Friday 11 February: What energy suppliers mean by ‘flexibility’ is freedom to charge more

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

696 thoughts on “Friday 11 February: What energy suppliers mean by ‘flexibility’ is freedom to charge more”

    1. Morning Bob. Yes it looks like it was all arranged. Old complaints and impossible demands. My guess for her replacement is Basu. Not to worry about Dick of course. She will retire with a great wodge of cash in payment for services rendered whils she was in office!

      1. ‘Morning Araminta and all! I find the whole situation very odd. How on earth can an elected nobody like Khan have the means to sack the head of the Metropolitan Police?

        1. Morning Sue. I am in agreement with you. That’s partly why I think it was arranged. Dick agreed to go for a consideration!

          1. Morning, Minty and Sue. Whilst I reckon there is a strong element of truth in what you say, the official reply to that will no doubt be: “She was not sacked. Khan expressed his loss of confidence in her, as a result of which she decided to step down.”

          2. Morning Elsie. Yes. As Sue points out he doesn’t have the power to sack her! They’ve agreed it between them.

          3. ‘Morning Elsie! I’m just very tired with nobodies being in charge of National issues!

          4. Morning, Sue.
            There seems to be an endless supply of senior nobodies, all totally lacking in any kind of competence. Was it always thus? Where did all thse who won and ran the Empire go?

          5. There was a time when those ‘in charge’ were competent, experienced and had a fair bit of common sense! Nowadays, not so much! I find it quite depressing.

          6. Is it the rise of the all Graduate career path? Pretty well nobody with hands-on experience from the bottom of the organisation gets to the top these days.

          1. Certainly filling out on the ‘Crime’ part of that abbreviation – probably Commissioning a lot as well, J.

          4. PCC in this instance means Police and Crime Commissioner.

            I am Lay Chairman of our village PCC but ours translates as Parochial Church Council – responsible for the church fabric.

          6. There have been over 100 stabbing deaths in each year he has been in power, with many 1000s of others wounded.

  5. Paranoia and alarmism: Canada truckers’ ‘intelligence reports’ hint at mindset. 11 february 2022

    Leaders of the Ottawa “Freedom Convoy” protest have warned fellow protesters that the risk of violence is growing, amid speculation the police may move to disperse the nearly two-week occupation of Canada’s capital.

    Daily “intelligence reports” compiled by protest leaders and seen by the Guardian – as well as public comments by the organisers – have grown increasingly alarmist in recent days.

    While the reports include misinformation, and should not be taken as credible intelligence, they nevertheless offer an insight on the occupiers’ conspiratorial mindset.

    This is a full slagging off of the Canadian Truckers. I’ve always been impressed by the Guardian’s ability to switch from the Friend of the People to its opposite when the pressure comes on!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/10/canada-truckers-protest-mindset-intelligence-reports

    1. Like the Guardian knows the difference between misinformation and truth! Sanctimonious tosseurs!

  9. Good morrow, Gentlefolk.

    Wishing Phizzee both a Happy Birthday and a good result from the op.

    3. I’ll stop off at my favourite brown bar on the way home and raise a pint of London Pride for him – birthday and op!

    4. Happy Birthday Phizzee! Probably not quite the way you wanted to celebrate but..hey…go for it! 💕😘

    2. That’s classed by GDP. The figure that increases automatically with population because, inexplicably, ‘benefits’ are classed as one of its constituents.

  12. Sic Semper Tyrannis. February 9, 2022 by Pat Lang.

    Since this AM we have been under a massive and sustained attack on our offshore server. The originator is yet unknown.

    I posted about my inability to get through to Pat Lang’s Blog yesterday. This was the reason. We can be pretty sure of one thing. It’s not the Russians!

    https://turcopolier.com/ddos-attack/

  13. There’s a stile war happening….

    Leave stiles in place on England’s ancient paths

    Sweet especial rural scene: a stile over a limestone wall near Bradwell, Derbyshire

    Sweet especial rural scene: a stile over a limestone wall near Bradwell, Derbyshire

    SIR – One of the lovely things about the English countryside is its ancient paths, with stiles over fences and cantilevered flat stones forming steps over dry-stone walls. If Natural England wants to do away with such things (“Replace stiles with gates to help ramblers, farmers told”, report, February 9) it should change its name to Unnatural England.

    Hamish Watson,

    Marlborough, Wiltshire

    SIR – Your Leading Article (February 9) says that Natural England “aspires to a landscape criss-crossed with level paths like asphalt promenades in a municipal park”. This is not so.

    Our Countryside Code for land managers advises how to make the countryside more accessible for those with different abilities and needs, including the use of clear signage, keeping rights of way accessible, and alternatives to stiles.

    It was developed with other organisations, including the National Farmers’ Union, the Country Land and Business Association and the Ramblers, and is consistent with the Government’s National Disability Strategy and 25 Year Environment Plan.

    Stiles can prevent people from enjoying the countryside. However, we also recognise that alternatives may not be practical, and stiles are part of the fabric of the countryside.

    Amanda Craig,

    Director of People and Nature

    Natural England

    London SW1

    1. Natural England appears to know nothing about rural England.

      Replacing stiles with gates will allow idiots to leave them open (for those following) without realising that to do so, will allow livestock to roam at will and possibly put itself in danger.

      Stiles fulfil a purpose; wake up at the ‘woke’ back.

      1. When I worked as a farm labourer, just as irritating were those who closed the gates we had deliberately left open so we could move livestock around without having to be at the front of the herd as well as at the back… well-meaning, but sheesh!!
        Morning, Tom. :-D)

        1. ‘Morning, Paul. Having been brought up in rural Norfolk, we were always taught to, “Leave it as you find it.”

          The countryside played a huge part in our early education.

    2. My wife has short legs and struggles to get over stiles. Kissing gates are easier, but all those around me suffer from the ground’s being worn down and filling with water then mud.

      I do a lot of jogging on these paths and prefer stiles but my wife prefers kissing gates.

      The best is a spring-loaded gate.

  14. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Further broadsides for BG:

    SIR – Last week I got two texts and two emails from British Gas saying that two unrequested appointments had been made to install a smart meter. I have consistently said that I don’t want one.

    I thought the texts were scams and deleted them. The emails had my customer number and threatened a £30 fine if I was not at home when an engineer called. There was no easy means of cancelling. Eventually I got through to a real person at British Gas and she said she had cancelled the appointments.

    Yesterday morning I got a 7am text warning me to make sure the engineer could access the meters. Perhaps this engineer might be better employed fixing broken boilers.

    Irene Macleod
    Bishop Auckland, Co Durham

    SIR – I have a British Gas smart meter that has not worked for three years. During this time I have spoken to many British Gas “advisers”, all of whom have promised to rectify the problem. One even promised to send me a new meter, which he never did.

    In a 24-hour period this week, I spoke to three people in the customer service department. I waited many times for them to take action. Each time the action taken was to cut me off. It is impossible to receive any help or service from British Gas.

    Mike Bird
    Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire

  15. Morning all

    Slavery in China

    SIR – The long-running controversy over the stone memorial of Tobias Rustat (“Rewriting our history should be ‘difficult’”, Comment, February 10), a major benefactor to Jesus College, Cambridge and long since dead, has been joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has said that it should be removed.

    I look forward to receiving the benefit of his wisdom on the question of whether the college should continue to be in receipt of funds from the Chinese Communist Party, which is enslaving thousands of China’s own citizens as I write.

    This fact seems to have eluded the students who find Rustat’s memorial “distressing”, or are they simply left unmoved by the plight of the human beings who are still with us?

    Jeremy M J Havard,

    Chichester, West Sussex

    1. This is the Arch Bish who was apparently rejected initially and claims to ‘speak in tongues’!!

  17. SIR – I have worked my whole life in an operating theatre and must take issue with Don Haines’s view that long waiting lists are caused by consultants working in the private sector (Letters, February 10).

    Most consultants overfulfil their obligations to the NHS and work in the private sector in their own time. It is their choice whether they mow the lawn or do a private operation.

    As a retired clinical director with experience in three NHS trusts, I can also affirm that it is very rare for theatres to lie idle during the working day, so more consultant time is not the answer. In fact, there were many days when I had to disappoint surgeons looking for extra operating time.

    It is too simplistic to spotlight a single cause of long waiting lists. The full package of infrastructure and personnel is required, but this needs new money. If this money comes from the private sector, with more people providing for their own healthcare, everyone will benefit.

    Dr Michael Pegg,

    Esher, Surrey

    1. On the contrary, Dr Pegg; the money is there but the waste has yet to be driven out of the NHS by reform. Do we really need all those highly-paid diversity managers? Of course not.

