Monday 17 January: An outdoor party at Downing Street did no harm, but Boris Johnson still has to resign

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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674 thoughts on “Monday 17 January: An outdoor party at Downing Street did no harm, but Boris Johnson still has to resign”

  4. Morning, all Y’all.
    Gales all night, and still going on.
    SWMBOs garden frame taken a bit of a beating, and the (empty) bin blown over. Trees down in places, icy as hell.
    Want to go back to bed 🙁

    2. Do go back then, Herr Oberst. (Unless, of course, you have work and/or an appointment you are committed to.) Have a good day, whatever you decide.

  5. Boris Johnson accused of targeting BBC to save his premiership. 17 january 2022.

    The BBC funding cut, which could fundamentally change the corporation as it enters its centenary year, appears to be a central theme of Johnson’s fightback strategy, which is reportedly called Operation Red Meat.

    Other measures said to be in the pipeline include a renewed drive to stop people crossing the Channel in small boats, measures to tackle the NHS operations backlog, extra investment in skills and lifting Covid restrictions on 26 January.

    In the surrealist world that is the UK there doesn’t appear to be anything at all unusual (at least to the MSM) in the Prime Minister of the UK hiding out like some errant schoolboy hoping to avoid expulsion. I don’t doubt that the measures above are his trying to avoid this fate. He’s also no doubt hoping that something will turn up serendipitously to distract the public’s attention so that he can emerge unscathed by what would then be past . Putin invading Ukraine would probably be heaven sent. At least for him! The rest of us can only pray that this doesn’t happen. Boris and his crew running a War is the stuff of nightmares!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/16/boris-johnson-accused-of-targeting-bbc-to-save-his-premiership

    1. Those look like Boris trying to look like a Conservative, but I don’t believe a word of it. After two plus years and massive majority, nothing has been done about any of these issues apart from blether, and I’ll take some convincing that this time it’s any different.

      1. Morning Oberst. It is interesting though that they know what will appeal, though I agree with you that the possibility of them happening are pretty well nil!

        1. Nothing was done because the current situation is the desired one.
          Government desire to have lots of people flock over the border, they like the bbc (it’s full of their mates, after all) – and they like to rub the voter’s noses in it after the voters dares to defy the great and the good (sick) and vote for Brexit. All the crap has come to a head since then – the voters are clearly the enemy of the establishment who know best, and are being treated so.

          1. Morning Oberst, I notice the normal fear tactic is now being deployed, ie you will get someone worse than Johnson, we need to keep him. They use it on the voters with the message vote for us, stop Labour.
            The DT article by Hannan is just an example with the headline, Boris has kept the economy open and the recovery on track – and that matters more than a drinks party
            The question is not if he was wrong – everyone, including him, accepts he was – but if someone else would do better

          2. Well, why would they not use a version of Project Fear? It’s worked beyond all expectations so far – the side-effect of leading to a broken society has yet to be properly apparent, but it’s coming.

          3. Indeed it is and if I could take any crumb of comfort in that fact is the loudest cheerleaders of project fear will suffer the most. Most Nottlers being resilient old characters will however see it through until the grim reaper comes a callings.

          4. Good morning, Tom. Project Fear or not, the idea that if Boris is ousted his successor would probably be just as bad if not worse is at least a valid point to make.

          5. Morning Elsie.
            Then the point should be made via email to every sitting Tory MP that if you fail to elect a Conservative not a green Liberal pretending to be a Conservative as the leader of your party, you will lose the next GE, and by a considerable margin.
            Project fear has done this country a disservice.

          6. But, Tom, you seem to be suggesting that (i) Boris is ousted, (ii) Tory MPs are told to elect a proper Conservative (are there any capable of taking over as PM?) and (iii) if they don’t then they will lose the next General Election. And what would happen if they DO lose the next election? Would a Labour government be any better? Be careful what you wish for.

          7. To my mind the facts are simple (or my mind is simple take your choice) Johnson has showed the country he is untrustworthy to be PM. He has shown the country he is not conservative minded, more a green liberal in disguise. These facts alone will cost them the next GE, their only hope is a return to conservative minded policies and implementing them, God knows there are enough that needs to be tackled.
            You raise a valid point, are there any proper Conservatives, probably yes. Would they be successful in running for the leadership, only if the Conservative Party wish to avoid a lengthy period in the political wilderness.
            Would a Labour government be any better, that is an irrelevant question. When the results of net zero start dropping on people’s doormats in the form of heating and cooking bills and estimates of heat pumps are given to replace boilers, the voters will not even stop to ask that question.The voters will be feel angry, betrayed and impoverished. They will do what they always do, vote with their wallet first and foremost. A new PM leading the country in a new direction before that happens and can regain their vote is the Conservatives only hope.

          8. They will almost certainly lose the next election (see the North Shropshire result as an indicator) if they don’t get their act together and deliver what the voters want. I dread a Limp Dim government – it would probably be worse than Labour!

      2. Morning Oberst. It is interesting though that they know what will appeal, though I agree with you that the possibility of them happening are pretty well nil!

      3. Morning Oberst. It is interesting though that they know what will appeal, though I agree with you that the possibility of them happening are pretty well nil!

      4. ‘Morning, Oberst. I agree; we now have a series of panic measures – stopping the boat people (again), sorting out the BBC and Brexit etc – that he or his Secretaries of State should have been addressing constructively since the election. Instead of that he thinks that swanning around vaccination centres and lying to Parliament repeatedly is sufficient, all the while squandering a thumping good majority. He has to go because the leopard ain’t about to change his spots!

        1. Good morning, Hugh. The fact remains that whoever succeeds him as PM might well be a leopard with even MORE spots.

      5. Morning all.

        Except that there is no money to do any of these things, or the will, and why lifting the restrictions until 26th January. As far as I’m concerned the +ons are deadbeats, has dens, a busted flush, a bunch of useless cretins. (I’m not too keen on them either!).

    2. I remember a poster once, at a management course:
      “I can’t hear what you say, your actions are speaking too loudly!”

    3. Boris is lagging far too behind the rest of Europe with the mandatory vaccine passports, he will have to go.

    4. How about a round-up of a terrorist cell in London just before the members commit an atrocity or two? No one is hurt except for a couple of terrorists get roughed up, our intelligence services and the boys and girls in blue get lauded to the rafters and Johnson, recently freed from isolation, is able to put on his best Churchillian face and voice and appear as THE MAN to bring the Country together after a couple of years of real hardship and sacrifice. Dick and Khan both get to bask in the reflected glory. Film scripts are easy-peasy, aren’t they?

      1. It’ll probably be more like, “How about a round-up of an extreme right wing terrorist cell in London….” complete with manufactured and grossly exaggerated evidence.

    5. Operation Red Meat is too little, too late. Operation Dead Beat continues as normal.

      ‘Morning Minty.

      1. This chap has got it right:

        SIR – What concerns me is that Britain needs strong leadership and strong direction and all ministers should now be leading their departments forward. But I see no policies, no plans – just fruitless raking over the coals of parties rather than dealing with matters like energy policy, industrial strategy, MoD incompetence, inflation and many other strategic priorities.

        We can easily lose months vacillating when the rest of the world is moving on and setting agendas at this hugely critical time. Let’s change the leadership and move on as well.

        Tony Brook
        Malvern, Worcestershire

        1. I’d agree with changing the leadership if there was an obvious successor – ie not Gove. There doesn’t seem to be one.

    7. Olivia Wilde, of BTL fame, has pitched in:

      Olivia Wilde
      2 HRS AGO
      So, Johnson Is now doing what he should have months ago; tackling the BBC., and the Channel migrants.
      Some others;
      Lowering our energy prices; looking Into making our country once again self reliant on all fronts once again, like the great country we once were; ditching the deluded Net Zero policies, destroying the damn useless, disastrous Withdrawal Agreement and taking with It all that entails, Including the EU’s judiciaries’ ability to Interfere in our sovereign laws; urgently reviewing our outdated Immigration laws and stopping In It’s tracks the HR lawyer loopholes and the perpetual flagrant abuse of the Legal Aid system.
      Also stamp out this complete and utter Woke rubbish and make the police a force to be reckoned with once again, ditching the word “service” and toppling CD from the top of the tree; ditching the office of the London Mayor; the abomination that are the plethora of low traffic zones In our town and cities countrywide., overhauling the education system and the NHS.. I could go on-the list Is endless.
      Most of all, bring back patriotism and put our country and It’s people first for a change, flying our flag from all municipal buildings.
      Above all,remembering that we, already living In this country have human rights too and expect to live In a safe and secure country, with secure borders.

      * * *

      Yes, all of the above, to which I would add – a sane and effective policy for energy security that doesn’t bankrupt many of us…

    8. As for the measures in the pipeline, Minty, it is just the usual verbiage being used as window-dressing to try and rehabilitate himself.

      To the devil with you, Sir!

  6. Boris Johnson accused of targeting BBC to save his premiership. 17 january 2022.

    The BBC funding cut, which could fundamentally change the corporation as it enters its centenary year, appears to be a central theme of Johnson’s fightback strategy, which is reportedly called Operation Red Meat.

    Other measures said to be in the pipeline include a renewed drive to stop people crossing the Channel in small boats, measures to tackle the NHS operations backlog, extra investment in skills and lifting Covid restrictions on 26 January.

    In the surrealist world that is the UK there doesn’t appear to be anything at all unusual (at least to the MSM) in the Prime Minister of the UK hiding out like some errant schoolboy hoping to avoid expulsion. I don’t doubt that the measures above are his trying to avoid this fate. He’s also no doubt hoping that something will turn up serendipitously to distract the public’s attention so that he can emerge unscathed by what would then be past . Putin invading Ukraine would probably be heaven sent. At least for him! The rest of us can only pray that this doesn’t happen. Boris and his crew running a War is the stuff of nightmares!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/16/boris-johnson-accused-of-targeting-bbc-to-save-his-premiership

  7. SIR – Of course the PM is very sorry. He is very sorry that he has been caught.

    David Walters
    Corbridge, Northumberland

    Precisely!

  8. Gardiner’s world
    SIR – Since reading your report of the activities of the alleged Chinese agent Christine Lee, I am assailed with unanswered questions.

