviolate, not only from all open attacks… but also from all secret machinations”. Judges may reach perverse decisions, which may be overturned on appeal. Jury verdicts are, however, sacrosanct.

    There is no distinction in principle between the Colston decision and that which acquitted the Quakers William Penn and William Mead (Leading Article, January 6). Verdicts that appear to contradict the direction of the judge show the strength of the jury system. All jury verdicts should be supported, whether or not we agree with particular outcomes.

    His Honour Nic Madge

    St Albans, Hertfordshire

    SIR – The energies of protesters would be better applied to campaigning against modern slavery and persecution. Attempting to erase the past will not change history, nor help anyone who is suffering today.

    James Hare

    Helmsley, North Yorkshire

    SIR – Now the man’s name will live on in the “Colston Four”.

    Paul Reed

    Stirling

    1. How I wish that most of that jury is now facing charges of perverting the course of justice, because that is surely what they have done!

    2. BTL Comment:-

      Robert Spowart
      JUST NOW
      Message Actions
      But wat it the “People of Bristol” who pulled down the statue Mr. Hodgkinson? Or was it largely a group with origins a long way from Bristol who are attracted to the City by the University and who form the hard core of Left Wing opinion in the City?

      REPLY
      0

      1. Wasn’t Madge Dame Edna Everage’s bridesmaid?
        Must be all that parading around in tights, wigs and fancy robes.

    4. Richard Hodgkinson is sadly deluded if he believes that BLM “started as a movement demanding fair treatment for black people, but
      very soon adopted political objectives amounting to the overthrow of the free world.”

      It’s been the political successor to the Black Panthers, The Weather Underground, and all those other movements that won’t stay decently dead, from the very start.

    5. Richard Hodgkinson is sadly deluded if he believes that BLM “started as a movement demanding fair treatment for black people, but
      very soon adopted political objectives amounting to the overthrow of the free world.”

      It’s been the political successor to the Black Panthers, The Weather Underground, and all those other movements that won’t stay decently dead, from the very start.

  17. Morning again

    SIR – Harold Macmillan’s refusal of the Garter caused much surprise, as Charles Moore indicates (Notebook, January 4). Macmillan loved dispensing honours generously, explaining: “I take a lot of trouble over it. At least it makes all those years reading Trollope worthwhile.”

    There was just one that he wanted on his resignation in 1963: “The only honour that appealed to me was the Order of Merit, which remains the sovereign’s personal gift.” In part, that was because it was the one honour held by both Lloyd George and Churchill, his greatest 20th‑century predecessors.

    He held out for it, turning down both an earldom and the Garter in 1964, to the Queen’s displeasure. She made him wait 12 years before giving him his heart’s desire. “Thank you, ma’am, for making an old man happy,” he told her when he finally received it in April 1976.

    As to the earldom, he set that aside in 1964 with a gentle swipe at the House of Lords: “A lot of people go into a mausoleum, but there’s no need to go in prematurely.” He finally entered the “mausoleum” as Earl of Stockton in 1984 at the age of 90.

    Lord Lexden (Con)

    London SW1

  18. Deporting Djokovic

    SIR – It appears that the question of whether Novak Djokovic has precisely the right paperwork trumps the question of whether he is the world’s best tennis player (“Djokovic faces deportation in Covid visa row”, Sport, January 6).

    Thus bureaucracy stifles a great sporting nation. I won’t be watching the tennis, or rushing over to Australia any time soon.

    John Jones

    London SW19

    SIR – I do hope that the Australian government stands firm on the deportation of Mr Djokovic.

    It should remember the thousands of its citizens who have followed the rules, and not let some “Do you know who I am?” bypass those rules.

    Bill Todd

    Twickenham, Middlesex

    1. I wonder if holier-than-thou Bill Todd realises there are those among us, with medical conditions that preclude us taking weird gene therapy that we are not privy to its content (and won’t be for 55 years) that might kill us with impunity for Big Pharma.

      I think I’ll use Best Beloved and post it BTL..

  19. Dark days ahead

    SIR – On Tuesday, I received a message from my electricity supplier offering to place me on a priority services register. Supposed benefits included 24-hour advice on power cuts, support with accommodation and hot meals during such events, and tips on energy saving.

    Is this – the first such message I have received since becoming a homeowner 47 years ago – a blunt warning that we are to see blackouts in the near future? The Government is playing with fire in ignoring public concern about the premature phasing out of our traditional energy generating capacity.

    John Wetherell

    Bramhall, Cheshire

    1. Ah, but the Government doesn’t want you playing with fire Net Zero and all that bolleaux….

    2. I have a friend who is involved with energy supply. He told me about this register, apparently no one knows about it. I told I certainly didn’t. It has been in existence for some time.

    3. I sort of discovered this register’s existence when elderly chum was still at home – so probably three years ago.
      There seemed to be no formal arrangement, just a note made against her account records.

      1. Just good practice, duty of care, to assist the elderly vulnerable in the event of a prolonged power cut.

          1. Ice storm, power lines taken down by storm force winds and roads blocked by snow etc.

          2. That’s so twentieth century! These days power cuts are planned into the system, and you can do your bit to help by not charging your Tesla when the wind’s not blowingdemand is high.

    4. Johnson is in thrall to the green blob and its promoter, the globalist cabal. He, via his policies, is a threat to the Country and its people. How can the people survive and go about their business and lives, and industry prosper, with the threat of power outages hanging over them? Who will invest in a country with a failing infrastructure and a government that is oblivious to the harm that it is doing? Johnson blathering on about the marvellous future ahead is for the gullible. There can be no marvellous future without a secure, modern and functioning infrastructure: a stable and reliable energy source is at the very heart of having a future to look forward to.

    5. “The Government is playing with fire in ignoring public concern about the premature phasing out of our traditional energy generating capacity.”

      The government has no idea that there is a fire – growing hotter by the minute, that will end up burning the ar5e of Johnson, his crew and his party.

  20. The Church must rediscover its true purpose

    SIR – The purpose of the Church of England is to offer worship. The more it allows churches to be used for other reasons (Letters, January 5), the more it portrays this purpose as peripheral.

    The number of worshippers will only grow if the Church recovers its understanding of its central purpose.

    David J Critchley

    Winslow, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – Sir Tony Baldry (Letters, January 5) is right to highlight the needs of rural churches, but even more concerning is the closure of churches in poor inner-city areas. A report by the Church Buildings Council in 2020 showed that churches in the most deprived parishes are more likely to close than those in prosperous areas.

    Yet it is precisely in poorer places that the community assistance provided by churches – such as food banks, youth groups, and drug, alcohol and mental health support – is most needed. At the National Churches Trust, we will do everything we can to support church buildings, and we urge the Government and bodies such as the National Heritage Lottery Fund to step up their support.

    Eddie Tulasiewicz

    National Churches Trust

    London SW1

    SIR – On a trip back to my birth city, Norwich, I drove from the suburbs to the city centre by a familiar route. I passed eight closed pubs. Most of the churches appeared to be functioning.

    The spirit ecclesiastical seems to be faring better than the spirit temporal.

    Rod Corke

    London SW18

    1. Eddie Tulasiewicz obviously isn’t aware that each church has to pay an annual fee to the diocese (the Parish Share) and in our case it amounts to about £5,000. I do know that. of the eight parishes under the care of our vicar, we pay the most – some just renege on it, on the basis that they cannot raise the money.

      I’m pretty sure that this is what happens to those poorer, inner City parishes and therefore are closed down to save the diocese the cost of maintaining the fabric and paying for the parish priest. – parsimonious senior clergy, sponging off the diocese but with no moral duty to the parishes.

      1. I also suspect that the poorer inner city areas aren’t exactly awash with Christians either.

          5. As it should be.
            If such churches are closed perhaps the “Church” could sell the artefacts and sites.
            My one concern would be that the money saved is then wasted on wokery.

          8. Despite only 7 or 10 worshippers at any of the two services per month (I’m not one), we still manage to raise funds to keep the church healthy and pay the Parish Share.

          10. The Parish of St Mary’s, Flowton in the heart of rural Mid-Suffolk, reachable only by 3 single-track roads.

          14. That is the argument of the church of england management, however their limp lefty policies are leading directly to declining audiences. There are plenty of thriving churches in poor inner city areas; they are preaching the Word of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

          15. Many West Indian communities have thriving churches – they are more religious than the indigenous English. I do love the sound of a Gospel choir.

          16. And those congregations tend to be from African extraction, by far the largest growth area.
            If a church is bringing in zero income and has huge outgoings what possible justification can there be for keeping it open?
            Far better to support the ones that are thriving, because that is where the support for weak churches may well come from.

          17. Far better to start preaching Christianity before running up the white flag because people don’t want to go to churches that preach liberalism.

      2. The CofE has no chance of recovery while Welby remains as its Archbishop of Canterbury. Mind you, he was appointed by his fellow Old Etonian, David Cameron, with specific instructions to ruin it as much as he could and DC is very pleased with his success in carrying out this instruction.

        When he retires perhaps the Queen can be bullied into making him a Knight of the Garter?

  21. Heralding laughs…….

    Heralding a Triumph

    SIR – My Triumph Herald convertible (Letters, January 6) was yellow. It was my first car and definitely the best. It went twice to Ventimiglia and spent a happy three months in the Algarve.

    While in Italy, I had air horns fitted to the car, but the Italian mechanic got his and its wires crossed. Every time I turned left there was a loud blast.

    William Nation

    Chiddingfold, Surrey

    SIR – In the early 1970s, the Bond Bug was promoted as a groovy car to drive. As impecunious students, my friend and I scraped enough cash together to buy a Reliant Robin. It was black, so we (hand) painted it orange to make it look the part (we were art students).

    Driving around a roundabout, the passenger door came open (Letters, January 6), so I gripped the seat. However, for reasons I can’t quite remember, the seat wasn’t fastened to the floor. I fell out.

    Roger Fowles

    Chatham, Kent

    SIR – I took my driving test in Lichfield in 1955 in a 1937 Ford 8 Model Y.

    The steering wheel came off during the test, but after discussion I managed to refix it and subsequently passed.

    Wes Thomas

    Truro, Cornwall

    1. I had the steering wheel come off while driving my father’s Karmann Ghia convertible through York one summer. Lots of beeping ensued, until I stood up and waved the offending article through the open roof. Laughter, and blessed patience until I had the dratted thing stuck back into place, followed.

    2. I took my driving test in a battered MG TC. When the emergency stop was called the examiner put his right foot through the rusty floor (he was obviously braking with me as you do). I still passed inspite of the comment from him ….”You appear to have a rust problem”

  22. Good Moaning.
    Sonny Boy found this little gem and passed it on. I can only say that Scottish dental practices were a generation behind Colchester. I never saw extractions done without anaesthesia and dental clearances were a last resort. The dentist I worked for employed two dental technicians who worked in a large room above the surgery.
    There was a specialist dental laboratory based in Clacton that did work for many practices including the more intricate work for the one where I worked. With hindsight, I realise that was the shape (mould?) of things to come.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-59755090

    1. I assumed your patients had their teeth extracted to prevent them biting pushy nurses…

      1. We had plenty of patients who were still wearing their original 21st. birthday present – though often not for yer actual eating.
        One of the low points of my career was an old boy removing his vulcanite dentures and handing them to me while they were still coated with porridge.