    2. How about using the theatres 24/7, not just working hours? Then – shortage of beds in ICU, shortage of cleaners, overtime payments for medical staff…

  20. I wonder if Dick has applied for the position of head of the National Crime Agency?
    If Hogan-Howe is one of the favourites, she must be in with a good chance.

  21. Kids Company operated high-risk business model, says Charity Commission. Jemma Crew – Evening Standard – 10 February 2022.

    The former charity Kids Company operated a “high risk business model”, according to a regulator’s report which said there was mismanagement and alleged that records were destroyed.

    The Charity Commission (CC) said the celebrity-backed charity for vulnerable youngsters relied heavily on grants and donations from key fundraisers and donors, and its low reserves meant it was more vulnerable to external pressures.

    There’s not really that much risk when the Government is funding you and the Prime Minister will bail you out with taxpayers cash if you go bankrupt!

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/kids-company-charity-commission-camila-batmanghelidjh-b981924.html

        1. Well, comparatively, certainly. I prefer Georgian to Art Deco, but Art Deco to pretty much everything built in the last 50 years.

    2. It was a straight forward con-trick and scam. Cameron’s abysmal bad judgement in bailing it out was replicated a few years later when, after losing office, he got involved with the Aussie factoring scam, Greenswill

  22. A much-decorated RAF Pathfinder is no more. They really were a truly remarkable breed:

    Wing Commander Tom Horton, Pathfinder pilot who marked out targets for his comrades in Bomber Command – obituary

    Using the new blind bombing aid ‘Oboe’, he flew missions during the Battle of the Ruhr and to V-1 launch sites

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    10 February 2022 • 4:30pm

    Wing Commander Tom Horton, who has died aged 101, was one of the last surviving highly decorated New Zealand pilots who flew during the Second World War. He completed more than 100 missions and was decorated three times for his gallantry.

    In July 1943, Horton joined Bomber Command’s Pathfinder Force to fly the Mosquito with 105 Squadron, which was equipped with the recently developed blind-bombing aid “Oboe”.

    The system was based on the transmission of a radio beam from ground emitters located on the east coast and aimed at the target. The specially equipped Mosquitoes flew along this beam to the target before dropping markers and flares for the main bomber force.

    The pilot had to hold the required heading, speed and height while the navigator listened for the radio signal which determined the moment to release the markers or the bomb. This demanding effort often had to be conducted under enemy fire when the aircraft had to be held steady.

    Horton had joined No 105 at the height of the Battle of the Ruhr when the major industrial cities in the area came under attack. On September 3, Bomber Command mounted a large raid on Berlin and Horton and his colleagues dropped flares on “spoof” targets to divert German night fighters from the main force. Later in the month he marked targets at Aachen and Gelsenkirchen before he flew three raids on the Cologne power station at Knapsack.

    During the winter of 1943 and early 1944 he dropped flares and target indicators over the recently identified V-1 flying bomb sites under construction in the Pas-de-Calais and near Cherbourg. Horton was to return to these sites in the spring of 1944.

    The large steelworks at Witten and Solingen received attention from Horton before enemy airfields were attacked in early 1944. When “Oboe” marking was not required, Horton dropped 500lb bombs.

    By the spring of 1944, crews of 105 Squadron were marking major rail centres in France in preparation for the Allied landings in June. Ammunition dumps and the large gun batteries on the Channel coast became a priority as D-Day approached. On the night of June 5-6 1944, Horton marked the rail centre at Boulogne to prevent Panzer reinforcements moving to the Normandy beachhead.

    After the first V-1 “doodlebug” had fallen on London on June 13, Horton, now a flight commander on the squadron, dropped target indicators over numerous launch sites, including those at Rimeux, Marquise and Thiverny, which were attacked by a force of Lancasters.

    In August, Horton was awarded a Bar to an earlier DFC when the citation emphasised his “great courage and determination”. Oil targets became a priority later in the year and Horton and his navigator, Lionel Poll DFC, used their Oboe equipment to mark them for the following bombers.

    On March 6 1945 Horton dropped flares and markers over the town of Wesel as a prelude to the Rhine crossings. An engine failed and he made a crash landing on an emergency landing strip in East Anglia, the second similar emergency in a few weeks. On April 25 1945, Horton flew his final operation when the target was Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest” at Berchtesgaden. It was his 84th Pathfinder mission and 111th wartime operation. Shortly afterwards he was awarded the DSO.
    Thomas Welch Horton, the son of a farmer, was born in Masterton, New Zealand, on December 29 1919 and was educated at Wairarapa High School. During his work as a law clerk he learnt to fly with the civil reserve before joining the Royal New Zealand Air Force in October 1939.

    After completing his training as a pilot, he left for England in April 1940 and converted to the Fairy Battle before joining 88 Squadron. For the next few months, he flew coastal patrols before the squadron re-equipped with the twin-engine Blenheim bomber.

    Horton flew anti-shipping patrols over the North Sea and attacked enemy harbours. On August 28 1941 a large force of Blenheims attacked shipping in Rotterdam harbour, where it met intense anti-aircraft fire and a force of enemy fighters. Weaving between cranes and ships’ masts, Horton selected a ship under construction as the target for his 500lb bombs. His was one of the few aircraft to escape unscathed.

    Over the following months, he attacked coastal convoys before the squadron exchanged its Blenheims for the American-built Boston. Industrial targets and power stations were attacked in northern France. On three occasions, his aircraft was badly damaged by anti-aircraft fire and he had to return to base on one engine. In August 1942 he was awarded the DFC, when he was described as “an excellent captain”.

    After a tour as an instructor, he joined 105 Squadron. Horton returned to New Zealand in 1946 and a year later accepted a permanent commission in the RAF. After several staff appointments, he was appointed in December 1952 to command 203 Squadron in Coastal Command.

    The squadron operated Lancasters, but within a few weeks it began re-equipping with the American-built Neptune maritime patrol aircraft. Operating from Topcliffe in Yorkshire, it patrolled the North Atlantic and the Norwegian Sea.

    In 1955, Horton went to the Air Ministry and later served as the senior air staff officer in Gibraltar. In 1964 he was assigned to the Pentagon in a Nato appointment, and he retired in December 1966.

    Horton decided to settle in the US and worked in real estate management and development in northern Virginia, and later in Florida.

    Late in life, when he was asked about his time in the Second World War, he said: “I was just trying to stay alive and doing what I was damn well told. I guess that is really just life, isn’t it? At least 50 per cent of life is just luck.”

    Until late in his life he enjoyed watching CNN or reading. American politics and world affairs fascinated him, but he was pessimistic about the way the world was going. He commented: “I’ve been thinking about reading [George Orwell’s] Nineteen Eighty-Four again, because I think we’re getting very close to what poor Winston Smith experienced.”

    Tom Horton married an Englishwoman, Beris, in 1943; she died in 2011. They had a son and a daughter.

    Tom Horton, born December 29 1919, died December 6 2021

    1. Coastal Command strike crews had a 1 in 6 chance of surviving a tour. His later ops were safer, but he was right about luck. RIP, a brave man.

    2. He must have had a charmed life to survive flying Battles – a dreadful, underpowered light bomber nicknamed “the flying coffin”.

  23. Good morning, all.

    So – Dick Head of the Yard has gone. I await details of her seven figure payoff and her induction into the House of Lords. And I wonder who her black/slammer replacement will be…..

    1. A very hard-nosed black heterosexual male might actually be ideal.

      He could put an end to all the “Pride” nonsense and reinstate stop and search of young black males much more easily than any LGBT white of whatever gender.

        1. If the BofE can appoint a foreigner as Governor I am sure the Met could. I am willing to bet there will be some in America who would love the chance.

  24. Good morning all.
    Back to a bright and frosty start today with -3°C in the yard and the hidden rising sun illuminating the trees behind the Pig of Lead.

  25. ‘Morning All

    Convoy!!

    The bastards can’t frighten the truckers so they threaten their children,oh and they’ve stolen the money again!!