    1. Since the beneficiary of her considerable largesse appears to have been the same Dr Barry Gardiner, a Labour MP, who regularly filled our television screens during the Brexit years spouting streams of pious, long-winded anti-democratic piffle, what was it about him that made her think he would be worth lavishing more than half a million pounds on?

    2. What on earth did he think the money given to his office was for?

    3. Why, as stated in your report, does he claim to have been “liaising with the Security Services over a number of years” if it came as news to him that she was up to no good?

    4. Is it stretching credulity too far to conclude that he was a resourceful and skilled agent of the Security Services playing a double game heroically entrapping a dangerous foreign agent? In which case, he deserves a knighthood. It will be interesting to see if he ever gets one.

    5. On the other hand, instead of the Palace, should we be thinking about the Tower?

    Peter FitzGerald
    South Queensferry, West Lothian

    And so say all of us!

    1. No, there’s some value there for the taxpayer.
      Make it subscription-only, and sell it off to sink or swim as viewers prefer. No special priviledges.

    2. It’s not the model that’s wrong. It’s the way that its application has become distorted over time.

  12. SIR – At a recent Covid-compliant dinner party, we sat around the table and tried to define woke.

    We did not glue our hands to the table or smash the crockery to make our points. By the end of the evening, we all six had failed to agree upon a definition.

    Do any readers have a definition that we can discuss when we next meet?

    Tony Scofield
    Glastonbury, Somerset

    In my book ‘woke’ is the new Puritanism, and it is a particularly nasty version.

    2. Woke means awake – supposedly awake to the systemic injustices suffered by oppressed groups. Women, darker hues, any of the plethora of genders, blahblahblah.
      I’m not sure about puritanism – I would say rather that it is totalitarian in outlook – when the woke have power they do tend that way.

    4. All these clever names for agendas just do the opposite of what they say

      Progressive = Regressive

      Woke = Asleep.

    5. The self denunciation is part of marxist-leninism and the youngsters attacking the old is derived from the Maoist Cultural Revolution and Net Zero is inspired by the triumphs of Year Zero in Democratic Kampuchea, and finally we have the Solar Farms which produce enough energy to discipline thousands of bourgeois home owners (at least during daylight hours).

    6. The self denunciation is part of marxist-leninism and the youngsters attacking the old is derived from the Maoist Cultural Revolution and Net Zero is inspired by the triumphs of Year Zero in Democratic Kampuchea, and finally we have the Solar Farms which produce enough energy to discipline thousands of bourgeois home owners (at least during daylight hours).

  13. These leaks are likely coming from Cummings who was Gove’s bag carrier – so this is likely a power play by Gove. Whoever it was knew and didn’t care about the parties or bagged the pics for future use.
    These are slippery bastards and I think they are using this now with the approvale of the estabLishment because BJ didn’t lock us down.
    We are doing far better than France because for once BJ used a bit of common sense and showed some spine.

    Government by Gove-Cummings would be dreadful. The only thing which commends them is sheer cunning and ruthlessness. No thank you.

    1. They are certainly being leaked by Cummings- see his substack posts. Maybe Gove is behind them too.

    2. I am still convinced that Gove went to Brussels on the deal with the EU with the intention of making sure that Brexit failed on two important points: Northern Ireland and Fisheries – on which Lord Frost had, until Gove arrived, been firm in his negotiations.

      Gove must have had some devastating blackmail ready to throw into the mix and he was certainly nasty enough to use it. I wonder if we shall ever know what blackmail ammunition he had and probably still has?

  14. Good morning all from a slightly less chilly Derbyshire. a mere -1°C outside and a very dull & grey start to the day.

  15. I feel far safer with the staff at number ten having the common sense and the intelligence to allow themselves a few in house drinks after work on a Friday as the workers running the machinery of government than I would a load of whimps that were scared of their shadows.

    1. Morning Bob. The problem is that they didn’t think that these same qualities existed among the peasants!

      2. Not necessarily. They were perhaps driven by fear of the media, Union troublemaking and taking responsibility.

    2. 344299+ up ticks,

      Morning B3,

      Fair play, if he had an open door policy for the herd to drop in.

    3. That would have been fair enough if they hadn’t been intent on making everybody cower behind the sofa in dread of going anywhere when they clearly knew mixing was okay.

  16. As far as I can see, there are no letters in today’s DT about Ginge and Whinge. However, this inconvenient fact has not deterred a couple of BTL posters – although it remains to be seen how long they will last before being deleted:

    MARY LOUGHLIN
    4 HRS AGO
    H is now trying to blackmail his family by stating he won`t visit the UK if he can`t have police protection.
    Its absolutely odious. None of us want him at all but I suspect his father still feels something for him.
    Prince Charles must now have the same attitude to his son as he has shown to his brother.
    Both are a digrace. Both have sold the monarchy down the river. Both are ‘the spare’ and both are irrelevant.
    So I hope his family have the sense to shut the door firmly on him once and for all.
    Slam it shut in fact and then turn the key.

    K Brown
    1 HR AGO
    Ginge reminds me of a Duracell—copper top , relatively expensive and goes on and on.

    1. Harry did say he was prepared to pay for protection officers. What he was complaining about was the intelligence agency was not sharing information on potential threats. If he had spooks guarding him that information would be made available.

      1. He’s trying to take people for a ride, for which he has history, such as the Oprah shenanigans. He’s not here so those agencies have had no need to share information. Those agencies have statutory duties to take action and do you really think that they would deny him information and risk being accused if anything goes wrong?

  17. Vladimir Putin will be all too happy to exploit the West’s dangerous distraction

    The Russian president’s true motives in Ukraine are unclear. But it would be risky to assume that he does not plan to invade.

    Vlad’s motives are of course transparently clear. It is primarily to prevent Ukraine being subsumed into NATO by stealth and secondly, if possible, roll the Alliance back further. Since he is dealing with Russia’s security, indeed its very existence as an independent Nation State against a globalist threat he is unlikely to be put off with the threat of sanctions. War, or a very close facsimile, is thus inevitable. The thing to fear here is the response by the West which is ruled by a corrupt and decadent Oligarchy of Cultural Marxist sympathisers with a prejudiced but incoherent decision making process!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/01/17/vladimir-putin-will-happy-exploit-wests-dangerous-distraction/

  19. Good morning, all. Nice sunny looking day.

    I notice some disappointment in the MSM that the Tonga eruption and tidal wave only killed two people in Peru. I imagine that they had already set in type “100,000 die in Tonga terror”….

    And I expect the two will be recorded as covid deaths…

    1. Is there any news on the impact the eruption actually had in Tonga? Apparently almost all means of communication were knocked out by the event.

      1. I believe Australia and NZ have sent planes to get a look, presumably naval forces are on their way too.
        The effects must have been devastating (in the full sense of the word).

      2. Who cares? seems to be the approach. The UK has done nothing. The people of Tonga are our friends yet we have not lifted a finger. It seemed likely to me that Tonga might have vanished completely. Apart from friendship, Commonwealth membership, rushing help to events like the Tonga eruption is an excellent logistics excise for our military. How quickly can they respond? What equipment can they move, how many troops can be deployed? Time and again we fail to take any action in any sensible time scale (24 hours). The Russians could reach the Channel before breakfast and our leaders would just have another round of toast and more coffee.

          1. I recall the Coronation procession, where despite the rain, she insisted the top was down on her carriage. Harry was still doing his Royal duty in 2018…

          1. Keeping them far, far away from the Baltic is a better idea. Can one imagine a UK War Cabinet headed by Johnson, with Gove, Truss and Wallace? I’d sooner surrender.

  21. 344299+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 17 January: An outdoor party at Downing Street did no harm, but Boris Johnson still has to resign,

    Did a great many of the politico’s employers wallets a great deal of harm though.

    These political “top rankers” have truly kicked into touch the fact that they are there to serve the herd, NOT THE REVERSE.

    The WHOLE tory (ino) edifice is rotten through & through lagging a country mile behind lab in being odious, the hard core current supporter / voters is a good gauge as to how far neglection of mental illness has eaten into society, they are in point of fact supporting & voting for not only the mass RAPE of a nation but also it’s children / peoples.

    The majority really must look up the meaning of PEOPLE POWER,

    and DROP the nation killer vote, party first & foremost no matter of consequence.

    1. 344299+ up ticks,

      Morning Bob,
      ALL in-house attack / defence we went to the wire many a time with moggy & treacherous treasa only for the ratchet to click in her favour every time.

    2. Thats easy, if you have to ask you have no humanity. The rules were cruel and should never have happened. Mogg has been so dissapointing. He is not a man but a mouse.

        1. At university, it was noticeable that although Mogg is intelligent, he sometimes becomes persuaded of a particular course of action that is completely wrong, and then sticks to it like glue. In other words, he is as obstinate as a pig.
          I never saw him as Prime Minister, though I did think he would reach one of the high offices like Foreign Secretary, if he could overcome his tendency towards joking.

          1. I think the gyre needs to be widened a bit more to allow repeated turning to take place.

      3. But they lack all conviction because they are aware of many possibilites, not because they are apathetic.
        Actually, I don’t agree with these lines. If you are intelligent, then at a certain point in your life you have enough life experience to be reasonably sure that some things are better than others.

        1. As I am sure you know the title of the poem by W.B. Yeats from which these lines are taken is ‘The Second Coming‘.

          Things fall apart the centre cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. Chinua Achebe borrowed the first three words of this for the title of his novel.

  25. Police Scotland arrest a man wanted in the USA. How did they find him as he seems good at changing name and escaping pursuers? The same Police Scotland that does not arrest local muslim rapists.
    Police arrest two young men in Blackburn, brothers of the Texas jihadi. Swift work. No such swift and effective detainment of the family of the Manchester Arena bomber.
    The muslim criminals do not act alone. They act in groups, family groups and “interest” groups. There is no concerted action by police to arrest accomplices and accessories to these proliferating crimes.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-59988720
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60019251

    1. Apparently the fellow had a police record. I thought US customs and immigration prevented ex-Cons from entering. In one of the reports I saw, it said that weapons had been obtained from the UK. What is going on?