    2. That poor woman who had them all out with no anaesthetic! Things were a bit more enlightened in England.
      My mother died over 30 years ago and still had her own teeth at 80.

    4. Good morning Anne ,

      Reminds me of when Moh’s late mum was in the care home , things like spectacles and false teeth used to go missing , we used to search everwhere for her glasses , we bought her so many spare pairs .

      The staff used to say that teeth were a problem because the elderlies used to take their false teeth out usually after a meal, and put them in a pocket , handbag , or even when visiting the loo.

      Gums shrink as one ages , and false teeth slip and slide around in the mouth and become uncomfortable .

      1. Morning Maggie I have a small denture plate with 3 teeth on it. I have to take it out to eat as I’m not comfortable eating with it

      2. OH’s mum was in a nursing home for her final four years – her teeth went missing, and also her nice clothes – when we visited she was wearing strange clothes which obviously did not belong to her. She was always well-dressed before she had dementia.

        1. Mine too – I think they homes laundry just stuck them all in together and everyone just picked what they wanted to wear

      3. If you lose as little as half a stone, dentures become loose.
        If you think about it, the top plate relies on an exact fit to get the suction and the lower one has to sit snugly on a ridge of gum.

        2. I can better that. I had my front right incisor removed by a softball bat. The stupid idiot was supposed to drop it in the square not launch it behind them.

    6. My dentist makes his own crowns now using a machine that defines them from his 3d computer stuff, then moulds and bakes them for fitting.

  23. Good Moaning.
    Sonny Boy found this little gem and passed it on. I can only say that Scottish dental practices were a generation behind Colchester. I never saw extractions done without anaesthesia and dental clearances were a last resort. The dentist I worked for employed two dental technicians who worked in a large room above the surgery.
    There was a specialist dental laboratory based in Clacton that did work for many practices including the more intricate work for the one where I worked. With hindsight, I realise that was the shape (mould?) of things to come.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-59755090

    6. Happy Birthday to Lottie – will look out for a post from you later to wish you HB in person!

    7. Thank you Rastus and Caroline. The sun has actually put in an appearance in my honour;-) I am touched by the good wishes and cards I have received- a beautiful one from my husband and one from my flat mate from college days. Her birthday is 13th so I have her card to mail. We celebrated our 21st birthdays together and it was memorable!

  26. Happy Birthday, LotL.
    Skip the morning coffee, go straight to the champagne.
    (English version if you’re feeling patriotic.)

    1. Gosh, I am saintly- am on 2nd mug of coffee, will have a drinkie later and we’re going out later on to celebrate.

  27. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – James Osborne (Letters, January 6) gives an example of management inefficiency in the NHS.

    My wife was in three NHS institutions for more than a month, spending Christmas week in isolation, as she had been in contact with a Covid-positive employee.

    Last Monday, I was trying to find out where she had been moved to in the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, after being admitted via A&E the previous day. It took more than 40 phone calls, between 9am and 2.15pm.

    The switchboard mostly answered, but when I was transferred to an extension there was no reply. When I did reach a human being, they were unable to help. At one point, I was told that my wife had been sent home. One nurse kindly gave up 10 minutes of her valuable time to physically search for her, but to no avail. I finally discovered that my wife was in the Acute Assessment Unit, almost next to A&E.

    The next day, my phone rang from a Brighton number. A doctor or nurse with an update, perhaps? No: it was an automated call asking if my wife (still in hospital) would take part in a survey about her experience in A&E.

    David Leech
    Balcombe, West Sussex

    What an ordeal for David Leech. His final paragraph reminded me of the automated call I received following my recent annual review…how kind of the system to call me on Christmas morning to seek my views on the event! I resisted the temptation to suggest that this was not the best day to call.

    1. I would not have resisted temptation – this is just the state telling us that Christian festivals are not important.
      We mostly aren’t aware of it, but there is a big anti-Christmas movement in the UK, fueled by the far left and islam.
      In my son’s only year at a UK state school, in a cathedral city, muslim teenagers went round the whole class asking them if they celebrated Christmas, and if they said yes, then pushing them to justify it. Nobody even bothered to complain to the staff about this behaviour for obvious reasons.

  28. A Pastoral Donkey (and the American Language)

    A pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won. The pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the next race, and it won again.
    The local newspaper read: PASTOR’S ASS OUT FRONT.
    The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.
    The next day, the local newspaper headline read: BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR’S ASS.
    This was too much for the Bishop, so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey. The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby convent.
    The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day: NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.
    The Bishop fainted. He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10.
    The next day the paper read: NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10.
    This was too much for the Bishop, so he ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.
    The next day the headlines read: NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE.
    The Bishop was buried the next day.
    The moral of the story is:
    Being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery and even shorten your life. So be yourself and enjoy life. You’ll be a lot happier and live longer!

    2. “I’m not allowed to kick my ass
      Such a thing must never come to pass
      I can ply me ass for hire from ten a.m. till one
      After that we’ll take a break from toiling in the sun.
      After we’ve taken our break,
      The children on the sands I’ll take
      Now if you’re under sixteen years of age and less than eight stone
      You can ride on my ass but I must have it known
      That if you’ve got your heavy boots on you can stick to your own.
      For I won’t have you kicking my ass”

      [Jeremy Taylor : Song about the Donkey’s Charter in Blackpool]

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0A2WHrXQo4

    3. A Merkin version of Aesop’s fable about the Man, the Boy and the Donkey.
      By trying to please everybody, you please nobody.
      (vide: British C21 politics.)

  29. Good morning. Though after the sleepless night I’ve had, the “good” is, at best, questionable!

    A slightly less cold -1½°C outside and the 1″ of snow that arrived yesterday has largely gone, though more is forecast for this afternoon.

    1. 3.4C here, as it has been for the last 24 hours, plus or minus a couple of points. The metcheck people seem to think it’s snowing, though it isn’t and so far this year, has never been.

    2. 3.4C here, as it has been for the last 24 hours, plus or minus a couple of points. The metcheck people seem to think it’s snowing, though it isn’t and so far this year, has never been.

  30. A revolt on the Right is brewing – and I’m ready to be part of it
    The Tories haven’t noticed yet, but a Ukip-style surge of discontent is building in the Red Wall

    Nigel Farage : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/07/revolt-right-brewing-ready-part/

    BTL

    Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless defected to UKIP but it was not enough to give UKIP any real traction in the House of Commons.
    But if, say, 50 sitting Conservative MPs all resigned from the Conservative whip now, and like Reckless and Carswell, did the honourable thing and stood down from their parliamentary seats and re-stood in Richard Tice’s Reform UK party, that would really put the cat amongst the pigeons!

    1. They could follow the precedent set when the SDP was formed and refuse to do the honourable thing. They could form a new party with real Conservative values.
      They should use the rest of this Parliament to demonstrate that they can provide a genuine opposition which could develop a credible manifesto and simultaneously continue to respond to their constituents as good constituency MPs.
      If 50 or more resigned the Conservative whip and formed such a caucus I’m sure they could do well.

      1. Something clearly needs to be done.

        Who should lead this group of True Rebel Conservatives? Would they bicker as they usually do as to who should be the leader?

        1. Good question, but they would certainly need to choose the most knowledgeable person in specialist fields to act as the official spokesman on matters up for debate, and make sure they don’t start chopping and changing over the remainder of the Parliament.
          A good few from the so called red wall would be vital, in my view.
          The obvious choice for leader would be the one who persuades the rest to form a breakaway. Looking at “the 99” there are some with a degree of suitable experience, although gravitas might be a more elusive quantity.
          https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/boris-johnson-biggest-tory-rebellion-plan-b_uk_61b90aa4e4b0d17c785f042c

    2. 343699+ up ticks,
      Morning R,
      That would most definitely reinforce the current tory (ino) stance.

      “Reckless and Carswell, did the honourable thing” would be a first, they openly admitted on leaving UKIP as to joining UKIP with treachery intended.

      The farage brigade have proved their worth in 2019 as protectors of the tory (ino) party, the tice brigade is the renamed brexit party, renamed to protect the guilty.

      By ALL means mass support / membership a fringe party but NOT the same old proven allies of the tory (ino) party.
      The TORY party no longer exists as such
      the state of the nation proves it.

      1. Is not the honourable thing to do if you are elected as the representative of one party and you change your political allegiance to resign and seek re-election in your changed colours?

        Remember the odious Doctor Woolaston who got elected as a pro-Brexit Tory and then changed the view on Brexit she had presented before the election and changed her political party without thinking she needed to represent herself to the electorate in her new colours? She is rightly held in contempt.

        1. 343699+ up ticks,

          Afternoon R,
          If one was seeking honour in politics among the likes of carswell. farage, reckless one would have much more success poking butter up a porcupines bum with a hot knitting needle.

          THEY themselves by their own actions have proved they are NOT to be trusted, BIG TIME.

  31. Liz’s Foreign Office bankrolling Stonewall. 7 January 2022.

    For according to documents published this week, Stonewall received £1.25 million in taxpayer-funded grants in just 18 months, up until March 2021. This figure is a near-67 per cent increase on the £748,000 they received in their previous accounts, which covered the 12 months up until September 2019. All the great and the good quangos and ministries are there: the Welsh and Scottish governments both handed over hundreds of thousands of pounds while NHS Scotland provided a grant of almost £50,000.

    And which department came top of the funding pile? None other than Liz Truss’s Foreign Office, which handed over more than £750,000 up until March 2021, compared to just £145,000 in the one-year period to September 2019. This is despite Truss previously urging officials to withdraw from the charity’s diversity scheme over concerns it is not providing value for money. The Government Equalities Office, which Truss also heads, began funding Stonewall in the same period, giving the organisation more than £50,000. Nice!

    This ironically is simply a bagatelle. Vast sums of taxpayers cash are disbursed at the whim of politicians to Foreign and Social Justice causes with neither explanation nor electoral approval.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/liz-s-foreign-office-bankrolling-stonewall

    1. I was fortunate in not having to voice my disapproval to my two daughters as they both, without prompting, engaged their inner Hermiones and judged the Grange Hill pupils as not very nice .

    3. One of the senior managers at GB News was a “pupil” at Grange Hill and was interviewed on the programme very recently. I can’t remember her name. I never watched Grange Hill.

    4. When you compare Grange Hill to Goodbye Mr Chips or even Please Sir you can see what utter rubbish it was.

      1. ER Braithwaite’s experience as told in To Sir with Love was similar to a teacher who came to teach at the grammar school I attended. He was black, had a degree in engineering but could not get a job. He came to our all girls school as a maths teacher. He was a true gentleman and always called us “Ladies.” He had an uphill job trying to teach us maths however; I was and still am hopeless.

    5. It absolutely was. Young as I was, I was swift with the ‘off’ switch when the pupils staged a strike. Phil Redmond, what an ornament he’s been. In a happier world, he’s kept away from typewriters, John Smith goes to see the doctor about his health, and Lionel Bart never learns to play the piano.