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/mama-bear-warns-justin-trudeau-ottaway-mayor-touch-one-single-child-will-personally-gather-mini-vans-full-soccer-moms-will-drive-ottawa-video/

    https://twitter.com/AndrewLawton/status/1491905305009131521?s=20&t=5VPgQ_ViWiOLjKOTuiqoO05DU1e1nPmEl6wz_Sl4IF0

    https://twitter.com/tim_hidden/status/1491694720699219969?s=21

    The Good Guys keep on rolling……

    https://twitter.com/ccryptonaire/status/1491419501984108546?s=21

    Tow this mofo

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_HgjekCtOo&ab_channel=Dr.SteveTurley

    Call to veterans

    https://twitter.com/IanMcna85956076/status/1491878461526454277?s=20&t=GPKkw3j88CsPpIi0HfvPlw
    Edit
    Yay,good for them!!
    https://twitter.com/RebelNewsOnline/status/1491954672281739281?s=20&t=5XVyCYNpmqrTFvMQxFrmBg

    1. The authorities are doing everything in their power to try to provoke the truckers into violence.

  29. An interesting movement re Covid vax side effects.
    French acting quickly, there really must be something afoot.
    https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/French-senate-to-debate-Covid-vaccine-side-effects-after-public-worry

    By Hannah Thompson
    The French Senate is to discuss the issue of Covid vaccine side-effects after a petition calling for an inquiry into the subject was lodged.
    It comes despite the petition gathering only 33,000 signatures, far below the 100,000 needed to secure a debate in the Senate chamber.
    The speed at which the petition, the third in recent weeks on the subject of vaccine side-effects, attracted signatures was said to be a factor.
    The petition on the Senate e-petition website called for a senatorial inquiry commission on vaccination side-effects. It was opened on January 12 and has so far received 33,623 signatures.
    Numerous claims cited by the petition author include a reminder that in December 2021, medical authority ANSM told the Senate that it “appeared worried” about the high number of reports of Covid-19 vaccine side-effects during a Senate hearing.
    It also said that authorities such as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are among the global agencies to have published reports of severe side effects.
    Christelle Ratignier-Carbonneil, director of the ANSM, told the Senate in a hearing on December 1, 2021, that the increase in reports of treatment-related side-effects in France is “not at all abnormal” as it comes in the context of some 52 million people receiving a full vaccination schema. She did not at any stage mention being “worried” by the level of reports of side effects.
    This appears to contradict the claims of the author of the petition.
    The ANSM has stated that “since the start of the vaccination campaign, 80,775 cases of adverse events have been reported across Bordeaux, Marseille, Strasbourg and Toulouse. In total, more than 97,463,100 injections have been performed as of December 30, 2021”.
    It added that “the majority of adverse events were to be expected and not serious”.
    Additionally, the EMA states:
    “More than 735 million doses of vaccines have been given to people in the EU and European Economic Area (EEA), as of early January 2022.
    “The authorised COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. They were evaluated in tens of thousands of participants in clinical trials and have met EMA’s scientific standards for safety, efficacy and quality.
    “The safety of COVID-19 vaccines is continuously monitored and evaluated.
    “The vast majority of known side effects of COVID-19 vaccines are mild and short-lived. Serious safety problems are extremely rare.”
    Online petition platform
    The e-petition Senate website enables citizens to set up their own petitions, with parliament bound to debate them when they reach more than 100,000 signatures.
    This recently happened with the case of Morgan Keane, the man who was killed by a hunter while in his own back garden. A petition calling for stricter regulations around hunting reached the 100,000 signature threshold and prompted the creation of a still-ongoing investigation and campaign.

    The topic has been identified as being “in particular public interest”, reported Senate news site PublicSénat.

    1. “They (the vaccines) were evaluated in tens of thousands of participants in clinical trials and have met EMA’s scientific standards for safety, efficacy and quality.” Many of the mice survived.

  31. Modern Life……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c37e72bcdd713f5161a233d746c5622aafcffdda879d2c8c11784924c22db227.jpg

    https://twitter.com/databased_01/status/1491741532222726146?s=21

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2275c8cb88f41ca80a41614cc7a40f9c54a1a92914f80c8a1f9b5cb3a415e2e4.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c589ef8a234a6f769e74dc588e05f59df72787140be7390ed9ab4ad488b1429.jpg

    https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/098/281/257/original/e5dab317bfc4ee43.png

    1. When the devs told me ‘that’ll take about 30 minutes’ and 3 days later they were still going the next time this was suggested I asked them to detail exactly what would need to be done, in order. They complained it would take too long, and would be easier to just get on with it.

      Then I said ok, any time over 30 minutes is unpaid without series of timings and costings.

      After the 40 minute brainstorm they realised they’d need about a 48 hours as a minimum, compressed working solidly I took 100 hours, or 3 weeks to the board for budget (based on 6 hour days, 4 days a week). We came in with a day to spare.

    2. Freedom to pillage under age females of what ever race and class..

      No punishment when seen to be weilding machetes and large knives .

      Halal meat courtesy of Sainsbury etc ,

      Special protection status given because of their religion .

      Freedom to destroy our history.. yet they are walking the streets of of a so called civilised country ..

      The abiility to pester women , and have a say so in the governance of the UK.

    4. If ever there was an advertisement to entice hordes of disease-carrying scum to come and suck on the teat of the UK taxpayer, that is it.

  34. https://twitter.com/CCryptonaire/status/1491419501984108546?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1491419501984108546%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefaultf%3Dnottlt_i%3D211920https3A2F2Fnttl.blog2F3Fp3D2119t_u%3Dhttps3A2F2Fnttl.blog2Ffriday-11-february-what-energy-suppliers-mean-by-flexibility-is-freedom-to-charge-more2Ft_e%3DFriday201120February3A20What20energy20suppliers20mean20by20E28098flexibilityE2809920is20freedom20to20charge20moret_d%3DFriday201120February3A20What20energy20suppliers20mean20by20E28098flexibilityE2809920is20freedom20to20charge20moret_t%3DFriday201120February3A20What20energy20suppliers20mean20by20E28098flexibilityE2809920is20freedom20to20charge20mores_o%3Ddefaultversion%3D36d86d847b1173b5b939b94bc7be6e80

    1. Grattis på Födelsedagen, Philip. Hope it all goes well for you and that you return to this column with your intrinsic fervour for vigorous debate undiminished. You better had, you little sod! 😉👍🏻🥂🎂

  36. Nurses ‘sacked for speaking out about trans patients on single-sex wards’

    NURSES have been sacked for speaking out about trans patients on single-sex wards, Parliament has heard.

    Speaking in the House of Lords, Baroness Nicholson warned that the dignity, privacy and safety of patients was being “diminished significantly” by NHS policies that allow male-born patients who self-identify as women to be placed on female wards. Arguing for people to be allocated a hospital bed based on their birth sex, the Tory peer said that the issue is now affecting the ability of nurses to do their job.

    Medics are “inhibited” from speaking out for fear of being branded “bigots” or being sacked, Lady Nicholson said. “I have met several nurses who have lost their jobs because of this,” she added.

    “A doctor says that he no longer feels able to make comments about sex and gender. He recently delivered a baby, he said it was a girl and he was accused of transphobia.”

    She also highlighted the case of a 14-year-old girl who refused a cervical smear as her mother had requested a female nurse and the person who was due to carry it out was “very clearly a natal male”.

    Lady Nicholson raised her concerns over the provision of single sex wards as the House of Lords continued its scrutiny of the Health and Care Bill. She highlighted an NHS England policy that states that trans people should be placed “according to their presentation: the way they dress, and the name and pronouns they currently use”, rather than their biological sex at birth.

    “Traditionally female patients in the NHS and in private hospitals have been allocated beds in single-sex wards accommodating only women patients,” she said. “Transgenderism, and I speak as a woman, has undermined that provision with the 2019 NHS guidance authorising self-selection of patient gender on arrival in hospitals, something neither enshrined in law nor backed by public demand.

    “Yet Parliament and our ministers have consistently declared that women both need and should have privacy, dignity and safety in their most vulnerable situations such as when sick or pregnant.” Responding, health minister Lord Kamall said NHS England was currently reviewing the single-sex accommodation guidance “to ensure that it remains focused on privacy, safety and dignity for all patients”.

    He added: “The NHS is committed to meeting its duties under the Equalities Act. This means that the rights and needs of women and trans women are equal in law.”

    Lady Nicholson’s amendment to the Bill was rejected.

    It is time that those in upper ranks of the human species developed some brains, as well as gonads, and said “Enough’s enough”. There should be three wards in hospitals: one for bona fide XX females; one for bona fide XY males; and a third for every category of weirdo that is not satisfied with what nature gave them. This could then be extended to sports, with separate categories in each event for those described above.

    1. They try to put transwomen in single rooms where possible, I think.
      I’m pretty sure that none of the sacked staff will have been ethnic minorities, unless they were wearing a cross of course. I’ve seen ethnic minority NHS staff openly laughing at a transwoman who was at the bedside of his dying mother.