        1. How reassuring it is to think that that couldn’t possibly happen on the Channel border between England and France.

          1. We already have let in rapists and bombers. The PTB don’t seem to care. Let us hope it is them that are targeted.

          2. They don’t care because they know that, even should they be targeted, they are safe because they have protection – not the back benchers, obviously, as we saw with the MP who was stabbed in his surgery.

    2. Apparently the fellow had a police record. I thought US customs and immigration prevented ex-Cons from entering. In one of the reports I saw, it said that weapons had been obtained from the UK. What is going on?

  26. Today’s offerings from the book of Dad Jokes,

    You know what happens if you fail to pay your exorcist?
    You get repossessed.

    Did you hear about the mathematician who is afraid of negative numbers?
    He will stop at nothing to avoid them

  27. Today’s offerings from the book of Dad Jokes,

    You know what happens if you fail to pay your exorcist?
    You get repossessed.

    Did you hear about the mathematician who is afraid of negative numbers?
    He will stop at nothing to avoid them

  31. Boris shouldn’t resign. To recover the situation all he need do is admit he is wrong, both personally and publicly and reverse his idiotic agenda and get on with :

    tax cuts,
    state cuts
    imposing a limit on council management pay
    Imposing referenda on any council tax rises (one option being to refuse, another to sack the council executive)
    absolute and complete abandonment of the green nonsense – even ending the subsidy for windmills would be a start – then wind stops being built, the green energy millionaires suddenly find themselves paupers and the’green levy’ can be spent on something productive, like a large packet of peanuts.

    Cap business rates, reduce corporation tax to 5% and announce that the state for too long has considered business as nothing more than a method of soaking taxes and that now business, as the only method of wealth growth will be set free from the state.

    You know, the exact opposite of his demented agenda to date.

      1. No no, he should remain faithful. After all, she needs to be shown how stupid she is and how everything she believes in is wrong.

        1. Just as the late Princess of Wales was the first to stray from the marital bed I expect that Mr Johnson’s latest wife will seek the embraces of other arms before he does. Mind you I should imagine the clumsy gropings and fumblings of either of these actual or potential cuckolds must be pretty odious.

        2. 344299+ up ticks,

          W,
          Then to shown that johnson will have to be cuckolded and carryon will have to take a lover, poetic justice jono ?

        1. 344299+ up ticks,

          Morning AtG,
          By divorcing they would leave other male / female / it’s, open to contamination
          best they stay as a pair.

    2. I would prefer Johnson to remain on probation for a few months; he should be watched like a hawk and the slightest deviation from what his voters mainly support should trigger the magic 54 letters.
      This list is in no particular order of priority.
      1. All mentally defective juveniles (of any age) should be booted out of No. Ten.
      2. Carrie Antoinette should be put back in her box and stick to girlie nights out, with or without latest sprog.
      3. Cancel HS2.
      4. Trigger Article 16.
      5. Stop fannying around with the French, whether it be migrants or fishing rights; put Great Britain first.
      6. Stop the Greenery Wokery. Your panicked reaction has already cost us dearly; psychologically, socially and financially. We do not need any more over-arching government ‘action’ aka interference.
      7. Sort out your Cabinet and have a thorough cull. There is too much dead wood, probably chosen because they were pathetically grateful to sit at the top table and were unlikely to pose any challenge.
      8. Cancel any more ‘covid’ measures. You have triggered a very dangerous precedent whereby hard won liberties are now subject to government caprice.

      Leave People Alone.

      1. Johnson’s hero, Winston Churchill, didn’t fanny about with the French. He ordered the destruction of their battle fleet to stop it falling into German hands. Come on Johnson, neuter their fishing fleet by banning them from our waters.

        2. The channel crossing housing and feeding half the bloody world and yet now this, another stupid fiasco, are the main reasons he needs to resign i don’t think that many people really care about the drinks.
          But what we don’t want is that horrible little git Gove in his place.

    3. 344299+ up ticks,

      Morning W,

      Please accept the fact IMO he is in karzi mode as was treacherous treasa, ALL for the benefit of brussels, there will be another along shortly, “the polisher” to really
      put an end to the United Kingdom.

  33. Headline in today’s DT:

    Nadine Dorries declares an end to TV licence fee – but BBC warns move will have ‘serious implications’

    War of words with Culture Secretary as sources accuse her of ‘profoundly damaging’ the corporation

    This BTL is fairly typical:

    Chris Tyrrell
    11 HRS AGO
    The BBC has had this coming for years.
    Political bias, scandals, profligacy with wages, charging OAPs the full licence fee, and increasingly poor quality output have rendered the TV license an increasingly unjustifiable tax. Many no longer watch the BBC anyway; its obsession with identity politics, woke causes, and global warming have left it completely out of touch with many viewers who would rather watch quality programmes on streaming services.
    I won’t shed a tear if the BBC is forced kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century.

    * ,* *

    My loathing of this organisation is based on their skewed News and Crurrent Affairs output. Not only is there daily evidence of bias, we have several so-called reporters telling us what to think about a particular item. The whole stinking edifice should have been closed when it was ‘discovered’ that only 4% of interviewees on Toady were pro-Brexit!

          1. Always look for the positive and think the best of people.
            Note. Not all people, of course.

      2. People don’t always practice what they preech! Ask Peddy!

        I maintain that others make grammatical or ortholographical mistakes while I make typos because I am a very poor typist!

          2. It does have a life of its own. Occasionally it will just adddddddddddddd letters at will.

          3. I have a Spooner Special kbeyoard which intefrers with the lteter order of the wdors I tpye.

        2. Agreed Richard, I think we can all understand the point of the text what’s the point of making an issue out if it ?
          But sadly there is a lot of American spelling creeping into the English language and usage of Americanisms in British speech. Especially annoying is the Growly vowels and certain types of masculinity from lots of females.

    3. Jo Phillips, a woman ‘political commentator’ who has worked for the BBC and the Guardian, was on the panel of the Mark Dolan programme on GBNews yesterday evening. She suggested that there was no evidence that the BBC is biased.

      She would say that wouldn’t she?

    2. It is all for show. He loses no weight. Remains a hideous lump – and no doubt eats plates of junk food on his return to Carrion.

      It is just another example of his inherent exhibitionism.

      Could one imagine Winston or Attlee of Mrs T out “jogging”?

      1. If Major went jogging he would make sure that the Egg Woman tucked his shirt-tails into his pants.

    4. Looks like he’s gone out without his trousers on. Is he pictured in the act of fleeing another (very easily pleased) tart’s bedroom before she wakes up ?

      1. At least we now have an explanation for the dog’s role at Number Ten.

      2. At least we now have an explanation for the dog’s role at Number Ten.

  36. Can anyone explain to me the cartoon in The Grimes this morning – the one with the dead horse?

  37. Since I rose at 8 am – when it was above zero – a heavy frost has appeared – outside, that is…!!

  38. I’ve just received an email from Amazon telling me that the planned refusal of Visa credit cards from 19th January will not take place. I had guessed that an agreement would be reached before the deadline, so had not provided an alternative method of payment.

    1. I had a phone call the other day telling me I owed amazon 700 pounds. I thought I might ‘send the boyz round’ 3 of them would weigh about that.

    1. Roberts should be forced, under oath, to name every man and woman she slept with at all of the sites where she claims to have slept with Andrew.

        1. It was her own lawyer’s claim that nobody “misremembers” sleeping with a Prince that made me wonder how many people forget having slept with billionaires, Presidents and other extremely well known and “celebrated” individuals.
          She should be forced to testify if it goes to court.

          1. There is no reason to believe that she won’t be- unless she “takes the Fifth” because she fears being charged with perjury…

          5. The names of 8 John Does are in court sealed documents. Maxwell at first wanted them kept sealed. At the end of her trial the judge asked her if she wanted them to remain sealed. She said she didn’t mind if they were to be unsealed. I bet Clinton is one of them.

          6. What interested me was the way the John Does were numbered. One is something like 151, if I recall correctly.

    2. Oh right Native South Africa, so that’s were Epstein went after he had ‘committed suicide’. It’s a big country.

    2. Apparently, Don Quixote also possesses a paranoid personality disorder, evidenced by his eccentric, odd behavior. He exhibits all of the classical signs-from his suspicions of others to his inability to take the blame for his actions.

    3. Not enough room to swing the cats flogging a dead horse and it’s not tony blair in front is it ?

    4. Is that supposed to be Nadine Dorries as Don Quixote? Something to do with the BBC? Too obscure for me.

    6. Tescos selling the wrong type of meat again, and cheekily calling it ‘Schrödinger’s cat food’?

    7. It looks like a spoof on Don Quixote, but there are so many other things it could apply to – dead cat bounce, flogging a dead horse, Joan of Arc … A truly poor cartoon!

    2. Much like ‘if you have to tell people you’re the king, you’re not much of a king’ if you’re shouting at people you manage you’ve done a rubbish job.

      I’ve only ever shouted at an employee and that was a warning as I’d left a switch unsecured and it could swing off and bash them.

      1. The Bomber Harris film I watched the other day had John Thaw as Harris. He came over as shouty and irascible. Someone who worked under Harris said of the portrayal, “the words were Bert’s but he never raised his voice – he didn’t need to”.

        1. Prezackerly.
          I was chucked out of a Pub In Auckland just before Christmas in 1977 for wearing a tee shirt.
          I did have a beard my the barman thought I was Santa.

    3. I asked the vet if Mongo could get covid of any sort. The vet said yes, in the same way he can get a cold or flu.

      However, the virus would need to mutate significantly to affect dogs. Then again to affect the cat. Is it worth vaccinating them against it – yes – when there’s evidence and again when there’s a canine vaccine.

  43. Seven laws which prove this is no deregulating Government

    Despite good intentions, on Boris’s watch, the regulatory burden has grown substantially

    SAM DUMITRIU • 16 January 2022 • 9:00am

    Post-independence India became notorious for the thicket of permits and licences a business needed to do virtually anything. This “Licence Raj” became a major obstacle to economic development, and one reason India lagged behind other Asian countries. No individual regulation seemed especially costly or irrational. But together they made it almost impossible to start or build a business, and it took the reforming governments of the 1990s to change things.