        1. The brochure suggests that it supports and teaches British values and might appear to be just what most people would want the community to learn. It is a great shame that it will now have been tainted by this foul creature.

          1. 343699+ up ticks,
            Morning S,
            “The brochure suggests”
            put me on high alert straight away.
            Anything about sharia law
            in the very,very small print.

        3. It’s in Small Heath where I am originally from. It’s turned into an overwhelmingly muslin muslim area. There were once about 30 pubs in Small Heath and a few clubs. Now there is one of each left.

          Typo corrected 😉

          1. Thank God for linen, for one awful moment I thought you were going to say it had gone all Grand Slam.
            };-))

  34. A very Happy Birthday to our own Viviane or Nimuë (reportedly both credited as The Lady of the Lake).

    2. The tennis organisers offered him a place – knowing his attitude. He travelled to attend the tournament and was denied entry to the country. The people to blame are the organisers who didn’t clear it with the immigration people.

      1. The 1950s and 1960s were dominated by Australian players such as Rod Laver, John Newcombe and Ken Rosewall but the last time an Australian won the Australian Open was in 1976 when Mark Edmonston won it.

        Djokovic has won it 9 times and the Australians, being Australians, do not laud his success but are hateful and spiteful. The bottom line has always been that the Australians are bad sports and always have been – arrogant in success and peevish in defeat.

        And this doesn’t stop with sportsmen – just looks at how sadistic, repulsive and incompetent their current politicians are.

        1. I played a bit of golf with an Aussie tennis star, Peter McNamara. He use to live near Mid Herts Golf club, he sadly died about three years ago in Germany. Prostate cancer complications.
          Nice guy, good golfer and good sense of humour.

          1. Of course there are exceptions to all generalisations – including this one about Australian sportsmanship!

          2. The rough with the smooth eh.
            When we lived there we were thrashing them at cricket, I think it was Boycott and i think Botham were giving them hell. I had been taking the knock at work, but they don’t like to mention it if they are losing. I found a old short scaffold board and turned it into a cricket bat shape they didn’t like that.

  37. Lucky escape for lorry driver as truck teeters on the brink

    The juggernaut ended up dangling from a 330ft cliff after the driver’s GPS took him along a narrow mountain road in northern China

    The Telly Subbies strike again

    Mr. Wu, a motorist driving behind the truck, said: ‘This highway has a restriction where the maximum width of any vehicles should not exceed

    6.8 metres (22.3097ft)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/01/06/pictured-lucky-escape-lorry-driver-truck-teeters-brink/

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/world-news/2022/01/06/TELEMMGLPICT000282105991_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqRjXe68zMRltLWOCtdRmZIWQnZJIETfWB_fUbKb77n0w.jpeg?imwidth=960

  38. Another Dalrymple analysis with some entertaining takes on serious matters.
    This one is essentially off the back of energy/green idiocy.
    https://www.takimag.com/article/learned-stupidity/
    A couple of paragraphs towards the end.

    I would like to extend this observation to a condition of learned stupidity, that is to say the stupidity of people who are by no means lacking in intelligence but who nevertheless make stupid decisions that people of lesser or even much lesser intelligence can see at once are stupid. Learned stupidity explains how and why highly intelligent people, faced with a choice, repeatedly choose a stupid, if not the most stupid, option, time after time.

    In order for people to learn to be stupid in this sense, they must both undergo a prolonged education or training and be obliged to perform acts or carry out procedures that do not engage their intelligence and may even be repugnant to it, while simultaneously being under surveillance for compliance and conformity. Politicians generally fulfill these conditions. They are not alone in this, far from it: A good swathe of the general population also fulfills these conditions. People who are selected for intelligence and then denied the use of it are particularly apt to become stupid.

  39. The MR and I started watching the much-vaunted new cowboy film with Cucumberpatch in the lead. Gave up after 20 minutes. Couldn’t make head nor tail of the “story” and the thespian’s shocking efforts at an American accent were just embarrassing.

    That’s two films this year (and it is only 7 days old) which had endless and huge critical acclaim but were – in the view of these two average filmgoers – a load of bollox.

    2. What ‘one’ has to remember is when the ‘wild west’ was initially developing a lot of the cowboys might have had Yorkshire accents or Irish Cornish of even french accents, depending where they originated. Maybe in Bennies case, even a public school accent.
      I remember reading a book by Stephen Longstreet about the Wild West (The Wilder Shore) and how it was ‘back in the day’. There is was a section on the arrival of the now famous Levi Strauss the tailor, he made trousers out of canvas tents as the mole skins the miners had been wearing wore out very quickly.

      1. Very interesting. However, Pardner, Cucumberpatch was affecting a Merkin accent. Badly.

        1. And no Yee Haaah howdididly parrdner 🤠
          You have to wonder why he was chosen for or offered the part ………

        2. The only redeeming feature of Cumberbund Cabbagepatch is his mother, Wanda Ventham.

  40. Biden condemns Trump’s ‘web of lies’ a year on from deadly Capitol assault. 7 January 2022

    The US president condemned his predecessor’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election as a “failed” pursuit, but one that continues to imperil American democracy one year after the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol, when a violent mob of Trump loyalists breached the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of Biden’s presidential election victory.

    Democracy is already pretty well dead! It’s forms; elections, debates, still exist but its spirit has gone! The Elites have learned to bypass or ignore its difficulties! No matter who you vote for in the West, you will get a Cultural Marxist Clone. Eventually even the forms will fade and we will be left with truly Totalitarian States!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/06/joe-biden-donald-trump-capitol-attack-anniversary

    1. 343699+ up ticks,

      Morning AS,
      Tis the peoples choice that got us into this
      sh!te bog twill be peoples choice that gets us out.
      I see some youngsters are refusing the mask farce, that and like issues MUST be built on.

    2. They are making a real meal out of what happened the Capitol. In reality it was nothing much at all. (If you want something to complain about in the US, how about the shooting of students at Kent State?)

  41. 343699+ up ticks,

    May one ask,

    When it comes down to basics are not “governments”
    peoples constructs ?

    So why have the peoples returned the same jerry built
    governance party’s to power over these last
    four decades ?

    1. Thanks Mola, it’s already nice. Some lovely cards and emails and MH gave me a box of coloured pencils as I want to start making my own cards again.

      1. Ah, here you are.
        May you have a very happy birthday.
        Do us all a great favour, find and bestow Excalibur upon a worthy user.

      2. Many happy returns. Have a good day. Risk a trip to the pub (masked, gloved and sanitised, of course!!)

        1. We are indeed going to the pub later- haven’t been for weeks. Thanks for the wishes.

  43. “That” petition now at 975,102 and still being signed, although as the bedwetters on Twitter are pointing out that’s not a huge percentage of the population! Even so, almost a million have expressed their outrage; it won’t do any good but …

    1. Golly Gosh; she’s had a short back and sides.
      Getting in touch with her inner masculinity?

          2. I was going to suggest that if it wanted to self-identify as a woman, it could put ‘sh’ before the it. But then I thought, “That’s unkind.” so I waited for another to do it.

      3. That’s a bloke, surely? Says something about the Biden administration that someone so clearly mentally ill is permitted such a role in government.

          1. Can’t remember quite what but something high up in the armed forces – in the navy I think, Admiral or something of the sort.

    1. Oh, lucky Turks, they can have power cuts too. The United Kingdom, sharing its Net Zero expertise and spreading power cuts to those in need!

    2. So let me understand this. Net Zero refers to the Government emptying the Treasury as soon as possible?

    3. It’s just another method politician’s and the so called ‘Civil service’ use to cover their big fat useless *rse’s when they continually eff up. We pay 13 billion in foreign aid and most people from foreign countries have already com here we give the French 55 million to help them send more scroungers to the UK and since Cur Blair and following others, who have done nothing to stop the continual and now increasing flow of illegal immigration we now have further annual costs of around 20 billion to house feed and cloth these extras we didn’t need in the beginning. And of course there is also the cost of prison sentences which are mounting by the day. At least 1000 quid a week per prisoner. And a lot of them should never have been allowed to stay here.

    4. £12 billion in from NI Tax rises and £11.6 billion out to fund the Turkish Bonzer’s Carbon reduction in a land foreign to the UK and its over-taxed population.

      That’s a vote-winner for sure, Boris, you Dumbo Jumbo.

        1. I thought Machine was the first of a trilogy. I’m prolly wrong. Anyhoo, it reads quite well.

          1. Yay!!

            Space cats……

            “The ship’s calico cats, Mephistopheles and Bushyasta, were floating
            in the tube, napping in a cuddle. Bushyasta, like the professional
            sleeper she was, had one set of claws hooked into the terry cloth of a
            grab loop. Mephistopheles was floating beside her, a
            red-and-white leg draped for an anchor over Bushyasta’s belly, her
            black-splashed head cuddled on a mottled flank. Well, at least
            somebody was getting some rest around here.”

  48. Happy New Year, and welcome to the Free Speech Union’s first weekly newsletter of 2022.

    Protecting Freedom of Speech: Is it time to revisit the Equality Act?

    A quick reminder to register here for our FSU Online In-Depth on Tuesday 11 January. Note: Protecting Freedom of Speech: Is it time to revisit the Equality Act? will start at 6.30pm, 30 minutes earlier than usual.

    Toby will be joined by a panel of legal experts to discuss whether laws designed to protect against discrimination now pose a threat to freedom of expression.

    If you haven’t been to one of our online events, do come along and find out what you’ve been missing. You can also catch up on past events on our YouTube channel.

    At our interactive events, members may come on camera to put their questions and comments directly to the panellists. If you’d rather remain off-screen, you can still take part in the chat and submit your questions. Recordings of events are published on YouTube, with audience faces and names edited out.

    A further date for your diaries: our next Online Speakeasy will be held on Tuesday 25 January with a very special guest. Full details to be revealed by the end of this week.

    Politics for All permanently banned by Twitter

    The popular news aggregator account Politics for All has been permanently banned by Twitter for “violating rules on platform manipulation and spam”. One of the account’s handlers said: “The fact Twitter will allow the Taliban on their platform but not a simple news aggregator is quite something. We will be appealing this decision.”

    Writing in Spiked, Fraser Myers said the decision “should be a big wake-up call”, and that “Big Tech censorship is growing more ruthless and arbitrary by the day”.

    “The truth is not something that can be delivered to you from on high. Rather, truth is arrived at through free inquiry, debate and discussion – through people making claims and presenting data and letting others have at them in public,” Tom Slater wrote in Spiked of the latest spate of social media “suspensions”, which are often permanent.

    We’ve started a petition asking Twitter to reinstate Politics For All. Please do sign it. You can find it here.

    Meanwhile, Barclays has terminated the accounts of two Christian initiatives after Stonewall-aligned activists complained the bank was facilitating “conversion therapy” by providing the accounts. “A bank must not be allowed to set itself up to enforce a political or religious viewpoint”, wrote Mike Davidson in the Critic.

    Norman Mailer falls victim to woke publishing cancellation

    Random House has cancelled a planned collection of Norman Mailer’s essays after a complaint from a junior staffer about the writer’s essay The White Negro.