      1. I visited a supermarket loo, necessity on a cold day .

        Oh my , oh my.. as I entered the Ladies , 2 loo rooms , a door opened , and a thing exited the door and said in a loud rusty voice to me . ” Don’t mind me sweetie “

        1. Drawing attention to oneself, the worst crime in Britain.
          You have probably shared the ladies with transwomen on many occasions in the past without noticing, because they wanted to pass unnoticed as women.

    2. They try to put transwomen in single rooms where possible, I think.
      I’m pretty sure that none of the sacked staff will have been ethnic minorities, unless they were wearing a cross of course. I’ve seen ethnic minority NHS staff openly laughing at a transwoman who was at the bedside of his dying mother.

    4. The rejection of Lady Nicholson’s amendment gives weight to the very necessary reformation of the House of Lords.

      I can offer alternatives but have done so ad nauseum and will only repeat if asked or if daft solutions are offered.

    5. Disagree.
      Two types of ward only: For those born with dciks, and for those born with cervix.

    1. “Among the least distinguished prime ministers of the last century, Major
      presided over a regime beset by scandal, sleaze and hypocrisy.      “- Oh yes!

        1. For all his faults, Johnson is a far more interesting character than Major – but that wouldn’t be difficult, anyway.

      3. It is amazing how the greatest failures as prime ministers such as John Major lack the self-awareness to know that they were failures and to retire from the limelight quietly.

        Is John Major completely unaware of the fact that after his three year adulterous betrayal of his loyal wife he is considered to be a pompous, self-righteous hypocrite?

        I do not apologise for borrowing a word from the deputy leader of the Labour Party: How dare this piece of scum give us any moral lectures?

  40. How on earth has Prince Charles tested positive for the virus .. second time he has had to isolate .. I just hope his mother is stronger than we think , we do not want grief to strike twice…

      1. I’m older than the PoW I have a wide range of potential comorbidities and take all sorts of pills each day (which is why my doctor – who has looked after me for over 20 years – advised me most strongly not to be vaccinated gene therapied) and I contracted Covid for the first time a week ago. I spent two days in bed and was very tired and that was that – I am now getting over a bit of a cold.

        We all are going to die at some time. As Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar put it Death is a necessary end and it will come when It will come. And as Cassius said: Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life/ Cuts off so many years of fearing death.

        And, as we know, John Keats was half in love with easeful death and Cleopatra embraced the asp as a bridegroom. .

      1. Friend of ours did that; slight scratchy throat … as a matter of curiosity … Bingo.
        They were supposed to be dining at Allan Towers about three days later. Surely my cooking isn’t THAT bad.

    3. I received a text at 11pm last night from (+44)7759129506 saying “NHS, you have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid. You must isolate and get a testing kit from (gives a link)”. The link makes no reference to NHS or official body and I don’t have any app or have signed up for anything related to Covid. I have blocked the number.
      Normally when I get a text from a mobile the (+44) is replaced by 0 so my suspicions were raised immediately
      This is obviously a scam so my advice is block the number now

      2. I had two texts about an App needing more verification and to tap the link. Since my phone doesn’t do apps (or links, for that matter), I deleted them.

    2. True dat – in fact, losing the confidence of Sadiq Khan is the best thing I’ve ever heard of Cressida Dick, come to think of it.

  43. I have just heard on the halal grapevine that my friend Mr Rashid is in charge of finding a replacement for Dick Head. of the Yard.

    ICOTY* has ruled herself out…..

    (*ICOTY – for newcomers – is my acronym for Dick Head’s little friend – Inspector Corner of the Yard)……

    2. Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Phizzee, happy birthday to yoUUUUUUU! (Capitals for the high note; apologies to the eardrums of anyone in the way.)

      We’re all rooting for you.

      1. Thank you. They sang to me in Theatre too. I laughingly told them to stop.

        The nurses also sang to me when they booked me in.

        1. Consultant Surgeon: “Just one corn toe?”
          Surgical Registrar: “Give it to me!”
          “As the SHO may I practice on Phizee?”

          Hope it’s not too late to celebrate your 58…..th!

          Happy Birthday!

      2. Thank you. They sang to me in Theatre too. I laughingly told them to stop.

        The nurses also sang to me when they booked me in.

    1. I think Davey seems to have missed out the word “financial” between “long standing” and “interest in climate change”?

        1. Eid Davey is a sandwich short of a picnic. A couple of years ago he sought mohamaden voter support by ‘fasting’ for ramadan. As you are no doubt aware, the mohamadans only fast during daylight hours and, as Eid had only joined in for one day, his contribution to a month long fast was missing out on one lunch.

          Davey’s pathetic effort was almost as bad as one of his party councillors, who realised it was only a daylight fast and showed a picture of his pre-dawn hearty breakfast…which included a bacon buttie.

          1. It was stunning, wasn’t it! I wonder what he’s planning this Eid, although I doubt he could top that for sheer willy-waving incompetence!

    2. Wot, you expected the BBC to present facts that undermine their demented agenda? An organisation that says ‘science is settled’ openly without a hint of comic irony?

  46. Last night Channel 5 screened a documentary on “The Queen’s Guards” a Year in Service”. The blurb said, “…the oldest regiment in the British Army, The Coldstream Guards.” Cue blood boiling and pressure rising. The Coldstream Guards may well be the oldest regiment in the British Army now. That is because frequent reorganisations have virtually destroyed the regimental system. The Royal Scots (aka “Right of the Line”, “Pontius Pilate’s Bodyguard”) were not only the oldest regiment in the Army but maybe the oldest regiment in the world, having served in Sweden before coming to Britain.
    Multiple amalgamations have nearly obliterated the regiments. The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) opted to disband rather than amalgamate.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJST-rAC7_M

    1. I was given to understand that the HAC (Honourable Artillery Company) is/are the oldest and first Army Regiment having been granted a Royal Charter in 1537 by Henry VIII.

          4. If that includes the ‘Beer Slide’ – riding down the twisting stairs in Armoury House, on a tea tray with a beer in one’s hand without spilling it, then yes, Sos the sports facilities are limitless.

          5. They still slide down the stairs at the Petwood on tea trays – or at least Charlie Brown did a few years ago.

        1. I’m not a pongo, Horace and maybe your regiment might have been The Queen’s Nit-picking Brigade but there are many formations that don’t declare as ‘Regiments’. !st Queen’s Dragoon Guards, 12/13th Lancers, Household Cavalry, spring to mind and whilst the Royal Engineers might engineer Royalty the HAC could accompany artillery and do so, quite honourably.

          1. Are you being rude to me? If so, why? If you read the article you’ll see that the company became a regiment, or vice versa. Nothing to do with me. I have no opinion on the names used.

          2. Never intentionally rude, Horace unless the other party is intentionally so.

            The Queen’s nit-picking brigade is a take of an ex-Brylcream Boy’s view of all the different names and appellations assigned to various bunches of soldiers who may or may not be regiments.

    1. And she was ditched and replaced by the treacherous, hypocritical, moralistic, holier-than-thou little fornicator, Major.

      1. And she was ditched and replaced by the treacherous, hypocritical, moralistic, holier-than-thou little fornicator, Major.

        Who attempted to take us “back to basics” !

    1. “The Met could do with a new revoling sign?”

      Would that be a new revolving sign, or a new revolting sign? Personally think rotating is a better adjective.

  49. Welcome to the Free Speech Union’s weekly newsletter, our round-up of the free speech news of the week. As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join and help us turn the tide against cancel culture.

    Book now! Free speech – from Socrates to social media

    Join us in London for a live public lecture, discussion, and book launch on Thursday, 17 March as Jacob Mchangama introduces his new book, Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media. Jacob is an author and lawyer, and the founder and director of Justitia, a Copenhagen-based think tank focusing on human rights, freedom of speech, and the rule of law. Jacob has written a widely lauded article published this week in Foreign Affairs on the global rise of censorship. In it he concluded: “Free speech is still an experiment, and in the digital age, no one can guarantee the outcome of providing global platforms to billions of people. But the experiment is noble – and worth continuing.”

    Following a short lecture, Jacob will be joined in conversation by Dr Joanna Williams, writer and director of the think tank Cieo, and Toby Young, general secretary of the FSU. The discussion will be chaired by Claire Fox, director of the Academy of Ideas.

    There will then be a wine reception, hosted by Basic Books. Tickets are £10/£5, with special rates for FSU Members who either use this link or enter the promo code FSUmember.

    Please book early, as we anticipate selling out. Founder Members should email events@freespeechunion.org if they would like a complimentary ticket.