    On paper, ours is a deregulating government. It is led by people who campaigned to leave the EU because of its tendency to over-regulate and micromanage. It makes the right noises, setting up a regulatory reform taskforce, calling for red-tape slashing ideas, promising a deregulatory ‘Great Recovery’ bill. But Britain is quietly developing a Licence Raj of its own. Here are seven examples.

    Restrictions on foods: Under absurd new rules on foods high in fat, salt, and sugar, it will be illegal to advertise breakfast cereals before 9pm – presumably to prevent young minds being corrupted by Tony the Tiger. Supermarkets will be banned from offering buy-one-get-one-free deals on everything from pizza and crisps to chocolate and fish fingers. Restaurants like Nandos will be banned from offering unlimited coca-cola refills.

    The rules don’t just determine what shops can advertise or offer. They even decide which shelves can be used. Shop-fronts are strictly off limits as are the ends of aisles and anywhere near checkouts (there are no exemptions for shops with multiple entrances either). Instead of focusing on fixing supply-chains, supermarkets will now spend months trying to game the new rules.

    Biodiversity Net Gain: In the midst of a housing crisis, Governments excel at creating barriers to development. Take the requirement that all new builds must provide a net gain in biodiversity. As one planning expert explained it to me: “If you’re building homes in urban centres, it’s a pain. You impact biodiversity, but then lack the land to fix the problem.”

    Bee Bricks: In Brighton and Hove, where house prices have risen rapidly, the council now requires all new homes to be built with a ‘bee brick’. A biologist friend can find no evidence of a shortage of accommodation for bees. If only the same were true of people.

    The Protect Duty: As of last week, all public venues will have a legal duty to be prepared for a terrorist attack. Staff will need to be trained about likely attack methods and to spot ‘hostile reconnaissance’. This will apply to any venue with a capacity of more than 100, not just stadiums and arenas.

    Annual Modern Slavery Statements: Every business with more than £36m annual turnover must publish an annual modern slavery statement. The Government itself concedes many companies see it as a tick-box exercise.

    Gender Pay Gap Reporting: Any business employing more than 250 people must publish an annual gender pay gap report. Yet statisticians warn the data can be misused in so many ways that it will struggle to drive meaningful positive change. There are now calls to expand reporting to ethnic pay gaps, despite even more serious practical objections from statisticians.

    Net Zero Transition Plans: From next year, all financial institutions and public listed firms will have to publish these. We are yet to learn the precise details, but it is likely businesses will have to set out their emissions and how they propose to address them. Although the rules only apply to large businesses, they will likely create knock-on bureaucracy as they assess all their supply chains.

    Despite good intentions, on Boris’s watch, the regulatory burden has grown substantially. Many new rules were initiated under Theresa May, who didn’t get economics or care about growth. But this administration has done little to hold back the tide. As inflation bites and incomes are squeezed, the government can no longer afford to be complacent.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/16/seven-laws-prove-no-deregulating-government/

    There must be hundreds more – and how many started out in Brussels?

      1. The Y2K issue was a big thing though and a genuine problem that was – in some cases – hard to fix as it involved a huge move over to modern operating systems.

        That folk knew about it and fixed it well in advance was a positive thing. The green nonsense is just the latest attempt at terror and tax hikes.

    4. Good God, what a load of old carp.
      Whole new departments (that need paid for) will have to be created to take care of all this, with director, managers and staff, both in companies, local and national government. That in itself will increase costs massively, let alone the cost of slowing everything down as reports and permits are prepared, and the costs of training, new computer systems… the mind boggles.

      1. “Whole new departments … will have to be created to take care of all this …” That is the whole point, surely. Jobs for the boys (and girls and its).

    5. how many started out in Brussels?
      Probably not so many, and if they did, they will have been relatively simple to administer.
      It’s the UK civil service that gold-plates the EU directives and makes them unworkable – we get on fine with them in Norway, because the government enacts them here by a) translate into Norwegian, and b) slap a Weegie cover sheet onto it. No gold plating, no adding extra stuff. And, it works.

      1. Wouldn’t you like to be able to ignore them when you chose? The ones that are damaging to your economy? Ones that are industrially stupid?

        The net zero nonsense is idiotic, the biodiversity silly – the simplest option isn’t to keep building mroe and pretend, but to not have to build in the first place.

        Then there’s the fixed business tax rates. Those are daft.

    6. Almost none of these would be needed if the idiots stopped importing middle eastern gimmigrants.

    7. Bee bricks? Let’s hope they don’t attract masonry bees! I bet, under The Protect Duty, they won’t be able to mention who is most likely to launch a terrorist attack.

  44. Seven laws which prove this is no deregulating Government

    Despite good intentions, on Boris’s watch, the regulatory burden has grown substantially

    SAM DUMITRIU • 16 January 2022 • 9:00am

    Post-independence India became notorious for the thicket of permits and licences a business needed to do virtually anything. This “Licence Raj” became a major obstacle to economic development, and one reason India lagged behind other Asian countries. No individual regulation seemed especially costly or irrational. But together they made it almost impossible to start or build a business, and it took the reforming governments of the 1990s to change things.

    On paper, ours is a deregulating government. It is led by people who campaigned to leave the EU because of its tendency to over-regulate and micromanage. It makes the right noises, setting up a regulatory reform taskforce, calling for red-tape slashing ideas, promising a deregulatory ‘Great Recovery’ bill. But Britain is quietly developing a Licence Raj of its own. Here are seven examples.

    Restrictions on foods: Under absurd new rules on foods high in fat, salt, and sugar, it will be illegal to advertise breakfast cereals before 9pm – presumably to prevent young minds being corrupted by Tony the Tiger. Supermarkets will be banned from offering buy-one-get-one-free deals on everything from pizza and crisps to chocolate and fish fingers. Restaurants like Nandos will be banned from offering unlimited coca-cola refills.

    The rules don’t just determine what shops can advertise or offer. They even decide which shelves can be used. Shop-fronts are strictly off limits as are the ends of aisles and anywhere near checkouts (there are no exemptions for shops with multiple entrances either). Instead of focusing on fixing supply-chains, supermarkets will now spend months trying to game the new rules.

    Biodiversity Net Gain: In the midst of a housing crisis, Governments excel at creating barriers to development. Take the requirement that all new builds must provide a net gain in biodiversity. As one planning expert explained it to me: “If you’re building homes in urban centres, it’s a pain. You impact biodiversity, but then lack the land to fix the problem.”

    Bee Bricks: In Brighton and Hove, where house prices have risen rapidly, the council now requires all new homes to be built with a ‘bee brick’. A biologist friend can find no evidence of a shortage of accommodation for bees. If only the same were true of people.

    The Protect Duty: As of last week, all public venues will have a legal duty to be prepared for a terrorist attack. Staff will need to be trained about likely attack methods and to spot ‘hostile reconnaissance’. This will apply to any venue with a capacity of more than 100, not just stadiums and arenas.

    Annual Modern Slavery Statements: Every business with more than £36m annual turnover must publish an annual modern slavery statement. The Government itself concedes many companies see it as a tick-box exercise.

    Gender Pay Gap Reporting: Any business employing more than 250 people must publish an annual gender pay gap report. Yet statisticians warn the data can be misused in so many ways that it will struggle to drive meaningful positive change. There are now calls to expand reporting to ethnic pay gaps, despite even more serious practical objections from statisticians.

    Net Zero Transition Plans: From next year, all financial institutions and public listed firms will have to publish these. We are yet to learn the precise details, but it is likely businesses will have to set out their emissions and how they propose to address them. Although the rules only apply to large businesses, they will likely create knock-on bureaucracy as they assess all their supply chains.

    Despite good intentions, on Boris’s watch, the regulatory burden has grown substantially. Many new rules were initiated under Theresa May, who didn’t get economics or care about growth. But this administration has done little to hold back the tide. As inflation bites and incomes are squeezed, the government can no longer afford to be complacent.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/16/seven-laws-prove-no-deregulating-government/

    There must be hundreds more – and how many started out in Brussels?

        1. God definitely has it in for us.
          Not content with burying oil under sandy deserts owned by camel herders, he deposits uranium in the most unstable bits of Effrika.

    2. 344299+ up ticks,

      Afternoon W,

      Now is the time to say to his relatives & friends OUT,
      get the thought police on the job because if these peoples are not planning a revenge move they are sure as hell thinking it.

    3. I’ve been wondering how he got into the USA- he had a criminal record apparently. Given the hoops I’ve had to jump through when re-entering the US as a (fairly) law abiding person, I can’t figure how he slipped in.

      1. False name, prolly. Forged passport, visa etc etc. My good fried Mr “Chuck” Rashid does a healthy line in those documents.

    1. Speaking of which, Visa has ‘done a deal’ with Amazon.

      Now apparently we won’t need to replace our credit cards.

    1. That is a bored dog. That is a dog that, if played with for most of the day would be perfectly happy and not tear things up.

        1. For that very reason we did not get a dog until we retired. It is awful to think of such a sentient animal whiling away those precious years of its life alone, locked up, at home.

      2. Um, Oscar is played with and none of his soft toys lasts long before they are eviscerated! To be fair, he is not destructive (possibly famous last words!) if he’s left alone – not that I leave him long and not often, either.

  51. OT – the recent spate of (often quite funny) letters about school reports.

    My youngest grandson is a nice boy. Very polite, well spoken, not pushy. Lots of reasonable pals. BUT – he is thick as shit. Can barely write (he is 12). Useless at maths. And is simply lazy.

    Despite that, his “reports” are glowing. “Well done”; “Tremendous work”; “He is doing brilliantly”…etc etc Not one of his dozen teachers say that he could apply himself; stop sodding about; do his bloody homework on time. So his ditsy mother – who thinks the sun shines from his every orifice – thinks he is doing awfully well.

    Sad, really.

    1. Prizes for all. Must boost their confidence. Follow your dream. You can be whatever you want to be. Et cetera. Et cetera.

      1. Then they meet reality and join a cult for protection. BLM, Extinction rebellion and other crap causes.

      2. All of them only want to be Instagram influences nowadays and earn 100 000 pounds per post, gurning into the camera from somewhere in Thailand!