    “Controversy kills. Or, anyway, life is too short, the times too weird, and profit too fleeting, to suffer for it. This has essentially become corporate policy throughout the creative industries, unspoken and unwritten. But hardly secret,” wrote Michael Wolff of the cancellation in the Ankler. Tomiwa Owolade, writing in UnHerd, said of our current cultural moment: “Some contemporary figures are cancelled because they openly believe in biological sex, while some historical figures who promoted sex with children are celebrated.”

    “Mailer chose to ride the shark of anti-whiteness, so his estate shouldn’t be surprised when it turns on him,” said Professor Eric Kaufmann of our Advisory Council, writing in UnHerd.

    Ben Lawrence asked in the Telegraph where the pugnacious controversialists are in modern Britain. Too afraid of being cancelled, he concluded.

    But Jess De Wahls, who survived a cancellation attempt last year, wrote in UnHerd: “Heretical artists are finding new ways to exhibit work and bypass gatekeepers. That is the lesson of the past year. Finally, the tide is turning. We have not been silenced, let alone defeated.”

    Higher education

    Professor Kathleen Stock has said that students are often just taking a cue from academics when they join campaigns to oust dissident thinkers. She said that trans ideology means many academics have “built their careers on sand”, and that they have a “vested interest” in silencing debate about trans issues.

    At Durham in December, FSU member Professor Tim Luckhurst, Principal of South College, faced a student campaign to oust him after he defended freedom of speech. Looking back on the event, Celia Walden wrote in the Telegraph that students have placed emotional safety and protecting their supposedly fragile mental health above all else, with claims of “emotional offence” trumping the right to free speech.

    Lake Superior University in Michigan has added the phrase “no worries” to the top of a list of proscribed terms because, as one student explained, “If I’m not worried, I don’t want anyone telling me not to worry. If I am upset, I want to discuss being upset.”

    Victory in non-crime hate incident court battle

    The Economist wrote about last month’s landmark victory for former policeman Harry Miller. The case, backed by the FSU, opposed the insidious practice of the police recording “non-crime hate incidents” against innocent people for utterances that are lawful but deemed to have nevertheless constituted “hate”. Thanks to Harry’s courage in fighting the case, “there will be less need to bite your tongue on controversial issues”.

    European Court of Human Rights rejects gay marriage cake appeal

    The European Court of Human Rights has declined to hear the appeal of Gareth Lee, a gay rights activist who complained after the Christian-owned Ashers Bakery declined to bake a cake with the message “Support Gay Marriage” on it. The UK Supreme Court had overruled lower courts and decided in favour of Ashers, upholding the bakery’s right not to be made to print a message the bakers disagreed with.

    Caroline Ffiske asked if 2022 will be the year when the seemingly unstoppable growth of the equality, diversity and inclusion industry will finally be reversed. Writing in the Critic, she welcomed a recent intervention by Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch to try and bring some common sense to the topic.

    JK Rowling under renewed assault

    Yet another school has removed JK Rowling’s name from one of its houses because her views on the trans debate do not represent “school beliefs”. The school did not bother to consider what her views actually were, argued James Kirkup, as now merely raising questions about the aggressive way trans dogma is enforced is seen as proof of guilt. Dan Wootton praised Rowling’s courage in defying the worst of the trans Taliban.

    “In real life, men cannot turn into women; but after expressing that truth, Rowling has been separated from the world she created,” wrote trans journalist Debbie Hayton on the glaring absence of JK Rowling from a recent documentary on the Harry Potter films.

    Posie Parker was told by talkRADIO host James Max that she should be “cancelled” for her views on trans issues and biological sex. She wrote about the heated interview for the Spectator: “I am afraid of what is yet to come if we continue to accept such terrible lies as truth. Max even went so far as to say that perhaps I should be ‘cancelled’ for arguing that biological sex is real. So much for the ‘home of free speech’.”

    Feminist groups have said they are being ignored by the SNP in a consultation on reforms to the Gender Recognition Act. Frank Furedi described the ongoing struggle between women’s rights and the demands of trans activists as an “elite war on biological sex”.

    Miscellany

    Social media celebrity Elle Darby has apologised for “racist” and “fat-phobic” tweets she posted when she was a teenager.

    Belgian cosmetic surgeon Jeff Hoeyberghs has been jailed for 10 months after complaining that women were “hysterical, lazy, weak, stupid” and “dirty creatures, who seek money and protection from men to whom they owe sex”. He refused to apologise for the remarks.

    Call for “consequences” for Americans who spread COVID misinformation

    Not everything is like shouting fire in a crowded theatre, wrote Jeff Kosseff in the Atlantic, after the director of the National Institutes of Health called for people who share COVID “misinformation” to face “consequences”.

    Sharing the newsletter

    As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join and help us turn the tide against cancel culture.

    You can share our newsletters on social media with the buttons below to help us spread the word. If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

    Best wishes,

    1. as one student explained, “ If I am upset, I want to discuss being upset.” Personally I’d find that very upsetting, nay offensive….

    3. “…one student explained, “If I’m not worried, I don’t want anyone telling me not to worry. If I am upset, I want to discuss being upset.”…”

      What?

      If you aren’t worried, then someone telling you not to worry will not affect you in the slightest – unless you are truly pathetically weak willed.
      If you’re upset that’s nice, but you should ask yourself first why you are. Chances are you won’t know, or, judging from your prior comment you are likely to blame someone else for injuring you.

      If you haven’t the character to process upset, anger and frustration then you’re not fit to leave your room. The process of growing up requires you to confront difficulty, not spew it out across the world. If you want to behave like a child, go to play group. A child certainly doesn’t have the right to tell adults how to behave, let alone censor their language.

      Cas in point – Junior tripped on the stairs and twisted his ankle. He called for help as he couldn’t get up. An adult went to help him, to explain wat the problem was and what to do about it. He did those things. He didn’t demand we make him feel better. Heck, he’s 6, and he’s more mature than you are kiddie.

  49. Morning all.
    Well would you believe it,………. Jonny Barstow has scored a century in Sydney and according to the sports reporter on the radio was seen waving and kissing his helmet.
    Something i believe that has been quite popular with the English payers since the ashes tour started.

      1. It’s too late for scores Bill, as you know, damage already self administered. Shame our silly boys weren’t banned as in Joke O’vitch.

  50. A nudge from what purports to be our government: ministers are considering making the ‘boosted’ the bona fide “vaccinated”. All those coerced or otherwise into having two jabs will become unvaccinated or as one person has claimed, ‘refusniks’.
    This despite increasing amounts of evidence that not only are the original jabs ineffective after a few months but the ‘booster’ performs even worse.
    Latest report from Denmark in short form – in a tweet.

    For a chewier read on “vaccine” efficacy, Steve Kirsch’s Newsletter is a good source.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/453feb8b178cd73f3c21fb87a02585f8b68c3e219de34f762387a9c890703bb6.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff10f8bcaffb113da4011909f4d93788c0eddacec86adc55d9f54ec09213cfb4.png

    Steve Kirsch Newsletter

    1. What if you’re an immigrant? What if you kick up a fuss and say you’re a gay disabled black muslim?

      I’d bet this travel ban only ever applies to white, law abiding folk.

  51. Good morning. I glanced at the Telegraph this morning (to see if the Ukraine figures significantly in the Propaganda narrative currently) and read that apparently “Australia is lumbered with rules that make no sense.”

    The death of irony on Canary Wharf? The Hideous Strength are making fools of themselves with their transparent lies globally. But concentration camps for aboriginal inhabitants have not yet reached Scotland and Wales, so I suppose the Telegraph feels we have the moral high ground….

    2. Where are the Lefties screaming about that? Will it even be mentioned?

      Oh so selective is their memory.

  52. This item has cheered me up no end. The sheer passivity and rule taking by the teens and twenties was seriously worrying me. That is the age to start questioning things. And create an unbreakable habit.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/06/school-pupils-refusing-wear-face-masks-class-warns-union-official/

    “School pupils refusing to wear face masks in class, warns union official

    Just five per cent of pupils at one school agreed to take a lateral flow test at the start of the term and wear a covering

    7 January 2022 • 12:09am

    Research published by the Department for Education found the majority of children say face masks in the classroom make it more difficult to communicate and learn

    Research published by the Department for Education found the majority of children say face masks in the classroom make it more difficult to communicate and learn Credit: Kevin Coombs/Reuters

    Schoolchildren are refusing to wear face masks in the classroom, a union official said as the Government’s own study does not justify the policy.

    Just five per cent of pupils at one school agreed to take a lateral flow test at the start of the term and wear a mask, according to Damien McNulty, a national executive member of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT).

    “Sadly, we have had reports in the last 24 hours of at least six secondary schools in the north-west of England where children, in huge numbers, are refusing to take lateral flow tests or to wear masks,” Mr McNulty told the BBC.

    “We’ve got one school in Lancashire where only 67 children out of 1,300 are prepared to have a lateral flow test and wear masks. This is a public health emergency.”

    It comes as new research published by the Department for Education (DfE) found that the majority of children say face masks in the classroom make it more difficult to communicate and learn.

    The Government’s official evidence summary found 80 per cent of pupils reported that wearing a face covering made it difficult to communicate, with 55 per cent feeling that wearing one made learning more difficult.

    The research noted that 94 per cent of headteachers said masks made communication between pupils and staff more difficult.

    It highlighted a survey by the Unison trade union, which represents support staff such as classroom assistants and cleaners, which found 71 per cent of members said face coverings in secondary school lessons were an important safety measure.

    The DfE study said masks are a “comparatively cheap and easy” measure to implement and can be a “visible outward signal of safety behaviour and a reminder of Covid-19 risks”.

    It includes the results of an “experimental” analysis of 123 schools by the department during the 2021 autumn term which found Covid absence fell by 0.6 percentage points in secondary schools that used face masks compared to schools that did not over a period of up to three weeks.

    Researchers acknowledged that there was a “level of statistical uncertainty around the result”, adding that it showed a “non-statistical and unknown clinical significant reduction in infection” with a risk of false positives 15 per cent of the time.

    Earlier this week, Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, said the study suggested mask-wearing “made a difference” to transmission. But experts criticised the DfE’s findings, saying there was “no statistical difference” in absence rates between the two groups of schools.

    Placeholder image for youtube video: k7HU9ebMcsA

    Prof Sarah Lewis, an expert in molecular epidemiology at the University of Bristol, said: “The study and research outlined in this report does not provide strong justification for introducing this policy in schools.

    “The negative impacts of mask-wearing on communication and learning in schools are outlined in the report, and mask-wearing has an especially detrimental effect on those with hearing impairments who are excluded from class discussion. Where there is insufficient evidence of a benefit of a policy and evidence of harms, the default should be not to intervene.”

    Jamie Jenkins, a former head of health analysis at the Office for National Statistics, said: “For me, the findings of the report support not to put masks on children.”

    Meanwhile, a separate poll by the National Association of Headteachers found that half of school leaders are already using supply teachers to cover for absent staff. The survey of almost 2,000 members found that 37 per cent have been unable to get hold of supply staff.

    More than a third of school leaders have had staff absence levels of over 10 per cent on their first day of term, the survey suggested.”