    Brighton’s racial guilt lessons could amount to harassment

    Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has intervened over Brighton Council’s critical race theory training programme for teachers. Quoted in the Telegraph, our Chief Legal Counsel Bryn Harris said that teaching children that they are not “racially innocent” could easily “tip over into harassment of individual pupils”. He said that “the fact they’re being browbeaten and told how awful they are is likely to have an impact on [white] students. Certainly we’re seeing parents saying their kids are exhausted, defeated, depressed [over activist teaching on racism].” Writing in Spiked, Joanna Williams said critical race theory has no place being taught as fact in the classroom.

    Welbeck Primary School in Nottingham has been criticised by parents for making pupils write letters to their MP criticising Boris Johnson. Professor Frank Furedi, writing in the Mail, said pupils should be taught to think critically, not indoctrinated by activist teachers.

    Emily Schroeder, a former trainee teacher, wrote for the Critic about her decision to quit the training programme after encountering widespread indoctrination and woke ideology being forced on trainees, and then on students in schools. “I think of one assignment in particular, which marked the trainee teacher on how well [they] championed transgenderism in [their] classrooms”, she wrote.

    The Free Speech Union at two

    This month marks two years since the FSU was founded (more on that to follow in our monthly newsletter). Toby was interviewed by Peter Whittle of the New Culture Forum about our first two years, and he also spoke to Nigel Farage on the Talking Pints section of his 7pm GB News show.

    New law to gag Jimmy Carr as Government condemns comedian

    The campaign to cancel comedian Jimmy Carr continued this week, with Health Secretary Sajid Javid branding Carr’s Holocaust joke “horrid”. He urged viewers to “show these platforms what they think about Jimmy Carr by not watching or listening to him” which he said “will send him a very strong message”. Downing Street called the joke “deeply disturbing”. A Number 10 spokesman said it was “unacceptable to make light of genocide” and that the Government would be “toughening measures for social media and streaming platforms who don’t tackle harmful content”. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries suggested new legislation could criminalise airing jokes like Carr’s, which would see platforms such as Netflix held “to account”. One SNP councillor even said the audience should be prosecuted for laughing at his jokes.

    Suzanne Moore said no politician should be in the business of telling voters what they can laugh at: “The outrage around Carr’s material is disingenuous. He was once a tax avoider who has made all kinds of offensive jokes for years – if you don’t like him then don’t pay money to go and see him.”

    Various “anti-hate” groups have condemned the comedian, the Guardian reported. Reality TV star Paddy Doherty called for a police investigation, and David Baddiel said the joke was racist. On the other hand, Traveller Michael Marshall told Good Morning Britain Carr should apologise but not be persecuted.

    The Evening Standard reported that yet another Holocaust joke from Carr had “emerged”, printed in his 2021 book Before and Laughter: The Funniest Man in the UK’s Genuinely Useful Guide to Life (which you can buy here). The book defended the right of comedians to make jokes about the Holocaust.

    Professor Andrew Tettenborn of our Legal Advisory Council spoke to talkRADIO about the furore, a backlash which Leo Kearse said was mad and would only encourage self-censorship. “No one made you” watch Carr, wrote Sam Holmes in the Spectator. The Times asked if it would be the end of Carr’s career. Carr himself said the response to the joke showed that comedy is dying. He told an audience at a recent show:

    What I am saying on stage this evening is barely acceptable now. In ten years forget about it. You are going to be able to tell your grandchildren about seeing this show tonight. You will say, “I saw a man and he stood on a stage and he made light of serious issues. We used to call them jokes and people would laugh.”

    Legal updates: Captain Tom, offence, and hate

    Following the conviction of Joseph Kelly for an offensive tweet about Captain Sir Tom Moore, Joanna Williams warned that the Online Safety Bill would weaponise the taking of offence. Barrister Adam King said: “All manner of commonplace statements are now liable to cause gross offence to those to whom they relate – yet be completely unobjectionable to almost everybody else.” Sending a “knowingly false” message will become a criminal offence under new proposals for the Online Safety Bill.

    Sarah Phillimore, who recently succeeded in having a “non-crime hate incident” (NCHI) removed from her record, wrote in the Critic about how the police might adapt their behaviour following the Miller ruling that the College of Policing’s approach to NCHIs was unlawful.

    Joshua Rozenberg wrote for the Critic about hate crime proposals and responses to the Law Commission’s recent consultation. You can read our response to that consultation here.

    Bristol staff accused of trying to trick feminist student into being deported

    PhD student Raquel Rosario-Sánchez was in court this week suing Bristol University over the bullying from transgender activists which had targeted her during her time there. She has alleged that staff colluded with each other in an attempt to trick her into suspending her studies so she’d be forced out of the country when her visa expired.

    Meanwhile, Bristol has been ridiculed for a pronoun guide which includes tips on how to address students who identify as cats. “Someone who is catgender may use nya/nyan pronouns,” says a website that the guidance links out to. We were quoted in the Express on the story after we offered to defend any FSU member penalised for refusing to follow these new rules. Richard Littlejohn said militant trans rights activists are “determined to push the boundaries beyond reasonable limits and demonise anyone who dares to dissent”. Colin Wright argued in the Wall St Journal that the apparently “innocuous” question “What are your pronouns?” is really a demand for conformity with transgender ideology, and if you don’t subscribe to that ideology then you simply shouldn’t answer.

    Joanna Cherry MP will be representing our member Lisa Keogh in her case against Abertay University. You can donate to Lisa’s crowdfunder here.

    We have written to Professor Martin Jones, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Staffordshire University, in defence of our member Professor James Treadwell, a criminologist. He has been placed under investigation by the University after he engaged in the debate over gender self-identification and the risk it poses to female inmates in women’s prisons.

    The governing body of Gonville and Caius has voted against flying the Pride flag over the college, arguing that it’s a contested political symbol. However, students will be free to display flags, banners, and posters from their rooms for the first time, the Times reported.

    Adele was labelled a “TERF” (“trans-exclusionary radical feminist”) after saying she loved being a woman at the gender-neutral Brit Awards.

    Trans activists are editing the Wikipedia pages of their opponents, citing Pink News reports and removing attempts to balance articles, wrote Debbie Hayton in UnHerd.

    Trigger warnings

    Great art is supposed to be “triggering”, wrote Ella Whelan, as the rise of trigger warnings threatens artistic freedom. Colin Brazier lambasted Royal Holloway for applying a trigger warning to Oliver Twist.

    “Decolonisation” drive sees traditional specialisms abandoned

    Specialisms and whole subjects risk being lost as universities rush to “decolonise” and put identity politics front and centre in their curricula, wrote Dr Chris Newton in the Telegraph. “The underrepresentation of war and strategic studies is an observation that political and military scholars have been making for decades. In the US, a country where we have good data, studies have shown a considerable increase in the proportion of cultural and gender historians. Meanwhile, the share of military historians, at least up to 2015, remained between 2-3 per cent.”

    Joe Rogan apologises as Spotify tosses 100+ podcast episodes down the memory hole

    Joe Rogan has apologised for his past use of racist language after a video compilation of him using the N-word circulated online. Rogan pointed out that many of the clips had been taken out of context. Rogan is no racist, argued our founding director Inaya Folarin Iman in Spiked. Adam Coleman wrote in UnHerd:

    The outrage over Rogan isn’t coming from black people. It’s coming from members of the political and media establishment who have been trying to deplatform him for over a month. When warnings about “misinformation” didn’t do the trick, they pivoted to racism. But this isn’t about racism or even morality; it’s about control of information.

    Spotify has quietly removed over 100 episodes from his back catalogue. Trump said Rogan should “stop apologising”. The podcaster has reportedly been offered $100 million to move to Rumble, a platform linked to Trump.

    Damian Reilly said the real reason progressive culture warriors wanted to take down Rogan was his popularity with men. Tom Slater argued in Spiked that the campaign was driven by elite fear that “someone, somewhere, may be thinking for themselves”.

    Other news

    Channel 4 has been told to explain its use of gagging orders against staff.

    Campaigners against Edward Colston are now calling for a boycott of Thatchers Cider, on the grounds that its director joined the Society of the Merchant Venturers, which the Countering Colston pressure group said “has deep roots in the historical slave trade in Bristol”.

    GoFundMe blocks donations to Canadian trucking convoy

    GoFundMe has blocked donations to the Canadian Covid truck protesters, a decision described by Jordan Peterson as the “worst act of corruption” in Canada’s recent history. Brendan O’Neill said it was a classist attack on democracy. Free speech has been one of the chief casualties of the pandemic, argued Alexander Adams.