    2. I think that the best report that I received was in the sixth form. The gym master simply wrote “I thought that he had left after O levels”

      My mother was really upset with a comment beside the mock An level result. “98% could do better” was taken as an indication that I was lazier than I was.

      1. My dad had wanted me to learn shorthand and typing so I could get a “real” job. I went to one lesson and that was it. The report said simply, “Ann no longer attends these lessons.”
        Dad was annoyed but I stuck to my guns.

        1. Shorthand was the one thing I really wish I had known when I was an articled clerk. Two chaps I worked with could do it and it made for a tremendous saving in time when they took down judgments or evidence etc.

          I was working all day and also had an evening job so there wasn’t really time (I told myself)…

          1. My dad could do shorthand but couldn’t really type. I manged to type and I typed up my final paper at college on a very old typewriter. One of those were you had to clobber the keys to make them work. Blimey, my arms and hands didn’t half hurt by the time I’d finished.

          2. I learned to type at 18 – none of the typists would do work for an articled clerk. Stood me in great stead. I bought a second hand Adler in 1967 for £11. Wrote a dozen books and countless articles on it + plus correspondence, of course.

            Tried to sell it on e-bay. Not a chance! I haven’t used it since 1990 – It’ll have to go for metal scrap.

          4. It’s probably of no interest – I have early vintage computers I offered free to the museum of computing and they never even replied to my email.

          5. Might pay to keep it if Britain is heading for Net Zero….where will you be with these newfangled computers during a power cut, eh?

        2. I was shoved onto a ‘secretarial course’. By the end of the year, I could still write faster in longhand than shorthand.
          The girls who lasted into the second year used electric typewriters in a special room.

          2. So have I. It’s so good that I stand in the middle of Lidl (now there’s a slogan they could use!) and wonder what ‘squiggle Cl?’ could possibly mean.

          3. MH went to the shop once with a short list but came home without “wupliq”. Without thinking I’d written it in my shorthand and he didn’t know what it was…..washing up liquid.

        3. it was the opposite for my wife. Her parents wanted her to go to university, study languages and become a bureaucrat somewhere. She was much happier taking some secretarial courses at the local tech school.

          My father never wanted me to even finish grammar school, I was 15 I could get a job as a labourer somewhere and that was good enough for him.

          1. Yes. My parents wanted me out doing any kind of work so i could pay them rent. My first job was on a farm where i was earning £32.50 a week. when i asked my mother how much she wanted she said all of it. I left the next day. Slept under Southsea Pier for a few days before i found another job and digs.

          4. The stand you made is pretty good for a sixteen year old, you must have been tough.
            Speaking from experience, it’s good if one can mend family disagreements as everyone gets older and hopefully wiser.

          7. I will give you an example.
            My father moved into my sisters house in the New Forest to help them run their B&B after my mothers sudden death. He was happy there and stayed 15 years until he had his life support switched off after a brain bleed. It was not unexpected and he went quickly.

            We all gathered at the hospital in his last hours. My sister had been there non stop for three days and nights.

            When she went home that evening my other elder sister arranged for his body to be buried near her. Which wasn’t what was planned.

            When my sister said how upset about it she was the bodysnatcher punched her in the face.

            The bodysnatcher had previously assaulted me and one of my brothers.

            It was only really after i had grown up i came across the term ‘gaslighting’. I had a lightbulb moment and realised she had been doing it to me all my life.

            I cut them out of my life and suddenly i was much happier and relaxed.

            I loathe the cow.

            This is just one incident. There have been many over the years.

          9. My parents didn’t want me to go to university, but thankfully, my teachers persuaded them. It would have been useless if my mother had got her way and I’d been forced to work in banking. Everyone who knows me knows how useless I am with figures and arithmetic!

    3. My mother insisted that i go to lessons where i had already completed the exams. I spent the time in the library. Asleep.

      She threw away my school reports along with everything else when i left home. Sold my books to my brother and my 45’s to the other brother.

      2. I managed to keep my school reports, but my mother threw out a lot of my stuff and I’d only temporarily left home (away at university)!

        1. My mother was a hoarder and kept everything, but a lot got chucked or lost when my ex cleared out her stuff. He did bring a lot of it home for me to sort through but I couldn’t keep everything………..

          1. I am a hoarder, I confess, but my mother, who never wanted to keep anything, no matter how valuable, cost me a small fortune by the things she threw away without consulting me!

          2. Sounds like mothers. Just because they don’t want that stuff means they throw it out on your behalf. My mother, and SWMBO, have both done it – yet try to throw out one of her old Sainsbury’s receipts, and you’ll hear about it.

          3. She used to say….” If we kept everything you want to keep we’d never get into the place” – but she was twice as bad and kept all sorts of rubbish – especially packaging, in case she needed to send stuff back……

        2. What my mother couldn’t get a price on she threw in the bin. I wasn’t such a bad lad but the way she treated me at that point was beyond what i was prepared to take.

      1. Yes., He isn’t – though his ditsy mother firmly believes all the”experts” were wrong. There is a learning support dept at his school. They thought he was “brilliant” and din’tr need their assistance.

    5. You described our elder son, up to the age of 9. Everything had been swept under the carpet, his inability to complete a written sentence, his lack of anything to do with arithmetic, maths. He knew his times tables, because we recited them every day on the way to school (I suspect he did not understand their application) and having learned to read at the age of 3 at home his reading ability was way beyond his years. But everything he should have learned at school was totally lacking. He had a vast (for 9 yrs) knowledge inside his head, accumulated from his reading, but no framework, no structure, on which to hang it. And how the wool was pulled over our eyes, how we were conned.. “E. has done so well at maths this term that he is now proceeding through the Red book….” no mention, as we discovered later, that he should have been ploughing through the ‘Red’ book a couple of years earlier. The end of year reports were written glowingly, designed to deceive. This was a small rural school. It wasn’t until Year 4 that I discovered that something was awfully wrong. I made an appt at the school but they did not want to see us. They knew.

      We made arrangements at another school and he didn’t look back. Within 6 months he had caught up the rest of the class. His teacher placed him at the front of the class under her eye so she could ensure he paid attention. She commenced joined up handwriting with writing exercises in the evening to be done at home and his handwriting improved dramatically, within the week. His maths ability improved out of recognition. This teacher changed his life.

      A lecturer at the Institute of Education in Cambridge told me that if a child can read, they are perceived not to have a problem, so they don’t get as much (if any!) attention. At that time the push was all about literacy. Like your grandson, our elder son was, and is, courteous, well spoken and not pushy. Quite happy to dream his way through the day watching the world out of the window at school. At the age of 23 he enlisted with the RAF and became an avionics technician, he is now a civilian electronics engineer.

      Our younger son was also taken from that first school, he had not had so long to fail and his nature is different, he is more pro-active and more likely to engage. As from Christmas 2021 he is now a Principal Design Engineer.

      I may be a cynical old ratbag, but I feel that this deception in education is another means of an attack on the middle classes and the levelling down.

      1. I agree with a lot, PM – but I think a lot of the “deception” is because the teachers don’t want confrontation with violent parents; or to be sued (cf those failed “graduates” who sue their “uni” (ghastly word) because they wasn’t tort proper….

        1. I hate the word ‘uni’, too, it makes me cringe. My cousin refers to the University of Cambridge as ‘Cambridge Uni’. I wince.

          I think part of the problem is the general ‘can’t be botheredness’ that is tolerated and permeates society today, exemplified in Phizzee’s post regarding GPs earlier. The children that actively engage and are go-ahead survive and almost thrive….. those children whose minds are elsewhere just get lost in the slipstream of indifference and are left by the wayside. The 11+ discriminated between those children who were academically-leaning and those who were more practical; the present system of laissez-fair discriminates between those who are bright enough but not motivated within the present system. Younger son was shocked to discover when he bumped into one of his early friends from the first school that he was looking for gardening work, did he know of any? There but for the grace of God/the universe working through his parents…

          Could I just say that both p’psdad and I dislike confrontation and do anything to avoid it; the thought of violence and beating up teachers, even harsh words! – is not how we go about things – just to make it clear to anyone who might read this…!

    6. A few years ago we had a delightful but very lazy boy on a French course with us from either Tonbridge or Charterhouse. School reports often tone down the truth – and I know well that headmasters don’t like ‘negative’ reports to be written as they think it will be bad for business. Caroline tries to tell the truth and wrote of this boy: “He knows very little French – not because he is stupid but because he is bone idle.”

      The boy’s father wrote back a very grateful letter saying that his teachers made out that the boy tried hard but was not making as much progress as they would like to see. “l am so glad to get your report,” he wrote, ” I know that the boy is a hound but we can sort out an idle hound far more easily than someone who is just plain thick.”

    1. You’ll have to ask Bozza and Caz about that. Me an’ Dilyn just nipped out for a pee. Meow, woof!

    1. The warqueen once threatened ‘it’s me or the dog’. I said ‘I’ll help you pack.’

      2. A retired wing commander in the village where I was a boy decided to move out of his home and move in with his paramour who lived at the other end of the village. He took the family dog, Bonzo, with him.

        The following day the paramour received a hand-delivered letter: ‘You’re welcome to Denis, but please send Bonzo back straight away.’

  58. 344299+ up ticks,

    May one ask now the political elite have decided in freeze the bollocks
    ( where applicable ) off of those unable to jog on the spot, wheelchair bound sufferers, will the foreign invaders / potential troops in five star hotels be subject to having the heating / hot water out of reach of the tax payers monies ?

    If not it could MAYBE cause problems among the current lab/lib/con
    member / voter watching grandma / granddad turn 40 shades of blue then again, maybe not.

    Take note lab/lib/con coalition supporter / voters.

    Hypothermia is a dangerous drop in body temperature below 35C (normal body temperature is around 37C)

    1. One of the joys of the covid circus has been skin termperature checkers. I still have to stand in front of one every time I enter Television Centre. Skin termperature is not body temperature and I regularly register between 33 and 35 degress when it’s cold outside.

  59. 344299+ up ticks,

    breitbart,

    British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to deploy the UK military to secure the UK’s English Channel border in order to curb the ongoing migrant crisis, in a move seemingly designed to give the embattled PM’s waning popularity a boost.