    2. I don’t care which schools, it’s good to note that children (and parents) are at odds with the Unions (and it seems it’s only unionised insistence for masks and LFTs).

    3. “School pupils refusing to wear face masks?” Nonsense. They keep your face warm and are ideal for concealing gobstoppers and miscellaneous sweeties.

      1. 343699+ up ticks,
        Morning A,
        In all fairness no one deserves that when going to work.

        Two assailants one copper as I see it.

        1. It’s a bit confusing – but if it’s one copper up against two suspects, he’s either very brave or very foolish.

          1. An officer with an ounce of self-respect could never run away, leaving an armed man thrashing about with a machete. The Officer should have been in a position to shoot the bastard.

          4. An officer with an ounce of self-respect could never run away, leaving an armed man thrashing about with a machete. The Officer should have been in a position to shoot the bastard.

          5. 343699+ up ticks,

            Afternoon A,

            Walk on by for many is not an option, when it is this country will be truly finished.

    3. Only this week i read on line about a young lady who was attacked and raped two days before Christmas at Streatham Common while she was on an early morning fitness run. The description of the attacker was that he wore dark clothing and had an English accent……….
      I think that leave very little to the imagination.

      1. wore dark clothing and had an English accent……….

        Well, that rules out Santa!

    4. Thing is, I’m no longer bothered. The state brings these people in in droves. Then it feeds and clothes them, excuses and apologises for their behaviour and usually blames the traditional white folk for being racist.

      The officer doesn’t deserve this, he’s a good chap doing a crap job. Yet his entire management chain, all the way to the top is invested in bringing more of these criminal sewage into this country. Until that flow stops, tough. You wanted it, live with it.

      1. Exactly my attitude with the Scots. I feel sorry, no really sorry, for those who suffer after voting for anyone other than the wee krankie and her cronies for they know better, but the bigger picture picture is keep voting for Duckfart or Krankie and accept the consequences.

      2. 343699+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        The voting pattern points out to me that the majority of the electorate are in collusion as long as it is happening outside of their immediate household, paedophilia,mass illegal govn. (party) controlled immigration etc.etc.

        Fiefdoms have been formed, Hoc the largest, that will be challenged shortly by the imams then sharia will take a grip with the opposite extremes being suffered by the remaining indigenous, as in lopped limbs. heads, etc,etc.

        I view the political Christmas junket at number 10 was more in line with the last 24 hours of the fuhrer bunker.

    1. Excellent interview – Should be watched by all who have children / grandchildren in Secondary schools. Thank you for posting o1

      1. 343699+ up ticks,
        Afternoon S,
        Thanks, there are many that will go into three monkey mode as happens
        when regarding the JAY report & rotherham for instance & the long term cover up which is in my book aiding & abetting, by many a govern. employee, evil consequences, long term mental damage to a large section of English kids, ONGOING.

    1. A duck expert has been identified as the first person in Britain to be infected with a deadly strain of H5 bird flu.

      Plenty of duck experts batting for England in the Ashes…

      1. They have serious allergies.
        Don’t mention the score,…… I nearly did but I think I got away with it.

    4. The article was initially illustrated with a pair of Mandarin ducks (Aix galericulata).

      1. First it’s the Russians now it’s the Chinese – I do wish they’d make up their minds….

        1. We tend to perceive that a Mandarin drake has an oriental appearance, but it precedes East Asian culture by at least 500,000 years.

          (fossil record from the Pleistocene era)

      1. A bit late with that one, Mola.

        I have nephews named Gosling, so I latched onto that much earlier.

        1. I do, if the Daily Fail is anything to go by once I’ve paused the ad-blocker – then all the background ad churning there causes my processor to switch the lap-top off.

        1. “Wedlock is the deep, deep peace of the double bed after the hurly-burly of the chaise longue.”

          Mrs. Patrick Campbell quote.

          3. That’s Rik all over. A true Gentleman. He knows, god he knows you don’t need any encouragement! 😉

            Happy Birthday once more. What’s it like having your Birthday on Christmas Day?

          6. That’s Rik all over. A true Gentleman. He knows, god he knows you don’t need any encouragement! 😉

            Happy Birthday once more. What’s it like having your Birthday on Christmas Day?

      2. You are correct. I had to take a second long hard look to make sure I hadn’t mistaken goosebumps…

  58. Arse-covering time down under (pile in)
    Australia’s Border Force Detains Czech Player Renata Voracova Ahead of Australian Open

    After the authorities approved her visa last month, the Czech player played a warm-up match in Australia. On Wednesday night, the Australian border force also detained Novak Djokovic, the world’s No. 1 male tennis player, over an invalid visa.
    Two days after Novak Djokovic was detained at the Melbourne Airport, the Australian border force has also revoked the visa of female tennis player Renata Voracova and put her in the same immigration hotel as the Serbian star.
    A government source familiar with the case has confirmed to ABC News that the border protection authority informed Voracova about the decision to deport her from the country.
    “It is still unclear if she intends to challenge the decision”, the official said.

    Renata Voracova has been in Australia since December and already played in a warm-up tournament in Melbourne.

  59. Just got a menu from our local Chip Shop and it includes

    Quorn Salt and Vinegar Fishless Fillet £2.50

    6. Bleauuugh!
      WTF is wrong with battered mushrooms and onion rings if you don’t want to eat meat? Feast fit for a King with chips and mushy peas!

      1. Oh lord; now I am craving onion rings (proper ones, not the revolting pre-chewed monstrosities)!

  60. Just got a menu from our local Chip Shop and it includes

    Quorn Salt and Vinegar Fishless Fillet £2.50

  61. In Scotland it is reported that 1m have had Covid. Around 85% of the population over 40 have had 3 jags. Daily reporting of new cases is somewhere between 10 and 20 thousand. Herd immunity kicks in at around 90% immunity, or sort of, it is arguable, apparently.
    This does not look right to me. Something is askew. Either “vaccination” does not work, or it is not possible to become immune to this disease. In either case any efforts that we make to prevent the spread are futile. These are government figures, so why do they not only carry on with restrictions, but even increase them?
    The government are acting like gamblers who, having lost a bet, bet again and double the stake, then lose, bet again and double the stake…

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59899547
    https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/
    https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/phs.covid.19/viz/COVID-19DailyDashboard_15960160643010/Overview

    2. The vaccine has totaly failed to protect people. Why cannot so many not see this. They made the wrong decision to take the jab can they not see that either. When i first found out that it did not complete its field trials and that the manufactures were released from thiir indemnity, I smelt a rat, but so few did. Why was this I wonde was it hope over truth.?

      1. They heard the word ‘vaccine’ and their ears and minds shut down. They wanted to believe the problem was solved. They bought into the propaganda.

        1. I believed in pharma and vaccines before the start of 2020.
          The data on howbadismybatch.com has destroyed the last remnants of that trust. They rank right up there with the tooth fairy and Father Christmas now, except that the latter two don’t give your children myocarditis.

          1. Have you linked to some of the other articles available? Some interesting information in those reports.

          2. I listened to Stew Peters, and I’ve got a Robert Malone talk open that I haven’t had time to play yet. But I’m interested in all new information.
            The lethal dose tests are a game changer.

        2. Now, many are trapped into believing that the “vaccine”, never mind how many doses they’re told they need, is the way back to normality. First it was one jab for the vulnerable, then two, then the slightly less vulnerable…; now it’s 12 year old children with worse to come. Still, many will rush out with bared arms for the fourth etc. If people remain wedded to the idea that Johnson & Co have their health in mind with all these jabs, then I fear that they are lost.

  62. The BBC, you’ll be surprised to hear, has joined the campaign to keep schoolchildren masked. However, this from a BBC News article:

    Damien McNulty, from the NASUWT teachers’ union, told the BBC that schools should engage with parents and pupils to encourage uptake.
    He said there were “huge numbers” of pupils refusing to wear masks and take lateral flow tests in six secondary schools in the north-west of England.
    At one school in Lancashire, only 67 children out of 1,300 were prepared to do either, he said – while another in Manchester said “there was no point” in offering lateral flow tests when pupils returned.
    Mr McNulty said this was likely to be the case in other parts of the country.

    Mmmm, schools in the NW of England. I wonder what the ethnic mix is……………

    1. As stated earlier, and to be fair, she wasn’t Foreign Secretary when the FO bankrolled Stonewall.

        1. You should have just said: ‘Foreign Office bankrolling Stonewall’ to prevent confusion.

          1. Confusion amongst the “not really conservatives” is, to my mind, desirable. Raab was the Foreign Secretary during the period of the big uplift … If twitter gave more space, I’d gladly accuse 50 Red Wall Mps of being complacent.

  64. Gosh – it appears that half the NHS staff are off with “sick pay”. Wish I could catch that disease.

      1. She is relieved (because of the dire forecast) to learn that her stint is cancelled. There are not enough people turning up for the euthanasia booster jab.

        Jigsaw instead. It’s a champion one. It is a sort of rainbow of merging colours. I can only do it in the daylight. The eyes play tricks with the shades of colour.

  65. 992,918 – not much more needed to get to the million.

    Let’s just hope that Brenda takes notice and strips him at the same time as ‘Lord’ paedophile Ahmed.

      2. You’re bluddy right they haven’t, only 4784 to go and you’re toast.

        Crawl back into you sh1thole and lick your wounds – plenty more to come, you despicable cretin.

    1. How on earth can we watch ‘it’ Bob if you don’t provide a link and the bloody screen says ‘Video unavailable’????

        1. Same again.
          “Video unavailable
          Playback on other websites has been disabled by the video owner.

      3. If you look at the Black screen on my post, as well as “Video unavailable”
        you will see the cause:-
        “Playback on other websites has been disabled by the video owner.”

        And immediately below that, Watch on YouTube which is the link to the video on Youtube.

    2. How on earth can we watch ‘it’ Bob if you don’t provide a link and the bloody screen says ‘Video unavailable’????

    3. How on earth can we watch ‘it’ Bob if you don’t provide a link and the bloody screen says ‘Video unavailable’????

        1. I put a lot of time in at Immingham, Grimsby and Hull when North Sea weather made us port call for extended periods in the ’80s. Always lots of trouble and laughs in the bars and clubs.

    2. Oh come on, he wouldn’t stoop that low would he?

      Macron I mean!

      Edited. Even spell checker doesn’t like macron.

  72. Oh, man.
    :-((
    We’ve never seen a Wren in Norway before, until this afternoon. Then SWMBO found a dead one, brought in by one of our cats, on the landing outside the bedroom door. And in midwinter, too, when it’s -6 outside and we’ve had a foot of snow over the last night and today.
    Poor little bird. That’s really sad.

    1. I found a bat in our garage yesterday. At first I thought it was a really large leaf but then it began moving when there was no wind. When I looked closer I could see its little face, it was upside down. The wings were quite large. Alf was very brave. He scooped it up and threw it into the garden.

      1. Somehow a bat got into the house last month.
        Her majesty went ape 5hit at this bird flying round. Maybe telling her that it was a bat, not a bird wasn’t such a good idea.

        1. Have to say I was quite scared. I’m glad it didn’t start flying around in a confined space. (Although it would have been difficult as it was upside down!).