    Book banning in America

    Our US affiliate has warned of the dangers of the American Civil Liberties Union retreating from its once “unqualified defence of free speech”. Benjamin Schwarz and Jon Zobenica of the Free Speech Union US pointed to the ACLU’s case selection criteria, which require the ACLU to balance its commitment to freedom of speech with its pursuit of equality. The organisation once famously defended even the right of Nazis to hold a rally in a heavily Jewish Chicago suburb, Schwarz and Zobenica said.

    Students are beginning to organise against book banning in US schools. A Tennessee pastor led a book burning of supposedly “demonic” texts, including the Harry Potter and Twilight series.

    Nick Tyrone lambasted the caution of the modern publishing industry.

    Last chance: apply now

    If you’d like to get involved in our work, we still have three new posts available. Join our communications team as our Director of Digital Content and Marketing, or as our Communications Officer. We’re also seeking a Director of Data and Impact to help expand our membership base. Applications will be closing soon.

    Sharing the newsletter

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

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

    Best wishes,

    1. I suppose Martha Washington’s teapot is now under protective custody as the tea was grown and harvested by slaves.
      Does anyone dare to tangle with the Daughters of the American Revolution?

    2. Critical race theory is just criticism of race – or, simply put: racism. This is nothing new. The Left like dressing up their racism and bigotry by deflecting and blaming others.

          4. Yes. I think it was taken in 1945; one of Hilter’s bathrooms (presumably not in the bunker).

    2. MB loves Vim; as you can’t get it in the shops, I order a box of 8 at a time on the interwebby.
      Keeps him happy for a year or more.

      1. Very hard to get anything like that thse days.

        Ajax is available in yer France. We used to bring it back to Blighty – in the good old days, before the covid war.

      1. Both Ajax and Vim are made to the same formula (though one is Unilever and the other Procter & Gamble). Mum had an unfathomable obsession that Ajax was better than Vim. She was incandescent when I brought back Vim from the local Co-op instead of Ajax (since they had run out of Ajax) and she made me take it back!

    5. My mum used Vim. I’ve always been a reluctant housewife – just clean up before somebody comes……..

    2. There might be some hope, even the staunchly Trudeau worshipping cbc were speaking against him last night.
      One news segment showed the conservative leader calmly asking for an all party leader meeting to address ending the truckers protest, this was accompanied by the tin pot dictator ranting on about vaccine mandates and attacking the conservatives.

      Small steps but it is the first time that I have ever heard that woke lefty news propoganda channel say anything negative about Mr dress-up.

  53. An item on BBC Radio 4 Farming programme this morning drew attention to the fact that Animal protesters were obstructing trucks taking animals to market.
    A protestor stands in front of a lorry while others swarm round the truck taking photographs of the animals inside and people inside the cab of the truck. The police apparently are dealing with this in the same way as they initially dealt with the Insulate Britain protestors.

    2. Tempting us with over-processed soy muck didn’t do the trick, so they are going to bully the meat industry into submission.
      I do pay more for properly reared meat, and I’d pay more for a guarantee of humane slaughtering (eg no halal, small local slaughter houses). But that isn’t what we’ll get.

    5. The EU rules and regulations ensured that so many small local abattoirs closed and ended the short journy times for the animals. This should now be reversed and local abattoirs can return. If animals can be slaightered atr the farm so much the better. Remeber meat comes from grass & plants.

      1. Heavens, Johnny, do you really expect these lefty green things, have ever taken this into account?

        A resounding NOOOO!

  54. “The UK… now has the most free-flowing borders in the world – sending a clear message that we are open for business,” says Shapps.
    That will be news to everyone trying to import into the UK or to export to Europe. Small postal items held up at border for up to three weeks. Lorries routinely held up for hours while their paper documents are examined.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/60341316. (see 9:56)

    3. The blue sky wasn’t as blue as it could be hoped for at Kit Hill this morning, the sky was criss-crossed with dozens of contrails. Haven’t seen the like in 2 years.

        1. Oddly enough the only aircraft I noticed yesterday was at about 20,000′ and looked remarkably like a Tupolev TU-80, very distinctive slim craft. Maybe we have something similar, I wouldn’t know.
          Edit; inserted yesterday.

          2. What amazes me, Bill, is the sheer number of aircraft in the sky at any one time.

            You’d think that, using the greenies scale, that that lot would generate enough CO² to bringing the planet to a halt, but – it ain’t necessarily so.

          3. I have the same or similar, but I was on Kit Hill again with the dog and my phone isn’t that clever, would need the laptop at home.

    4. I think the postal items delay is largely down to Royal Mail. I sent several of our hedgehog calendars to the USA, Switzerland and Italy. The ones to Italy took six weeks to get there. I filled in a complaint form and a week later my Italian customer told me they’d arrived.

      1. Jeremy is now 82 and lives in the Loire region with his fourth wife, Sonya, a German woman. He is suffering from Parkinson’s Disease and has more or less given up travelling.

        I first met him in the 1960’s when he was in a show called Wait a Minim with my cousins Paul and Andrew Tracey. I love his songs and indeed he was a great inspiration to me when I started writing my own satirical songs which were not quite as successful as Jeremy’s!

    1. Oh dear oh dear – and just after the Welsh wazzock caught the plague. I am sure he’ll reverse any such decision.

  57. Gorgeous day. Bright yellow sun and very few clouds. No breeze at all. So the frost which began at 8 am is still there.

    1. Spent three hours outside in the warm sunshine finishing off cutting back the buddleija (started yesterday) and clearing up the bits. We now have several bags ready for the tip, a couple of boxes of kindling and some nice strong garden canes.

      1. I need to finish doing mine. I have completed one and half done another (the Black Knight), but there are four more to tackle. I hope it’s fine tomorrow and I’ll make an effort to get cracking.

        1. We have another to do – don’t know its name but it was here before we were (27 years) and is a lovely dark red but it hangs over the drive a bit. It’s not so vigorous as the self-sown pink one that I’ve done.

  58. Unbelievable (I did type stronger words but autocorrect is apparently a government censor).

    Two weeks ago the media and Trudeau were in a frenzy about a Canadian flag being hung over the shoulders of a Terry Fox statue by the extremist racist truckers. This week we hear that the Manitoba justice minister has decided not to prosecute the baying lefty mob that overturned and defaced a statue of Queen Victoria because they have arightto protest.

  59. Well I watched the new version of Dune last night and was quietly impressed. This is more than I can say about the previous version.

    1. That sounds promising. A difficult novel to put on the screen though. Where is it broadcast or whatever it is doing, Minty?

      1. It’s out on DVD Mola and in the cinema as well. It is Part One. Two is supposed to come out in a couple of years!

  60. Some US politicians are now calling for the US to invade Canada and break up the truckers blockade.

    I wonder what Putin will think of a big power invading a weak neighbour.

  62. Well what start to the day, 4 am I awoke for a visit to eh loo and my left eye was sealed shut. It’s been giving me the serious itch and been painfully achy for a couple of days.
    This morning at Ten thirty I went to the local minor injuries department. I considered and decided that I had no chance of seeing a rich sit around GP until at least the middle of next week. 7 people ahead of me when I sat down, just over an hour to wait, checked over and a chat also checked the ticker, and two prescriptions given to me. Home via the pharmacy and in doors again by 12:30. Where there’s a Will eh .

    1. “Where there’s a Will eh ….” one hopes it has been properly witnessed (a lawyer writes…)

      1. I must say as it’s the second time in 5 years I’ve been there and I was rather impressed. But I’ll keep that to my self. 😉

  63. Apropos the brouhaha about the Caliph of Londonistan “sacking” Dick Head of the Yard.

    He didn’t sack her. He just made it clear that he thought she was useless (a view widely shared) – and she resigned.

    Very similar to BPAPM, when Mayor, getting rid of Hogan-Hyphen Blair (no, not that one). Then there was NO brouhaha….

    The Commissioner is appointed by the Home Secretary who is required to “consult” the Mayor of London.

    1. I wish someone would explain to me — in unambiguous terms — exactly what is the point of a Mayor of London.

          1. Whether she was useless or not , Muslim Khan has exercised racism and sexisim and antigay nastiness to a woman / man/ or whatever she/he is .
            He has an agenda, and I reckon the power that he has exerted will increase his vanity and self importance all the more .

            Khan is a horrible little runt .

            I expect he is anticipating a vote into government , and will probably become Labour leader sooner than we think , and mabe even PM.

      2. The opportunity to throw your weight around and receive a lot of money, too.

        What could be better?

    1. OMG! For a minute there, Sue, I thought you’d posted a photograph of the new Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis!