    NOT for the protection & welfare of the indigenous peoples then, I see
    more likely the five star hotels are all full and the invaders will accept nothing less.

  60. Interesting, that today I have had calls from our Indian friends letting me know that my internet is compromised. The 2 numbers were local and I rang them back to find elderly people who I did not know and had not called me. It seems that the scammers are using actual live numbers for their work, although how that is done, I don’t know. Anyone else has received such calls?

      1. As can second hand car sales. Rather alarming story in yesterday’s S Grimes about a “cloned” car.

  61. Gorgeous afternoon. Blue sky – bright sun. Just had a 3 mile bike ride to collect eggs from Yew Tree Farm (sounds like something from a history book!!)

    £1 for 6.

    When I were nobbut a lad – eggs (when in season) were 1d each = 1/- a dozen.

    1. Blimey; do you identify as George, Julian, Anne, D!ck or Timmy?
      I bet you needed a restorative lemonade and several rounds of fish paste sandwiches after all that excitement.

      1. I have just done some rough sums. £1 in 1948 = £37 odd today. So 1d in 1948 = 37d in 2022. 37d = 3/2d – = 16p. So six eggs for £1 today is roughly the same price.

        That is the end of Schools Programmes for today.

          3. I am glad you explained that to sos – he has very limited maths’ skills! Prolly due to the school he went o. It went downhill after I left 1 yeas before him.

          4. If £1 then = £37 now – surely one simply multiplies each unit by 37?

            If you are right, eggs are very cheep (sic)…

          6. Oh for heaven’s sake. That was clear from my post. Do try to keep up (see thread about school reports!!)

            1d each = 12 (a dozen) for 1/-

          7. It wasn’t clear because you were using two different units.
            One new penny is 2.4 old pennies.
            37 new pennies is 2.4 x 37 old pennies, ie 7/4d

          8. I was NOT using different units.

            The multiplier is the same. £1 = £37. Therefore 1d = 37d.

            (Using new pence (which I wasn’t) – 1p (had such a thing existed in 1948) would equal 37p = 7/4d.

            I am entirely familiar with the difference between old and new pennies.

          12. Indeed, and therein lies the confusion.

            He’s moving between old and new pence in the same calculation.

    2. Do you remember Heron Books which used to sell classic books in fancy leather or mock leather bindings? When we first came to France we went to a supermarket to buy groceries and found they were selling similar editions for “5 French Francs a kilo” so a mixed selection of Molière, Racine and Baudelaire could be had for a very small outlay,

  62. Gorgeous afternoon. Blue sky – bright sun. Just had a 3 mile bike ride to collect eggs from Yew Tree Farm (sounds like something from a history book!!)

    £1 for 6.

    When I were nobbut a lad – eggs (when in season) were 1d each = 1/- a dozen.

  65. Some months ago i had someone knock my door in the early hours. I went to answer it and it was my elderly neighbour from down the road looking for his wife. She was tucked up in bed. I followed him home in my dressing gown at 3 in the morning to ensure he was safe.

    More recently he would get up in the night and empty all the kitchen cupboards. One time she found him drinking chilli sauce from the bottle.

    His confusion became so bad that they had to lock the gates and the house so he didn’t wander off in the night.

    Latest news from his wife was that he had been carted off to Somerset (where he originates from) to give her respite. The home couldn’t cope and he was moved to a home specialising in dementia. These people were obviously on the ball and knew what to look for and they found a prescribed medicine that he was taking was the cause of the confusion. It had never been reviewed by his GP.

    After taking him off this medication his situation improved greatly and it looks like he will be able to come home.

    His wife told me that in the dementia home he was in he had a picture on his wall of a Steam Train which i had given him. He had previously been a railwayman all his life.

    They have been married for 68 years.

    I am beginning to deeply loathe GP’s for their dereliction of duty.

    1. The money is just too easy and they simply can’t be bothered any more. GPs stopped doing joined up thinking a long time ago, and thus we are where we are today. Dr Vernon Coleman’s book on dementia is worth a read. So pleased to hear your neighbour is sufficiently improved to come home.

    2. Gosh, Phizzee, that’s a shocking story.
      There are too many GPs who have cruised for years on getting high marks in their A levels, and don’t really keep on top of the latest products that big Pharma requires them to prescribe for their patients.

      1. GP’s are in hock to big pharma. I was advised to take opiate painkillers for an open ended period for a collapsed disc in my neck. I wasn’t prepared to tempt addiction and googled my condition. To begin with use a Tenns machine coupled with yoga. That worked. If i had taken the pushed opiates i would be an addict by now.

          1. I self prescribed Doombar, London Pride, Butcombe etc. So far it seems to act as a natural barrier to most bugs and germs. Any chance they would appear on a prescription?
            When Mrs VVOF had daughter number 1, I was told by the hospital to bring her in stout to sort out her iron levels. I wasn’t convinced it done much good but she insisted that she should persevere. ☺️

          2. Same when I had my son- all the dads came in with bottles of Guinness or Mackeson- I preferred Mackeson but quite like an occasional Guinness nowadays.

        2. “Revised” ideal B/P readings. Expecting an 80 year old to achieve the B/P of a 25 year old. Since that is impossible, the answer is ….. altogether now …. Push Those Pills.

        2. I didn’t know you could get sherry on prescription – that would save me a fortune as I get free prescriptions 🙂

        1. Might well be – could affect Mother.
          If she recovers after I have sold her house, she won’t speak to me again.
          …
          well, not much change there… 🙁

    4. I’ve just looked up the title of Vernon Coleman’s dementia book – it is ‘Dementia Myth’. What he is saying is that a cause of dementia can be normal pressure hydrocephalus or a vit B12 deficiency, both of which can be cured. He finishes the book by saying:

      “It is vital to remember that the blood values used by laboratories are usually far too low. The incidence of vit B12 deficiency is so common that even healthy individuals over 60 should have their B12 levels measured every three years or so. Indeed, it would probably be wiser to give everyone over 60 vit B12 injections every three months. This would be much more useful than giving them all influenza shots. It won’t happen, of course. There is far more profit to be made out of giving a vaccination than there is out of giving a vit B12 injection.”

      2. The B complex vitamins are often missing from a diet if people restrict certain foods. It might explain why Vegans are weird.

      3. Yup. Vit B deficiency, dehydration, constipation.
        Time and again, MB and I have admitted the violent and disorientated.
        Clear them out, push the fluids and give them Vitamin B complex.
        Bingo!

    5. In the 1970s, MB and I nursed a chap who had been sent home to die. His heart appeared to be failing and he was demented and could be violent.
      We spotted that he was being given double doses of all his tablets; various heart medications, diuretics and some really mega psychotropic drugs.
      The hospital was prescribing the pills under one name (and appearance) and his GP under another name (and, again, the tablets looked different). We weaned him off the whole blasted lot, apart from the minimal dose of diuretics, and he resumed a normal life; enjoying his home , family and even his social life at the local Conservative club. He lived another three years.

  66. Phew! Knackered, sweating my cobblers off and my toes are a bit cold!
    Yep! I’ve been digging out the surplus soil from the verge again and carrying it up the “garden”!
    10 bags of “about” half a stone each so around a ¼ ton shifted and somewhere near 4′ of verge cleared!

    The DT’s just brought me a mug of tea, then it’s up for a bath!

        1. Not your day on the conversion front, half a Cwt is nearer 25 Kg.
          You’re definitely getting stronger if the weights seem so little.
          };-))

          EDIT I am starting to wonder if the 14kg was a trick to catch him/me.

    3. I have a whole pile of curling stones to move. Sixty four of them and they weigh about forty pounds each. Are you free?

    4. Do we ever get to see photos of ‘before and after’ ? My mind boggles trying to imagine all the work you have reported!!

    5. It’s cold out there! Just walked down to the mobile post office to collect a form to try and find a package not delivered.

        1. No – I told you that the other day.
          This was a package of three of our calendars – sent to Italy and not received.

          2. You posted a pic of Twiggy and asked me – I said no, but edited my post when I saw she was a patron of the BHPS. But I’ve never met her.

            I turned off the disqus emails years ago as there were far too many of them – I always read my notifications from the red blob at the top of the page.

            The calendars which didn’t arrive in Italy refer to a post I made earlier on this page about walking down to the mobile post office – in reply to Bob. He said it was cold and I agreed that it was.

          3. Seems a lot isn’t received these days.
            Half the Christmas presents to us from the UK went astray; our present to young cousin had to be re-ordered from Amazon yesterday and delivered today.

      1. C’mon, Bill, get up to date! Tin bath in the kitchen, please! And the DT takes second bath…

        1. “In t’kitchen”? Looxury. Anyway, Our Robert is tough – he’s a Sapper. He know how to live in the wilds!

    7. Bob, half a stone is 7lbs. 7lbs x 10 = 70lbs. 1 ton = 2,240 lbs. You’re either a long way short of 1/4 of a ton or your bags are bigger than you think!

  67. Afternoon, all. Here earlier because I have a PC meeting tonight, put off from the first Monday (which was a Bank Holiday). The person who wrote the headline letter has entirely missed the point. It actually did a great deal of harm because it highlighted the lies that were being spouted by Project Fear to control us, rubbed our noses in the fact that there was one rule for them but another for us and thus utterly destroyed any remaining credibility or trust there might have been in Westminster.

    1. I think & hope that the government & snivel serpents come to regret deeply their use of Nudge / PsyOps against their own citizens. What next, injecting them with poisons… Oh!

      1. Good evening, Bill. I did write “remaining” credibility. That’s been steadily eroded since 1997 and has now completely disappeared.

    3. That chap is so far up himself…..can’t stand him. The (Limp Dumb) MR thinks he is wonderful…..

        1. He was in the Communards, then was a comedian?,and now is a wishy-washy camp reverend!
          Edit : not Butlins, or Pontins!

        2. Some meeja vicar. Ubiquitous. Often wonder what his unfortunate parishioners think about him – given that he appears never to be there.

    5. …and, @Broadcaster, that includes Richard Coles who I find all over the TV and raking in the wonga.

  70. A couple of chuckles for you this cold Monday…

    What disease did cured ham actually have?