        2. When we still lived in CT we were woken up in the middle of the night once by shrieks and yells and loud thumps coming from my son’s room. Somehow a bat had got in through the screen and was flying around son’s room. Dad was sent in and with a towel managed to trap it and eject it.
          Hearing your teenage son squeal like a girl….priceless;-)

          2. No, we’re going to the pub later on and I am making roast beef and Yorkie puds tomorrow. Make a weekend of it ;-))

          3. Excellent! I dug a joint of beef out of the freezer and we had that on younger son’s birthday on 29th December. I thought it might have been in there too long (it was much too big for just the two of us) but it was pretty good – though I forgot to do the Yorkies!

          4. I never forget Yorkshire puds, they are the food of the gods. I love Yorkshire pudding.

          4. That’s why domestic pets have to have a rabies shot and wear a tag on their collars.

      2. Somehow a bat got into the house last month.
        Her majesty went ape 5hit at this bird flying round. Maybe telling her that it was a bat, not a bird wasn’t such a good idea.

        2. It was weird. I opened the door to the garage, stepped down on to a step, then down again to the floor, and when I turned round about 10 seconds later to come out there it was on the first step. So where it had fallen from I have no idea. Alf has googled it, it was probably a pipistrelle bat, but it should have been hibernating. So maybe it just fell off its perch on a ceiling rafter.

      5. Where it would have met certain death from the frost.
        It may have dropped from the roof of your garage during hibernation.

      1. Gosh – takes you back. I used to stay in a flat in Queens Gate Terrace in S Kensington – and there was a Wrennery a few yards away. Used to see girls dressed like that all the time.

    1. We sent the army to fight against these vermin. Now the state keeps the soldier impoverished and rewards the foreign rapist, terroist and murderer.

      It’s insane. Everything is back to front.

      2. 343699+ up ticks,

        That is precisely the way the lab/lib/con mass controlled illegal immigration, paedophilia umbrella party current supporter / voters like it.

      1. You know that they’d not deport them, but would then immediately vaccinate them. They want the scum here.

  74. Just found out that Brother-in-Law, who died suddenly last year aged 57, had received the AstraZeneca vaccine a day or so before having a massive heart attack and dying at the foot of his stairs. Didn’t know that. :-((

    1. Sorry to hear that. Did he have a history of heart disease? I only ask because we are hearing of heart troubles after the jab but we have no way of knowing if they were already ill.

      My condolences to the family.

      1. He was overweight and diabetic. No known heart disease. Just came downstairs, told his wife he felt bad, then toppled over and that was it.

          1. And his 17 y.o. daughter. The CPR was extensively used, but it was a massive heart attack that there was no coming back from. Bloody awful experience.
            We attended the funeral on Zoom.

          2. I remember now you told us that. How cruel that your wife was unable to be there for her brother and his family.
            My cousin was only 57 when she died suddenly on Christmas Day 2016. She had been poorly and was in bed but her death was a big shock. She had no children though.

      1. Caroline is playing at a lot of funerals for people who are not very old and have been fully jabbed. Our lovely doctor Françoise, wants more people to demand autopsies but these cost money if the PTB does not agree that one is necessary.

        Two recently jabbed people have died in the parish in the last week – a chap of 47 who was a football coach for young people in his spare time and the town’s mayor’s mother-in-law who was in her mid 60s and fit and well. In neither case was there an autopsy. Many people are beginning to suspect that there is a deep, sinister, evil driving force behind Macron’s maniacal desire to have everyone triple jabbed.

        1. Let us hope and pray that Madame Pécresse defeats Toy Boy in the run off. I read today that she is not much different than him – but at least she would not be a narcissistic megalomaniac.

          3. Any chance for Marine La Pen? I know that at heart she is left-wing but she wants Frexit and that makes her OK with me.

            I just want to see the EU crumble and implode, costing its commissars millions each.

        2. Autopsies could be performed with hazmat and laboratory conditions but just like the ingredients of the jab they don’t want you to know.

          So much for informed choice.

      1. Yo Nd

        It does…………. at his own home

        Not for us Brit Tax Payers, the sum of which WILL exclude a large number of our Cockoos

      1. Is he Yeats’s “rough beast, its hour come round at last,. Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born” do you think?

          1. I intended the quote for Johnson! Did I mis-read? It wouldn’t surprise me if I did…!

          2. No it was me confounding myself with the unpalatable news of the Barbarian at the Gates….

          6. No, not covid, just coronaviruses, four in a winter was typical, they would knock me off my feet. I caught anything and everything drifting past my nose, a canary in a mine of children. It is difficult and demoralising to catch up when you are absent frequently. After I left school my health and confidence improved. I was a delicate child attending a rough, tough, northern grammar school.

          7. I am a bit like that. On a plane, or train I can sense the microbes homing in on me!

            As a child in the war I was very sickly. It was thought I’d not make it beyond 12 months.

        4. Tony Blair’s CV.

          Turning and turning in the widening gyre

          The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

          Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

          Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

          The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

          The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

          The best lack all conviction, while the worst

          Are full of passionate intensity.

          Surely some revelation is at hand;

          Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

          The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

          When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

          Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

          A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

          A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

          Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

          Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

          The darkness drops again; but now I know

          That twenty centuries of stony sleep

          Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

          And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

          Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

    2. A Federal judge has ordered the FDA to produce the Pfizer data at a rate of 50,000 pages every 4 weeks so it should only take 8 months before the entire trove is available. However, I believe the material will be redacted…….

      Interestingly it only took the FDA panel 2 hours to digest all the results before giving approval to the ‘vaccine’….

      2. The 2 hours was needed to make sure the payments had cleared in the relevant accounts. Would have been quicker if the banks weren’t so slow.

    3. Especially as Pfizer have a rather chequered past. In 2009 the Grauniad reported: “Pfizer, the world’s largest drugs company, has been hit with the biggest criminal fine in US history as part of a $2.3bn settlement with federal prosecutors for mispromoting medicines and for paying kickbacks to compliant doctors.”

      I’m not just worried about them either, this makes worrying reading:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_pharmaceutical_settlements

    1. The 22 million was merely payment for an after dinner speech that Tony gave. Quite normal. Nothing to see here, move on please!

  78. Right, here goes.

    Friends in Spain, healthy rural lifestyle, semi retired. Fairly modest New Year’s Eve meal with permitted visitors from another part of Spain. Unvaxxed hosts now ill with China bug, feverish, in bed etc.
    Ditto the visitor, who arrived fully vaccinated but carrying the virus, and he is the worst affected.

  79. Off to cook dinner – Ostrich steak, sauté potatoes and what ever green stuff Best Beloved desires.

    See you later.

      1. Strolled round Morrisons and picked it up next to the venison (pronounced venson) steaks, cooked for 2½ minutes per side and it was beautifully pink inside, tender as a baby’s bottom and tasted wonderful with Sauté potatoes and garden peas.

    2. Great! But will anything happen? I doubt it. What the electorate wants has no meaning with this or any other government. If Tony Blair had even the tiniest piece of humility (haha) or dignity (haha) he would look at that and decline this honour. But he hasn’t and he won’t thus paving the way for all these other useless, slimy oiks to get their gongs in the fullness of time.

      2. It delegitimises his ‘honour’ in the eyes of the public, and the whole ‘honours’ system as well, which gets thrown under the spotlight. It also delegitimises any speech, future meddling and hopefully seeks an end to any future political opportunities he may have sought. It proves to his mates in the WEF that he is tainted goods.

          1. This is true, but they know that we know, and they also know we know that they know that we know…

  82. What a day .

    I have collected my car, new spring , all fixed and MOT’d . Moh delivered me to the garage near Dorchester late morning , he came on home and I went onto Tesco in Dorchester in m newly mended car.

    Huge mistake , I normally go to Sainsbury in Weymouth , but being as though I was in Dorchester anway, there I shopped , it was packed out , and quite disorientating because they were without several isles , music blaring , and lacking something .. it was also cold and wet outside .

    When I arrived home , my mobile rang , it was son no 2 who lives in Worthing , who is full vaccinated , told me he had had a PCR test yesterday , recieved the news that he has Covid this afternoon , both he and his partner, absolute bad luck . Horrible bad luck

    We face timed , and I must say he sounded terrible, husky dry throat and thirsty and tired and rather chesty .

    Fingers crossed they will both recover quickly .

    What is this thing that we have all been vaccinated against , are the different varieties still out there , and how on earth can the lateral flow tests and PCR detect what is what ?

    1. Bad luck, Mags. From what I read, unless they are VERY unlucky, your lad and his pal should be back to normal again in three days.

      1. Oh Phizzee

        One thing after the other , but hey ho .

        How are you doing , and how do you amuse yourself these days , I don’t suppose you are driving your car yet?

        1. As you are well aware life is full of trials. The measure is how we deal with them.

          Me. Drive ! Are you mad? I have people to do the mundane things. :@)

          I have just been volunteered by my dear friends and neighbours to do a Burns night this month. They said how wonderful my food was. How much they appreciated my skills and professionalism and how good an entertainer i was. How could i refuse ?

          I did tell the cheeky sods that they have to buy in all the supplies !

          1. But, Philip, have you the acumen to address the Haggis a la Robbie Burns. Start practising:

            Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
            Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race!
            Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
            Painch, tripe, or thairm:
            Weel are ye wordy of a grace
            As lang ‘s my arm.

            The groaning trencher there ye fill,
            Your hurdies like a distant hill,
            Your pin wad help to mend a mill
            In time o’ need,
            While thro’ your pores the dews distil
            Like amber bead.

            His knife see Rustic-labour dight,
            An’ cut ye up wi’ ready slight,
            Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
            Like onie ditch;
            And then, O what a glorious sight,
            Warm-reekin, rich!

            Then, horn for horn, they stretch an’ strive:
            Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
            Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve
            Are bent like drums;
            Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
            Bethankit hums.

            Is there that owre his French ragout,
            Or olio that wad staw a sow,
            Or fricassee wad mak her spew
            Wi’ perfect sconner,
            Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
            On sic a dinner?

            Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
            As feckless as a wither’d rash,
            His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,
            His nieve a nit;
            Thro’ bluidy flood or field to dash,
            O how unfit!

            But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
            The trembling earth resounds his tread,
            Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
            He’ll make it whissle;
            An’ legs, an’ arms, an’ heads will sned,
            Like taps o’ thrissle.

            Ye Pow’rs wha mak mankind your care,
            And dish them out their bill o’ fare,
            Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
            That jaups in luggies;
            But, if ye wish her gratefu’ prayer,
            Gie her a Haggis!

    3. They can’t, Belle, (test what is what, that is). All they can test is whether it is a a coronavirus, or not, a fragment of dna of any old winter coronavirus, that is, alive or long since dead from long-ago winters past. It is a complete fraud. It cannot tell if it is the govt branded ‘covid’. It explains why so many who test positive are symptomless. Their coronavirus infection was dealt with by their natural immune system a long time ago.

    4. Sorry to hear that Belle.
      Hope they come through as cold like infections.
      As poppiesmum says can only detect coronavirus but nobody ever says how many times the sample has been amplified. Recommended no more than 28 but suggested they might go as high as 45 in which case it is bound to find ‘something’.