    3. That useless woman needs a slap and to be reminded she is utterly cretinous with no value whatsoever.

  65. Johnson’s new Director of Communications is not a “complete clown”:

    Guto Harri has deleted a social media post endorsing John Major’s criticism of Boris Johnson, rounding off an eventful first week at No 10.

    Mr Harri, who was brought into Downing Street last weekend as part of changes to the Prime Minister’s top team in the wake of the Sue Gray report, shared a tweet referring to “Johnson acolytes”.

    He hastily deleted the re-tweet from his profile late on Thursday night, according to reports in Playbook and the Spectator.

    The tweet in question, by public relations consultant Gavin Devine, reads:

    It came after Sir John launched an attack on Boris Johnson on Thursday, alleging he had broken lockdown rules and “shredded” the UK’s reputation on the international stage during the Russia-Ukraine border crisis.

    Placeholder image for youtube video: 4gc-HaXFdUQ
    As of Friday morning, Mr Harri appeared to have changed his Twitter biography to: “Director of Communications 10 Downing Street. Not tweeting.”

    He made headlines in his own right on Monday by revealing in a Welsh-language magazine interview that he and Mr Johnson sang a rendition of the Gloria Gaynor disco classic “I Will Survive” on the first day of his new job.

    In the same interview, Mr Harri was reported as saying the Prime Minister was “not a complete clown, but he’s a very likeable character”.

    This was followed by allegations he had lobbied the Government on behalf of Huawei, the Chinese firm that in 2020 was stopped from building the UK’s 5G network.

    The Sun revealed that Mr Harri asked a senior adviser to Boris Johnson which ministers could receive a “nudge” for his client Huawei in June 2020, and represented Hawthorn Advisors, the lobbying firm, during a 25-minute video call. No 10 insisted his actions were within the rules.

    In an apparent reference to the “partygate” scandal that is the biggest threat to Mr Johnson’s premiership to date, he also told reporters he was bringing “healthy snacks and mineral water” for Downing Street staff as he entered No 10 on Monday.

    Mr Harri, who was on the board of the Hawthorn Advisors communications consultancy before he was hired last week, is also a former BBC journalist and GB News presenter.

    He has a longstanding connection to Mr Johnson and served as his communications director while he was London mayor between May 2008 and May 2012.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/02/11/guto-harri-deletes-tweet-endorsing-john-majors-criticism-boris/

    R

    2. Sounds as if Mr Harri should commit harri kirri (his version of self-destruction) by resigning, as he’s definitely and obviously not fit for purpose.

  66. Op at 9.30.
    There were 9 of them in the Theatre. Nurse needed to confirm my name and date of birth as i was laid out on the slab.

    I gave her my full name and said 11/02/64. Today in fact. They all quite softly began singing ‘Happy Birthday’.
    The nurse said’ don’t tell me we’re doing this?’

    I burst out laughing and let them do one verse then told them ‘all right, that’s enough !’

    Just got back. The operation was a partial success.

    They managed to open up 3 veins, groin, abdomen and thigh with the
    balloons.

    Yippee ! Balloons on my Birthday !

    The bad news is they couldn’t get through the blockage just above the
    knee with any safety.

    The Consultant will review the treatment and might recommend a by-pass.

    3. Good progress, let’s hope they can come up with a solution for the last bit. Thanks for the update!

    5. Delighted it was 75% successful. Fingers crossed they’ll sort the other one out soon.
      How long will you be in for or is this day surgery?
      We’re thinking of you and look forward to your wit again on here.

    6. I hope you sue them for not acting earlier ..

      Poor you, what a terrible ordeal ou have been through .

      Now please go back to sleep and dream of jelly and ice cream and all your Nottler pals wishing you well.

    8. Hmm, By-pass, consultant should know that any blockage over 15 cm requires a by-pass, as a balloon will NOT suffice.

      Hence the scar I shewed, yesterday.

      Anyway, Philip, enjoy the rest of your birthday and make sure it’s damned HAPPY!

      1. Yes.
        Once they got down to the blockage they started drilling for oil. About 3/4’s through then stopped as it was too dangerous.

        Thank you Nanny.

        2. …and I’m not a cardio-vascular surgeon but experience tells one things. Have a good day, troop.

    10. Happy birthday and welcome back. Let’s hope they make a decision quickly and move swiftly on to the next stage.
      Good luck and enjoy the rest of your day as much as possible.

    11. Three out of four ain’t bad for the moment. Glad you’re back with us; enjoy the rest of your birthday x

    13. How come you get a choir on your birthday?😊
      Good news and good to see that you appear chipper and commenting. Best wishes for a full recovery.

      1. Twice lol. And ice cream !

        I was a bit concerned that my news was overshadowing your Birthday yesterday. I hope you didn’t burn your tarts !

        1. My tarts were cooked to perfection😇 but even with plenty of weight in the flan dish the pastry did shrink a bit during blind baking. Any tips? Get well soon.

          3. I have tried that, a Mary Berry idea I believe, however, it leaves a ragged edge when trimmed. I’m possibly aiming too high but I like to persevere. Thanks, Lotl for your advice.

          4. If the pastry shrinks you have over worked it.

            A little shrinkage is to be expected though.
            If you are making the paste in a food processor only use it on pulse setting until it forms into crumbs. Bring it together gently with a small amount of cold water.

            Don’t squidge or knead it. A short pastry is difficult to work with but you can repair it when you put it in the tin.

            Thanks.

          5. How are you today?

            I’ve made the dough both in a processor and by hand and tried to stick to the recipe. I think that your first point is close to the mark and I’ll try to handle the dough less. My latest effort was using a Pate Sablee dough and was marginally improved: this dough does allow ‘repairs’ to be made, which is a blessing. Thanks for your advice.

          7. I’ve done all that, Anne, plus two tubs of ceramic weights in a perforated flan dish, and there remains some shrinkage: not as bad as before but annoying. Thanks for your help.

      1. You took your time. I thought that was an obvious one and people would pile in with the puns. :@)

        1. I’ve been working my fingers to a shred getting the house painted so we can move in before Christmas! Loft insulation beckons this weekend!
          (Remaining windows due to be installed next week , plumbers and electricians will be commissioning their installations)
          Builders have set up their base in the garage whilst they finalise external works – new rainwater drains and making good etc bloody etc!

          Still I’m glad you are feeling perky following your recent all too close encounter with the NHS!

  67. The BBC’s bias is making the energy crisis even worse

    Broadcaster is pumping out a constant stream of anti-business propaganda

    MATTHEW LYNN

    A windfall tax on the energy companies. Taking BP and Shell into public ownership. Putting controls on the price of electricity and persuading us all to turn off the heating as the only way of surviving through the rest of the winter.

    If you are getting your news about the gathering energy crisis from the BBC, then you will have been told time and again that there are only three ways to fix the soaring cost of gas and heating. State control. More state control. And, if that doesn’t work, putting an official at a desk in Whitehall in charge.

    But surely it is the Government meddling in the market that has left us in this mess? In reality, the UK needs to have a grown-up, sensible debate about energy policy, and about how we transition to green fuels, at reasonable cost, and while making sure that our supplies are secured.

    And yet it is very hard to do that while the national broadcaster is pumping out a constant stream of propaganda demanding more intervention in the market.

    Right now, the BBC is making the energy crisis far, far worse than it needs to be. If you happen to be an expert on price caps, controls, and the nationalisation of oil companies, then this is your moment. BBC researchers will be on the phone non-stop.

    If you had tuned into the Today programme, still the corporation’s flagship current affairs show, on Tuesday morning you would have heard Prof Michael Jacobs advocate for a windfall tax on the energy companies.

    Prof Jacobs is no doubt an expert in his field, and yet he is hardly an impartial voice. A former special adviser to Gordon Brown when he was prime minister, and before that at the Fabian Society, he has made his career in Left-leaning think tanks and now academia.

    On Newsnight, the night before, you would have heard Jonathan Marshall, from the Left-leaning Resolution Foundation, where he specialises in “net zero”, make much the same case, while the programme’s supposedly objective reporter described oil company profits as “dizzying” and energy price rises that were “painful”.

    It hardly stops there. On the day that Shell reported bumper profits, and an increased dividend, followed by similar results from BP, the main BBC news bulletins were filled with questions about how they should be made to pay more to ease the pressure on families.

    On the news channel, reaction to BP’s figures was from Kate Blagojevic, the head of climate change at Greenpeace: a worthy enough spokesman, but hardly a financial expert.

    Meanwhile Ed Miliband, the original architect of the catastrophic decision to cap energy prices, has been given constant airtime to argue for even more draconian controls on the sector.

    Meanwhile, his mini-me, the Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, who seems to have learnt nothing during his three years as secretary of state for climate change, follows up with a slightly less nasal version of the same argument.