    Why is it that people say they “slept like a baby” when babies wake up every 2 hours?

  71. Texas synagogue incident, the suspect, identified as 44-year-old ‘British’ national Malik Faisal Akram.
    It was suggested by a BBC reporter that he had mental health issues, really ?
    I just shows us how useful a cheap and accurate firearm can be in such cases. Next………..

    3. I answered this hours ago. My friend Mr “Chuck” Rashid fixed him up with false passport and visa. Simple. Always ready and willing to hep, my pal.

        1. And the Swedish Muppet will walk across the frozen English Channel….to blame us for the New Ice Age.

          3. Nah, just have to avoid the higher latitudes. As soon as humans either revert to the Stone Age or we destroy ourselves completely the oceans will become a wondrously abundant place again. If only I could survive to see it, and have plenty of fishing tackle to hand.

          5. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve hooked meself. I’ve had fly hooks in my ears, not always mine, and a very large treble hook in my hand with the barb well in.

    2. What the story does not tell us is when the earth will become uninhabitable. Is it next week, or is it in a billion years’ time? I suspect it will be nearer the latter.

    6. In how many billion years? And is that before or after the sun expands and heard up the surface?
      And does this mean we won’t have to worry about more computer model predictions that are wrong?

    7. I know some attempts have been in the past and possibly are ongoing, but there, there inside the Earth is the largest energy storage that humans would ever need. How much heat energy was spewed out in the Canaries recently as well as this latest Tonga undersea eruption? We just need to harness it.

      1. Quicker, better, easier and cheaper.
        Burn Greeniacs.
        The planet says: “you know it makes sense”

  73. I enjoy “antiques road trip”.
    There was a reference to Cholera pandemics in the 1800’s.
    Relative to the world’s population they were far, far worse than the current glorified ‘flu.

  74. Who can help me with an odd (?) and probably trivial; but for me, serious question:
    Just a quick thought that I have been pondering.
    Reading a book about Christian art and noticed that any depictions of Adam & Eve show that they have ‘belly buttons’ surely someone must have questioned this impossibility?

    Sorry, I’ll go back to my book and let everyone carry on discussing world affairs 🙂
    Although at least on here comments about:
    The plague, partying at No10 and will the Russians invade Ukraine are far more informative than just about all the MSM !
    Maybe the Vogons will arrive and we can have a packet of crisps, a few beers, then stop the world and join the dolphins.

      1. I’ve deposited my penny and will await the invitation at Milliways (I wonder if they take Amex ?) the way things are going it won’t be a long wait.
        Let’s hope the mice come up with a better plan.

        1. I have just (2 days ago) finished reading Hitchhikers Guide and Restaurant again! Wonderful books and so funny! I so want to try a Pan galactic gargle blaster!

          1. I was captured when hearing the first episode on the wireless.
            If you know some astrophysics it is interesting that he threw in so many references to many theories that get discussed within that community.

            Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency 1&2 have been very enjoyable as well.

      1. The belly button has but one purpose – to keep the salt in when you’re eating chips in bed

        2. 1. Those without belly button fluff are always cold. Ergo, the fluff keeps you warm
          2. Men have either blue or grey button fluff. What colour do women have?

      2. So was born of woman – now that would put the cat amongst the Pigeons for some of our newly arrived brethren.

    1. That’s entrepreneurship for you. My friend Senor Pedro Rashid has a monopoly on this scam enterprise.

    2. Thus proving beyond all reasonable doubt that the Greeniacs are correct and that solar power is the answer to power generation.

  77. I’ll be off now. A very good day for the first in my 82nd year. Bike ride; an hour’s gardening; progress in the jigsaw.

    Have a jolly evening.

    With a glass of fizz in my hand, I’ll say: A demain

      1. I believe that Andrew shagged her.
        What would be interesting is a full list of all the participants and their STDs, and when they acquired them.

        1. I can go along with that but if, as I have read, these encounters took place in UK then at age 17, she was over the age of consent. She is no doubt being coached by her attorneys in what to say etc.

          1. As I noted earlier:
            Roberts should be forced, under oath, to name every man and woman she slept with at all of the sites where she claims to have slept with Andrew.
            The age of consent aspect is a red herring.
            I agree she’s been coached.

          2. And yes, the attorneys are all looking at how long they can let it go on for….money in the bank, doncha know!!!

      2. There is absolutely nothing believable about the whole mess, I just wish it would all be over and done with….along with H & M!!

          1. Absolutely! My meeting this evening was “socially distanced” (plus we had the heating on, but the effing doors open “for ventilation”). The clerk even made the public who had come to speak in the public session move their chairs away from each other, despite the fact they had all arrived together! Lunacy in action! I didn’t catch most of what was said, because people wore masks (even though they were seated) and what with the mumbling, the muffling effect of the masks and the lack of my ability to lip read to assist understanding, I may as well not have been there!

          2. Our PC met in the car park this month. Progress of sorts though, at least they agreed not to wear masks, unlike last time!

    2. Apparently Randy Andy has lost his honorable captain positions at a number of prestigious golf clubs.

      Losing status at Royal Portrush is a real hit below the belt.

      2. I have a naval friend, moved to Wales 4 years ago, who was well in with Andy. He had some dealings with him when Andrew was under his command at some point and also when my friend was officer commanding British Forces on Diego Garcia, the “Brit rep”. I haven’t communicated with him in a while, but I’m sure my friend will be very unhappy.

  79. Good evening, folks. I may be back later, or not. It depends on how late the meeting drags on.

    1. If you and those on your side are sufficient to form a quorum, get there spot on the start time.
      Put all the pieces to the vote according to what you want, vote, pass and close the meeting.
      Lefties tend to be too lazy to turn up on time.
      See you in half an hour.
      };-))

    1. The stupidest, most cruel, lunatic, without any scientific basis Covid rule:

      Vaccinate all children.

      1. After not hearing any covid adverts on the radio recently, my listening is limited but I was hearing one on many occasions, I thought perhaps the NHS/government had given up on them. No such luck, today a senior NHS nursey type was urging parents to have their 12 – 15 yo children get their second jab. This when they damn well know that that rubbish is generally useless and very much so against their latest iteration. I cannot believe that senior NHS people do not know the dangers this jab presents to people and especially to young people. Those promoting this potion need to go to prison for a long time.

    2. I’d go with making the old and sick die alone and not allowed to see their families and friends.

  82. Here’s one Change.org petition that I doubt will be signed by a single Nottlander.

    The shouty style is the petitioner’s, not mine. He is Stephen Regan; there is a Professor of English by the same name at Durham University.

    Save the BBC: oppose the abolition of the license fee

    Today the government announced the end of the BBC licence fee. To call this an act of cultural vandalism wouldn’t come close to what this government is proposing. Not only will we lose the incredible news, sport and entertainment output, the very editorial independence of the BBC is at stake. The government has attacked the integrity of our judiciary, undermined access to voting, gone after the right to protest, and now they’re coming after our public broadcaster, one of the last dominoes of accountability. This cannot be allowed to happen.

    The BBC has been part of the lives of every person in our country, and there is no one in Britain whose day hasn’t been enriched by access to an organisation that has produced incredible output, all free of advertisements. Who hasn’t turned on the television, tuned into radio, or gone online to find their remarkable effort and content. Can you think of many days where the BBC hasn’t been part of your life? Often we have under-appreciated it, allowed it to underfunded, and left it open to attacks by this government, who would like nothing better than to see it crumble. But so many people rely on the BBC to enrich their lives and to discard it so callously would be a catastrophe for British public life.

    We’re approaching the hundredth anniversary of the BBC, a monumental achievement, especially in the age of streaming and saturation. Other countries look at our public broadcaster with envy, as they should, and to call them an institution doesn’t do justice to the role it has in all our lives. We need to call on the government to reverse this disgraceful decision and pressure the opposition to make protecting the license fee a vital part of their next election manifesto.

    We are at a crossroads. Unless we act the BBC as we know it will be destroyed, hidden behind a paywall, and only accessible to those who can afford it. Do we want this, or do we want the broadcaster to remain independent andhanded down to future generations to enjoy? Do we want it to be broken into pieces and become shell of its former self? The final license fee will run out in 2027, we can’t afford to sit on our hands. The fight to save the BBC has begun, and it’s a fight we must win. So please, write to your MP and the government, and sign this petition to show them they can’t take away their nations broadcaster and destroy its independence for their own pernicious aims.

    The BBC is under threat like never before and we must act now or lose this national treasure forever.

    2. Bum to that – not signing anything to help rescue the BBC from a fate that is entirely its own fault!

    3. Well Stephen, you and your ilk brought in cancel culture.
      Not so funny when the boot is on the other foot, is it?

    4. Just because there is no universal licence fee doesn’t mean that the BBC cannot go subscription-only. Why should people who don’t use the output pay for it? Want to save the bbc – put yer hand in yer pocket, me old china.

      1. The current and recent management has contrived to despoil one of our real gifts to the world.
        Informative, relatively neutral, professional, accurate as they could make it.
        Now gone.
        Shame on them,.

        1. Since apparently so many people love the bbc, there should be no problem in whistling up the necessary subs for it to continue.

          1. Even without the it’s true.
            If it was properly packaged, as far as subscriptions are concerned, I suspect that they would have even more money coming in than they do now.

    6. Hold your celebrations for a while.

      They might go for the Canadian model for the cbc – no licence fee, they just get a big grant from the feds. Output is as lefty woke as anything that the BBC puts out.

      1. NRK was switched to funding from income tax a couple of years ago.
        Watch out for that.

    7. ” Can you think of many days where the BBC hasn’t been part of your life? ” Yes – every day since I stopped paying and watching in 2005.

      “We are at a crossroads. Unless we act the BBC as we know it will be destroyed, hidden behind a paywall, and only accessible to those who can afford it.” A bit like the licence fee then?

  83. MeToo moment for NHS as female surgeons speak out

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fdfeac7c-76e8-11ec-9998-b2483743c25e

    As Philippa Jackson, a surgeon, prepared with colleagues for an emergency operation, one helped tie her theatre gown.