    5. Slight correction, Maggie, what is this poison that is being injected into all and sundry – and the sheep line up for more?

      Beats me. Thank God I’ve resisted but I worry that Best Beloved with her JAK2 ET blood cancer, seems determined to follow the herd.

    2. Won’t make any difference. Remember 1,000,000 demonstrated against the war that Bliar instigated.

        1. Yeah but look how he’s been “rewarded” and feted ever since. Vile, bent (all senses), venal, money grabbing war criminal.

      2. 343699+ up ticks,
        Evening VW,
        Surely a damn sight better that supporting the tarnished K with a million +.

      3. 343699+ up ticks,
        VW,

        The only difference that would be made is via the polling booth and the complete boycotting of the ;lab/lib/con candidates on all given voting opportunities.

        The electorate seriously lack BALLS.

  84. Veteran Labour politician Jack Dromey has died aged 73, his family has confirmed.
    The shadow minister, who had held the seat of Birmingham Erdington since 2010, is understood to have passed away in his constituency on Friday morning.
    He is survived by his wife, fellow Labour MP Harriet Harman, and his three children.

        1. There is the one about the ‘his’ and ‘hers’ granite headstones.

          His for her read “Here lies my beloved wife, cold as ever”.

          Hers for him read “Here lies my beloved husband, stiff at last”.

      2. I think that was Jacqui Smith’s husband – claiming expenses for pay-per-view adult channels.

    3. Aka as Jack “Boot” Dromey.

      Part of the Exec Committee of the NCCL when it gave associate membership to PIE
      Probably used his influence to get his then girlfriend the post of Legal Officer of the NCCL
      Who then used HER influence to get him shoehorned as candidate into what Labour’s NEC had already decided would be a woman only Parliamentary shortlist
      One of the architects & organisers of the Grunwick Dispute.

      And also all round nasty Left Wing bastard.

    4. One less to give us grief. He shall NOT be missed.

      Tough titty Harriden – seek solace from PIE.

    1. Choose the “right court” in the USA and one can be almost certain things will go your way initially.

  88. HAPPY HOUR – I don’t know whether to laugh or cry….

    The BBC should return to playing the National Anthem on television in the middle of the night to increase ‘unity and pride in our nation’
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10374945/Tories-demand-BBC-restart-playing-National-Anthem-end-day-television.html

    Romford MP Andrew Rosindell said the public broadcaster and other television companies should be encouraged to play the patriotic number…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a85c7cf3365b015e556119704fe6d81487cb174e4bbd882b3b19a67c3cfbb2d8.gif

    2. Yes. They should play it on all the Asian channels to remind them who brought them into the 20th century.

      1. It’s honestly impossible to tell these days.

        Spoof or real?
        “I mean… if their politics are eliminate the homeless or drive trans people out of public work/life or take away medications and sports opportunities for kids or picket PP that does make them 100% my enemy. Fascism has to be opposed or it will walk all over us and then kill us.”

        Spoof or real?
        “I am so proud of the work we’ve done this year to censor offensive words and opinions.

        Sadly, bigots are still *thinking* incorrectly, which can be just as damaging to social justice.

        Let’s make 2022 the year when we find a way to stop people from thinking wrong thoughts.”

        1. You’re probably not far wrong Phizzee. However perhaps it will ring a few alarm 🔔 for those who are hesitant about the jabs, or even just interested.

        2. They’re caught between a rock and a hard place.
          The more the redactions the les the trust, the more they show the more they damn themselves.
          Good tactic by the judge.

        3. No, that’s just a reply that I received from the Scottish government in response to an FOI request.

  92. Nigel Farage has an article in the DT this morning about a possible right wing tory rebellion and he says he will support it. No comments and well hidden in the Opinion section

    2. 343699+ up ticks,
      Evening Cs,
      Lining up early for the pro tory (ino) start of the marching season.

    3. It wouldn’t have to be right wing! It would just have to be common flippin’ sense!

    4. Nigel Farage is the only politician/ journalist with his finger on the pulse of the multiple crises in British politics:

      Continuing ‘The Science’-led CovidPandemiCon’

      Crime-driven invasion of the south coast by Immigrants of Unknown Origin or Substance; arriving from France on RIBs, they are not ‘refugees’.

      Declining and inadequate defence resources and manpower.

      Absurd intolerance and constraints on freedom of expression.

      Inadequate and unreliable energy supplies.

      Exorbitant and rising energy costs.

      Absurd taxation policies: [higher rates may well cause reduced revenues].

      Above all:

      Lack of Vision, Integrity, Conviction and Leadership …

        1. But but but, Maggie:

          Farage’s efforts over 22 years got us OUT; the untidy bits – NI Protocol, Fishing Rights and Immigration by RIBs across the Channel – are for Boris to clear up.

          Nigel has stuck to his Last; Boris doesn’t have one!

          Boris has been led astray by his tasteless, cynical, Greenie, Metropolitan apparatchik …

          ‘T won’t last …

          1. Hello Lacoste

            I guess sometimes it is good to chew the fat in the early hours before bedtime x

            I met Nigel more than fifteeen years ago , he was a blokes bloke and could hold a good tempered reasonable conversation .

            A group of us got together with him in Dorchester , I wasn’t too sure whether he was a bar room bore / agitator etc, but my word, his drive and energy and convincing argument against the strong grip of the EU was worth listening to.

            The untidy bits , yes , that sums it up really.

  93. That’s me gone for this quite nice day. Managed a three mile bike ride, the first for a month. Got to try to make my lungs work again.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    1. I spent too much time watching the biathlon races today, while the weather was actually quite nice here – sadly by the times the races were finished it wasn’t so nice so I ended up walking in a snowstorm – much to my surprise it was quite enjoyable!

    1. If that’s Sage and Johnson in disguise, worried they’re going to be exposed in this new year, then very good.

      1. It’s an odd cartoon, I think it’s suggesting that 2022 may kill the virus in the light. But I’m unsure.

        1. It’ll take more than a new year for those bastards who promote the virus to allow it to be killed.

          1. Why change when you are onto a good thing. Fourth and fifth boosters coming, that should boost the back handers.

            The blessed Trudeau put well over $100 million into a new vaccine manufacturing plant. As always the idiot has gone wrong and backed the wrong drug company to produce the vaccine (not approved in canada) but the need for face saving will ensure that the panic will be extended until this spend looks good for him.

      1. He’s certainly crackers. Lumping every possible slight against those who refuse to obey. If he were for science, he’d say ‘It’s up to individuals. I am protected by the vaccine, and that’s my choice.’ but he simply can’t let go. He cannot imagine a world where others think differently to him.

    3. But Trudeau is just the pretty face, he is not clever enough to paraphrase anything. Unfortunately that means that the powers behind the throne think that way.

  98. Nasty little Dromey died. The Labour Party (what’s left of it.,) are fulsome in their praise. How revolting they are!

        1. Just self declare until after the selection process. After all if prisoners can do it and get into cushy women’s prisons, what is to stop a politician stretching the truth.

          1. Politicians ALWAYS stretch the truth – in fact, they find it really hard to recognise the truth even if it were to hit them on the chin!

    3. Got the Birmingham Erdington seat even though previous intention was to have an all-women shortlist … Reckon Labour should hold the seat.

  99. Nasty little Dromey died. The Labour Party (what’s left of it.,) are fulsome in their praise. How revolting they are!

    1. ‘From the people who are vaccine experts’ – not you, shove off, not interested. We’ve got our agenda and we’re sticking to it.

    1. https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/council-rich-list-15-officers-2818443

      My BP is already high from training, but this is disgusting. If those useless bastards were paid a rational wage – say £40,000 a year the remaining monies could be spent on services, such as a home and support for this fellow. ]]He’s the same age as me, practically. It’s wrong. Wrong at every level.

      The council managers manage a force backed, fixed income. They have no product, no risks, no advertising to do. Yet they can’t manage that. This man shouldn’t have died. Those scum should. And the damned wretched cabinet.

      Throw them all on the street. See how they like their trougher paradise.

      1. Bottom of that article:

        “Senior pay is decided democratically in an open and transparent way, and all salaries of over 100,000 are approved by the Full Council.”

        Right, so the public can refuse it and remove the individual and set the pay? Of course they can’t. You’ve a twisted, toxic definition of democracy.

        1. To quote that overused excuse You have to pay top salaries to recruit top talent .

          At least the diversity and inclusion manager(s) are not in the rich list but it is little in the way of consolation for them allowing someone to die through their indifference.

          We have the same problems with housing and when it’s minus twenty outside, sleeping rough is close to a death sentence. Several councils have come up with a cheap makeshift solution, lots of what are effectively garden sheds as shelters. Not that it addresses the inequity of Hull but it does give shelter.

    2. Penguins are very, very sociable. They survive only because of big groups together generating warmth. To be alone isn’t comfortable psychologically nor healthy physically.

      When folk ask me what animal I’d be, I tell them a penguin. Not a tiger, lion, eagle, or bear. A penguin.

      Penguins are cool.

      1. But seagulls are beautiful.
        Had a question ages ago at a graduate interview for British Gas: “Would I prefer to be a seagull or a tractor driver?”
        Huh??

        1. The seagulls follow the tractor driver as he ploughs – they are usually screaming and squawking, while the tractor driver has earphones on and listens to music 🙂

          1. Wen Oi whirr a trac-or droiver, I used them earthings cozz of the noise, and Oi couldn’t ear moi zinging, neither.
            Oi drowve trac-orrs as a summer jowb, when OI whirr a studen.
            (learned to speak Hampshire, too – nowt like the above feeble effort…)

          2. Wen Oi whirr a trac-or droiver, I used them earthings cozz of the noise, and Oi couldn’t ear moi zinging, neither.
            Oi drowve trac-orrs as a summer jowb, when OI whirr a studen.
            (learned to speak Hampshire, too – nowt like the above feeble effort…)

      2. Join the colony of small penguins on the North Coast of Tasmania, at a place called ‘Penguin’, where habitations have been built for them.

      1. I suspect now that Philip has died, she’s lost her mojo. Hell, so would anybody in similar circumstances.

      2. …and let it boil over. Come on Brenda, we credit you with the guts to stand up to the government advisors and tell them that, “He simply doesn’t deserve it and I don’t want him in there fouling the other 23 members.”

    1. This was never about science. It was about keeping people afraid so they obeyed.

      Maybe, at the beginning it was a useful tool. Now the state is pushing it as mandatory because to do otherwise might make them look weak.

      OR they could say ‘hey, it’s your choice. The vaccine can protect you but it is your choice.’

      1. I spoke to a couple of women in a cafe today who put their masks on when they got up (“suppose we’d better put these on,” they muttered) and pointed out masks didn’t do any good. They admitted they knew that, but it made them feel more secure. There’s no way you can help such people to acquire logic, is there?

          2. My Mother has an old, nearly fluff-free bunny who must be about 90 now… one thing I will keep when we clear her house.

    5. The others didn’t have the confidence to say they felt no doubt for fear of victimisation. If they had all said it it might just have broken the fear aspect.
      An opportunity missed.

  108. Evening, all. Like all woke decisions, the Colston vandalism verdict was not thought through for its unintended consequences.

  110. Goodnight, everyone. Cold here, so I’m off to prepare some hot water bottles to warm the bed before I get in!

  111. Greetings to all NoTTLers. Today was a full-on day for me. I drove for over 4 hours non-stop from Colchester to Altrincham in Cheshire to attend a funeral service for a dear late friend who died on my birthday late last year. A couple of hours mingling at the wake and then the over 4 hours return journey. So this will be my only post today: a belated “Good Morning”, an early “Good Night” and the very best of birthday wishes to our Lady of the Lake. I hope you have had a full and happy day, M’Lady. See you all on here tomorrow.

    1. Glad you made it OK, Elsie.
      Sorry about your friend – losses like that hurt.
      Have a good zed; see you tomorrow!

      1. Indeed they do. I have lost three dear friends to cancer- does one ever get over it? Not sure at all.

        1. That’s awful, LotL. As usual, I don’t know what to say/write. I don’t think you do get over it, but maybe it gets less painful with time.
          With the risk of being insensitive, at least, your friends didn’t choose to die, to leave the world because they were so miserable. I’m still troubled by the loss of a friend who killed herself, leaving husband and two little boys. It’s never a day goes past that I don’t think of her, and hopefully I have become a better person as a result of learning that friends need cared for. And, what kind of a friend doesn’t see the friend is unhappy to the extent that she wants to kill herself and abandon her small boys? I had lots to learn, hopefully being a better person as a a result.
          This always reminds me of her:
          https://youtu.be/7O049oi2Dxw

          1. As you know, I love Vivaldi. Today I turned 68- yikes! But my best friend growing up died at age 29. The other two friends died in their late 50s. Still far too young. The last one,Chris, was a gym teacher and never smoked in her life- guess what she died of? Lung cancer. There is no rhyme or reason to any of this and this also goes with all this covid BS.

          2. It’s not easy to get by, is it? I’m “only” 60 this year (I was the youngest for years, now I’m the oldest), yet when I assess my life so far, pretty well anyone who could be called a good friend is dead already.
            It’s a pisser, that kind of thing.
            Here’s one thing I learned over the last few years: If the pay is OK, then the most important thing when choosing a job is the people you work with – their humour, competence, attitude. I just rejoined my previous employer, with a 20% salary cut, because of that. Lots of $$ doesn’t compensate enough for a work environment lacking in humour and respect.
            68, eh? Not bad doing. Hope it’s been a good birthday. If you need some, we have plenty of fresh snow to give away… 😀
            Glad you still post here, LotL: informed, humorous, challenging…

          3. I over-estimated you age, Paul but, I still maintain that the most important thing about any job/work that you do, is that it is only satisfying if you ENJOY what you do.

          4. Which is why, back in the day, I could never have done anything other than teach. You never get the same day twice!

          5. Thanks Oberst… I have also outlived my birth family- that’s a tough one to get your head round.

          6. #MeToo, Lotl, I am the youngest (77) of 9 siblings and am the sole survivor – at times I feel desperately lonely for someone to talk to.

          7. My mother died at aged 59 from cancer- was expected; my dad died 3 days later from an aortic aneuryism. Dad was 63. My little brother died in 2015 from cancer aged 57. I turned 68 today.

          9. “There was a Door to which I found no key:
            There was a veil past which I could not see:
            Some little talk awhile of Me and Thee
            There seem’d – and then no more of Thee and Me”

            I have alwas remembered bits and pieces from Omar Khayyám, a narrative on life I think .

    2. Thanks Elsie and so sorry for your loss. I will post a comment above about my day.

      1. Not really, poppiesmum. As I said to his widow, it was a wonderful service for a wonderful man. A very joyous occasion for all who knew and loved him. And now it’s off to bed for me.

    4. Good for you Elsie – we do what we have to do and I think most NoTTLers will agree.

  113. I must thank you all for your kind and wonderful wishes. MH gave me the most beautiful card and and some coloured pencils as I want to begin making my own b/day, Xmas cards again.
    We went to the pub for a couple and then went on to a local bistro…food is good, it is relaxed and no screens or masks. The lady in charge will call me Madam although I have always asked her to call me by my name.
    I feel very blessed with all the good wishes I have received…have had numerous emails from US where in GA it is colder than here!!
    Re call me madam….just watch it you lot!

  114. Thinking of the 1980s, I particularly remember a grim winter’s day in 1981 when I was visiting the (very grim) London Borough of Waltham Forest. I found myself having lunch in a pub on Walthamstow High Street. I thought the area was really grotty, but thought at least the locals used to be able to watch the sublime Greaves in previous years. Then I heard this for the first time coming loud and strong – and most striking – from the Juke Box (not knowing then that this group had germinated in Leeds) (in later years there was an even better 12 inch version):

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

  116. This is not quite the victory that Jeffrey Donaldson claims it to be. I suspect Mr Lee is not being honest in the paragraph in which he talks of ‘figuring out the beliefs of a company’s owners’. Meanwhile, the ECHR has come up with a sleight-of-hand that says “We’re not getting involved with this mad province!”

    Gay cake row: Discrimination case inadmissible, says European court

    Gareth Lee failed to ‘exhaust domestic remedies’ in case against Christian bakers who refused to make pro-gay marriage cake

    By Gabriella Swerling, SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS EDITOR • 6 January 2022 • 2:32pm

    The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has thrown out a case against a Christian couple who refused to bake a cake with a message in support of gay marriage in what Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, said was a “victory for freedom of expression and belief”.

    The court ruled the case was “inadmissible” on a point of law.

    The legal battle began in 2014 when Gareth Lee, a member of Queer Space, an LGBT advocacy group, ordered a £36.50 cake from Daniel and Amy McArthur, the Christian owners of Ashers bakery in Belfast.

    The couple refused to fulfil the order because they disagreed with its design, which featured Sesame Street puppets Bert and Ernie and the slogan “Support Gay Marriage”.

    Their refusal sparked a seven-year case, costing the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland £251,000 of public money. The Christian Institute covered £250,000 of legal costs for Ashers bakery, which takes its name from an Old Testament figure.

    In 2018, the case reached the UK Supreme Court, which ruled in favour of the bakers. Mr Lee then took the matter to the ECHR, claiming the Supreme Court had failed to give appropriate weight to him under the European Convention of Human Rights.

    In a written ruling, published on Thursday, the Strasbourg court threw out the complaint. It said not raising the Convention on Human Rights in the UK courts meant it was unable to address any potential human rights problems and it was therefore “inadmissible”.

    The ruling said: “Convention arguments must be raised explicitly or in substance before the domestic authorities. The applicant had not invoked his convention rights at any point in the domestic proceedings. By relying solely on domestic law, the applicant had deprived the domestic courts of the opportunity to address any convention issues raised, instead asking the court to usurp the role of the domestic courts. Because he had failed to exhaust domestic remedies, the application was inadmissible.”

    Paul Givan, Northern Ireland’s First Minister, said: “I am glad the European Court of Human Rights has ruled this to be inadmissible. It validates the decision of the UK Supreme Court, which was to say that this never should have been brought to court in the first place.”

    He said there were “serious questions” for Northern Ireland’s Equality Commission after it had backed Mr Lee, while the Christian Institute said it was “good news for free speech, good news for Christians”.

    Simon Calvert, a Christian Institute spokesman, said: “I’m surprised anyone would want to overturn a ruling that protects gay business owners from being forced to promote views they don’t share, just as much as it protects Christian business owners.”

    Speaking after the ruling, Mr Lee said he had “hoped for a different outcome” and was “most frustrated that the core issues did not get fairly analysed and adjudicated upon because of a technicality”.

    He said: “Everyone has freedom of expression, and it must equally apply to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people. The message on the cake was mine, and I paid a company that printed messages on cakes to print my message. None of us should be expected to have to figure out the beliefs of a company’s owners before going into their shop or paying for their services. This case has put a spotlight on the challenges faced by LGBT+ in Northern Ireland. I will continue to support all laws that protect and give rights to all people equally.”

    Mr Lee’s lawyer, Ciaran Moynagh, of Phoenix Law, said they would consider whether to bring a fresh court challenge under domestic law.

    The Committee on the Administration of Justice, a Belfast-based human rights group, said it was a “missed opportunity” to clarify the law. It said there was now an “ambiguity” on whether campaigners can be refused services like printing leaflets or setting up websites on the basis of ‘it’s not you, it’s your message’ “.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/06/gay-cake-row-activist-has-discrimination-case-thrown-christian/

    1. This just highlights not only the paucity of Mr Lee’s case but the need for a government strong enough to tell the ECHR that we are no longer members but that we are repealing the Toad Blair’s Human Rights Act and will soon start deporting, lock, stock and barrel, the criminals currently appealing against their deportation under this convention and act.

      We have no need of Mr Lee and his queer upsets and actions. People need to be free to follow their beliefs and act accordingly.

    2. This just highlights not only the paucity of Mr Lee’s case but the need for a government strong enough to tell the ECHR that we are no longer members but that we are repealing the Toad Blair’s Human Rights Act and will soon start deporting, lock, stock and barrel, the criminals currently appealing against their deportation under this convention and act.

      We have no need of Mr Lee and his queer upsets and actions. People need to be free to follow their beliefs and act accordingly.

    3. It is fair to promote equality for all but they cynically targetted Ashers. If Ashers had complied with their wishes they would have searched for another business in the hope of a refusal.

  118. That’s me for today, Goodnight and God bless one and all – I hope to see you all again in the morning, if we’re spared.

    1. In the Last Goon Show of All, Peter Sellers misread one of his lines…” I am am an underfloor eating defective.” ” Can’t read me own writing folks, I am an underfloor heating detective.”
      Sorry to make fun of something rather nasty.

          5. Sorry, no, not at the moment. Just found out (today) that both parents in law have life ending illnesses. Not a good time tbh.

          6. I am so sorry to hear that- been through it myself with my own and in laws. Always available if you want to talk and I do understand.

          10. It has been suggested before;-)) Actually, I am quite sane- somewhere there’s a certificate to prove it. ( One of the first St. Trinian’s Movies.)

      2. I watched a film featuring Peter Sellars as a vicar yesterday. It was a gem. He persuaded a rich lady to provide free food for the masses, eagerly grabbed by all and sundry, let gypsies occupy the Rectory and exploit his hospitality, eventually to steal his valuable possessions and strip the church roof of its lead.

        His free food operation led to the closure of countless local businesses, butcher, milk company, grocers etc., and the near demise of the company from which the benefactor had profited, but he carried on preaching his innocent version of the Gospel.

        In order to be rid of him the bishop and archdeacon made him a bishop for er.. Space exploration where he was exiled to a relatively remote island from which we Brits were launching space rockets. The silly sod then mugged the astronaut and bound him with tape and went into space in his stead. The space controllers were then given a dose of his turgid hymns.

        It made me laugh in my sleep even.

        Peter Sellers was as good in that film as he was in Being There. A truly great and prophetic actor.

        Edit: The film was Heavens Above. Brilliant satyr.

Comments are closed.