    He leaned in and told her that consenting to him tying her gown meant she consented to tying her up however he liked — before kissing the nape of her neck. It was part of a pattern of sexual harassment and assault, that earlier the same day had seen him comment on her breasts and rub his erection on her thigh.

    (I cannot access the rest of the article, but I have heard that sort of thing goes on perpetrated by non English NHS)

    In fact , even female patients have been victims as well.

    1. When I began grammar school, I went up on the train to London Bridge every day, wearing school uniform. I can’t tell you the number of times my bottom was pinched or my boobs were groped. (I was quite well developed at a young age.) The perpetrators were business men in pin striped suits etc. I became adept at aiming my school bag towards tender areas.
      The trains were always packed solid so it didn’t matter which part of the train you boarded. One girl in my year was molested by a vicar; she had the presence of mind to pull the emergency chain and he was removed.

      1. The problem women have is that they never strike hard enough.
        I taught self defence classes to a local school for blind girls. Getting them to knee/punch an attacker properly was the Devil’s own job.
        There was a tipping point where they got the idea, but the effort to get them there was very surprising. Not the weaker sex, the gentler sex.

        1. My school bag/case was made of tough leather. It hurt- I saw a couple of blokes wince! Good.
          Funnily enough, I am a gentle person normally.

          1. Wince?
            Not good enough. Double up and groan is what’s required. You need to have time to get away.

          2. Packed trains, not much swing room and nowhere to run until disembarking at London Bridge.

          3. Heel down shin, slammed into the top of his foot. You can be right next to the bastard and it will be a bolt from the blue.
            The higher the heel the more effective.
            Stilettoes are ideal, but be prepared to lose your footwear.
            It’s unlikely you would be chased the pain would be excruciating.

          5. Was that all?
            No wonder you attracted the perverts. };-))
            Thick lace up shoes, used as described, are still a lot more effective than your satchel.

      2. When I was a student nurse , I had just left the hospital gates to go shopping ( nurses quarters in those days) one of the policemen who had been in the area , called out .. Hey nursie , I have got something for you… and he produced his erect todger ..

        He had a problem and did it often with others .. a serial flasher.

        2. Ye gods- they were everywhere. But I have to say that most of the men I have known have been decent and protective blokes.
          We had an issue once at uni when there was someone stalking girls and harassing them. After late lectures it could be quite scary walking back to the Res or the bus stop.
          The lads got together and several of them would wait outside lecture halls etc and escort us. We hadn’t asked them to do this but it was welcomed.

    2. One very quick and dirty slice with a scalpel would solve that problem forever.

      “Sorry Guv’, me ‘and slipped”

    3. “I cannot access the rest of the article”
      Whew, probably for the best, it sounds like one of those ‘bodice ripping’ paperbacks by Harold Robbins!

    4. And the sexual harassers will not be white and British, I guarantee, from my own life experience.

  84. Ben Wallace sending antitank wepons to Ukraine.
    Will there be training, or is this just an empty gesture, a form of bellicose virtue-signalling?
    Mistake, IMHO.

    1. 1 They probably won’t work as expected.
      2 The Russians will then know they don’t.
      The whole point of “MAD” was that you didn’t want to test it.
      Our idiots will test their weaponry and show how it works (ish) and let the enemy know its limitations.
      Good play chaps, pip, pip tally ho!

    2. FORHOLDET RUSSLAND – UKRAINA
      19:58 Britene sender panservernvåpen til Ukraina Storbritannias forsvarsminister Ben Wallace sier de vil sende defensive panservern-våpen til Ukraina som svar på det han kaller «økende truende oppførsel» fra Russland.
      Wallace sier disse våpensystemene er ment å brukes til selvforsvar og at de ikke utgjør en trussel mot russerne, melder nyhetsbyrået Reuters.

      1. BUT
        The presenter makes one think Gary Lineker might have merit.
        Dreadful.
        Actually, worse than dreadful!

    2. Now there was a man that we are unlikely to see the like of again on the bbc, apart from edited repeats.

      1. I wonder if he had a “grooming-gang phase” and if it overlapped with his “getting into religion” phase. And, was he a regular supporter of Blackburn Rovers? Have any of his relatives been subject to terrible racial abuse at any Lancashire cricket club?

  88. Sod it.
    I’m off to bed. A run to Derby tomorrow morning to clear an old settee from Stepson’s flat, do some cleaning up and meet someone from his landlord, SAHA, to point out a few things that need attention.

    T’Lad’s coming back with me as I may have located some old bricks he needs for his workshop extension, as well as him being offered some by a friend.

    1. Good luck, sleep well, wake refreshed.

      Oh, and by the way, there’s a few ton of verge to shift, if you’re at a loose end.
      }:-))

    1. Interesting piece. I take issue with:”Now that the crusades against Islam have run their course,” given its ideology one day they may be forced to restart….

  91. Talking of the production of erect todgers … this happened to me on about the seconnd week at Queen Victoria Junior School in North Shields … autumn term 52/53. Desks were in pairs and extended quite some way back. In the corridors between desks, Mr Mountain would walk with his big stick … and you wouldn’t want to suffer from his readiness to use this stick on the boys’ hands (the girls were in an adjacent school).

    Attending the talk at the front, suddenly I got a dig from the next boy, who I notice had shown some concern to often comb his greasy hair. He signalled down to his lap and there was, rather substantial for a boy of 8/9, his erect and exposed todger. At home he may well have shared a bed with sisters (good luck there), which was not uncommon there ar that time. Also concerning was the sight of his comb, which was crawling with many well-fed nits. My mother got me moved next day and within a few weeks I was moved up a year to Mr Gay’s class. I have a class photo for the summer of 53 – there were 49 of us in the class photo ,,, 48 white boys and a non-white called Stanley Aritaki.

    Happy days. The Head was an ex-Cambridge cox in the Boat Race. He often informed us of the overnight score from the England v. Australia test match. I recall Mr Mountain was a rare bird – a holder of a Newcastle United season ticket. One Monday he told us that Ncle had secured a draw with the reigning First Division (joint) champions, Arsenal, with a late equaliser at St James Park – score 2 -2 . North Shields then had still quite a sprinkling of bomb sites.

    The school is now gone, replaced by housing …. There are a lot fewer children in the older part of the town nowadays.

    2. Would that ‘Aritaki’ be one Stanley Arataki who still lives in North Shields? (courtesy of BT online directory)

  92. Monitoring change in Association Football.

    I first watched Ncle in 53/54.

    In 53/54 there were 22 Teams in Division 1. How many of the 22 are amongst the 20 teams now in the Premier League … the answer is NINE (Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Spurs, Burnley, Newcastle, and the bottom team, Liverpool.

    Of the other 13 teams, 8 are now in the Championship, and 5 are in Division 1.

    In 53/54, London/Home Counties had 4 teams out of 22 in First Division; today they have 8 teams out of 20 in the Premier League.

    1. I have always found/ find Wendyball utterly boring until recently – when my 15 year old grandson started playing …

      1. Virtually none of the players in the Premier Division have any connection at all with the towns, cities or places for whose teams they play.

        How about a residential qualification which says that any player in, say, Manchester United should have lived for at least ten years within 50 miles of the centre of Manchester?

      2. Virtually none of the players in the Premier Division have any connection at all with the towns, cities or places for whose teams they play.

        How about a residential qualification which says that any player in, say, Manchester United should have lived for at least ten years within 50 miles of the centre of Manchester?

    3. Personally, Lewis, I don’t give a flying for the Wendyballers – overpaid, full of their own importance and supported by lunatic fans, who pay untold sums to finance this charade,

      If everyone of those lunatic fans, just stopped, for one year, going to matches, you would suddenly see order restored and Wendyball may become a national sport again – remember 12 months is all it will take.

  93. Good evening, NoTTLers!

    It’s not just May who was Treasonous, Boris is doing nothing to stop our forces being used to jackboot into Poland:

    “The new German Chancellor Herr Scholz, declaredly keen on setting up a Federal EU state, evidently cannot tolerate that a member state should give supremacy to its own national laws over EU law.

    So now Poland is caught in a nutcracker, from East and West. Somewhat reminiscent of 1939, when Hitler and Stalin both invaded the country under the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact.

    And if things get really sticky on Poland’s Western front, British troops have been amalgamated with German troops, so will be helping the Germans this time, unlike in 1939.”

    Boris needs castrating, at the very least. For the full article:

    https://campaignforanindependentbritain.org.uk/poland-under-pressure-from-east-and-west/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=poland-under-pressure-from-east-and-west

    1. I don’t yet know much about Herr Scholz.

      But I do not like what I’ve seen so far.

  95. I simply cannot figure out what is going on in this country anymore. There is no respect for our history, no respect for the Monarchy, yes, other stuff has come into play. Are there no any other people who respect our country, history and Queen?
    When I lived in the US I obeyed the laws, respected the Constitution and stood up for the National Anthem.
    Has to be said though that the US is in as big a mess as the UK…. and no I am not referring to the President. What is happening now has been building up for a long time.
    Treat people with respect and you will get it back in spades.

        1. He played for Leicester City. Walkers crisps are made there so Lineker is a sort of talisman for the city.

          As with anyone associated with football he is grossly overpaid along with other ‘stars’ and ‘talent’ at the BBC. By contrast, today’s top players expect £400,000 per week in wages. Yup, we live in a mad world. (Mo Salah wage demand at Liverpool).

    2. In 20 years of overseas work in the gas and oil industry, (Africa, Mid East, Asia) I have often met people who are envious of the Premier League and often follow English teams. I have yet to hear: “Aren’t you lucky to have the BBC”.

      “Envied round the World?” Yeah, OK…

  101. Just watched a You Tube clip with Danny Kaye and Louis Armstrong- I love Danny Kaye. MH has just put on OUR song- We Have All the Time in the World- John Barry.

  102. Back from open mic. Not enough drinkers, but the musicians were spectacular. Got to applaud and tell them how good they are, I’ve discovered how vain they are, but I can live with that. G’night everyone.

    1. Time to reform the Lords – hereditaries ONLY. kick the rest out and give them a chamber in Carlisle, until they’ve all kicked that proverbial bucket.

  104. Good morning, lovely people and God bless. At 01:09, I’m off to my bed.

    We shall reconvene in the morning.

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