    It is always easy to accuse the BBC of bias, and to ignore its attempts to air different points of view, and those complaints are not always justified. On climate change and the energy crisis, however, its coverage is completely one-sided.

    What the BBC conveniently ignores is that it is government policy that has landed us in this mess in the first place.

    It rushed into a net zero target, phasing out coal and nuclear power regardless of the dependability of wind and solar alternatives.

    It ran down the North Sea, demonising the few companies still willing to operate there. It closed down gas storage facilities to save money, complacently assuming it could always buy whatever we needed on the global market. And it effectively banned fracking, even though we have plentiful reserves in the UK, and the scare stories about it make the anti-vaxxers look sensible.

    The US doesn’t have soaring gas prices because the frackers can step into the market. In reality, this is a crisis entirely of the Government’s own making. It takes a Herculean effort to decide the state is the solution – when all the evidence is that it has been the problem.

    Meanwhile, the oil company profits may be “dizzying” to BBC reporters, and yet if you take the trouble to spend a whole two minutes looking up last year’s numbers, you will find they are simply balancing out losses from the past couple of years when the oil price was far lower.

    There shouldn’t be anything very head-spinning about that. It is how commodity companies work. Good years follow bad ones, as the cycle turns, but the coverage conveniently ignores that.

    Even worse, it neglects to mention that the one thing we need right now is more investment in energy, whether oil, gas or wind.

    Will we really achieve that with punitive taxes on the companies that will have to make those investments? It doesn’t seem, to put it mildly, very likely.

    The UK’s energy policy is starting to make even our housing policy – which most of us rightly regard as the most distorted, dysfunctional market in the world – look like a model of long-term, rational thinking.

    Successive governments have meddled, intervened and restructured the industry until it started to buckle under the weight of competing objectives and regulations.

    We badly need to have a sensible national conversation about how we keep our houses warm, the lights switched on, and the cars and trucks moving.

    Perhaps we should slow down the transition to net zero so that it costs a little less. Perhaps we should be developing more gas in the North Sea so that we can rely on our own resources. Maybe we should be building wind farms as fast as possible.

    We need to have that debate, and then work out a way of moving forward, but that is hardly possible while the BBC is pumping out a constant stream of anti-market, anti-business propaganda.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/02/10/bbcs-bias-making-energy-crisis-even-worse

    1. What we need is an acknowlegement that CO2 is a complete red herring. There is only one good reason to develop alternative energy sources, and that’s to reduce our dependency on the middle east and stop making arabs richer.

      1. 1st sensible reason I’ve heard to date, BB2, but I’m not rushing to abandon fossil fuels, yet.

        1. You get significantly more energy from fossil fuels than it takes to bring them to point of use. Thats why they are so good. Can’t say that about green energy.

      2. As far as I know, the BBC has not reversed the editorial decision that it made in 2006 that allowed climate change supporters, but not sceptics, to be interviewed unopposed.

        Christopher Booker wrote about it more than once.

      3. Yes, absolutely, but the green zealots have created a fiction and are keeping to it. Next it’ll be nitrogen or something. That’s abundant, and people are stupid and think they breathe oxygen only.

        Fundamentally though it isn’t about the environment at any level. It’s about taking money from the earner and moving it to the state machine.

    2. ‘Afternoon, William, “…about how we transition to green fuels.”

      Surely ‘green fuels’ is/are an oxymoron, they do not and cannot exist, because the production costs, in green terms, will far outweigh any CO² supposed savings.

    3. Afternoon to you, this rush towards Net Zero is just a load of b******ks. If we had the option of generating electricity from clean sources such as for example hydro in the quantities that Norway can, than all well and good. If we can generate electricity in the least polluting way, such as nuclear then again all well and good.
      We as a country does not have that option at the moment and to my mind we should ensure energy independence in the least polluting ways, because that is what we should be striving to do.
      There are streets in local towns and cities carrying so much traffic you would not wish to stand on the pavements for any length of time because when you get home a shower or bath is what you would need. That is what needs to be addressed, not CO2 levels!

      1. Electricity is all very well for fixed installations but useless for transport (electric railways excepted, of course). Battery technology cannot serve air, sea or road, except perhaps for short-haul local distribution in the case of the latter.

    4. Every single thing the BBC is suggesting is wrong. It’s wrong because it hands solving the problem to the people causing it. The BBC intentionally avoids the facts and, because it is not stupid (malevolent, devious, arrogant, incompetent but not stupid) it is deliberately promoting the exact opposite of what needs to be done to further it’s own agenda.

  68. Daily groaner

    1. A blind guy on a bar stool shouts to the bartender, “Wanna hear a blonde joke?”
    In a hushed voice, the guy next to him says,
    “Before you tell that joke, you should know something.
    Our bartender is blonde,
    The bouncer is blonde.
    I’m a six foot tall, 200 lb blonde guy, with a black belt at Nintendo
    The guy sitting next to me is a six foot two tall blonde , weighs 225lb , and he’s a rugby player.
    The fella to your right is six foot five blonde , pushing 300lb , and he’s a wrestler.
    So, every one of us is blonde.
    Think about it, Mister. Do you still wanna tell that joke?”
    The blind guy says, “Nah, not if I’m gonna have to explain it five times.”

    2. What did the blonde say when she saw the Cheerios box?
    “Omg, donut seeds!”

    3. Why did the blonde tip toe near the medicine cabinet?

    Because she didn’t want to wake the sleeping pills!!

      1. Hi pet! How’s things? At least you made it back here! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
        Sorry Phizzee! Should have looked further down the page! At least they got most of it, and you shouldn’t be left so long! Love to you!

          1. So glad you are here! Followed Sue Macfarlane suggestion and went to your first comment today…so good luck with the next, take care

    1. Funny you should post that, I have just worked out how much gas and electricity I have used in the past month.
      At least the oxygen Mrs VVOF gave me to help me get up off the floor would be cheaper than gas.😳

    4. It’s the gulf between her salary and the work she has done.

      The management types of the senior civil service are grostesquely overpaid.

    1. Back in the land of the living, then? Well done and happy birthday. Just off to the local for a couple of early ones and I’ll have one for you as well.

          1. I was an outpatient. They strapped me to the slab and gave me a local anaesthetic. They all wore ear muffs so they couldn’t hear the screams.

            Home now. Under orders not to lift anything heavier than a crystal glass of whisky.

          3. No. They have plugged it. 2mm keyhole surgery. They warned me if the bruise spreads to call 111 and if the plug fails to call 999.

    1. Some people never learn.

      If anyone asks you for money with a sob story tacked on the answer should always be no. Unless it is family (not mine) in which case you give it to them as a gift.

    2. We could do a lot worse; unlike Boris, Nigel is a dedicated Brexiteer with a grasp of detail. He also speaks common sense with regard to energy policy, domestic gas, fracking and nuclear power development.

        1. Has he got the necessary grit when the chips are down?

          The way he surrendered to Johnson and removed all Brexit Party candidates from contesting seats held by Conservative remainers without getting any sort of quid pro quo from the Bonking Buffoon shows a weakness which could be fatal.

          Another problem is his immense vanity – he is incapable of admitting that he might ever have been wrong.

          2. In his article ‘Partygate’ is a scandal…, reproduced here earlier in the week, he wrote:

            “…because there is no chance of a right-of-centre insurgent party ever trusting the Conservatives again, the result of all of this could be that the Conservatives lose a huge number of seats at the next election.”

            A hint there, perhaps…

          3. In his article ‘Partygate’ is a scandal…, reproduced here earlier in the week, he wrote:

            “…because there is no chance of a right-of-centre insurgent party ever trusting the Conservatives again, the result of all of this could be that the Conservatives lose a huge number of seats at the next election.”

            A hint there, perhaps…

      3. Hmm. One thing Mr Farage *doesn’t do* is detail. He’s a great big picture, high on rhetoric and can talk the talk but he’s not the chap you go to to write the policies.

        1. Any party with ay sense would back him up with detail wonks. It’d be a killer.
          But they don’t.
          And don’t get any votes.
          Wonder why??

    1. To be fair to Kate, even the Queen made that face when she met him, as did Angela Merkel, if I remember rightly. He is extraordinarily good-looking and charming, it’s like being momentarily caught in the headlights when you meet a man like that.
      Women don’t like a man who runs away rather than face real men though!

      1. School dinner hall beckons…
        I enjoyed my school dinners.

        School stew was delicious and strawberry shortcake with blancmange…yummy!

        2. Ours were horrible…school grace- “For what we are about to receive may the cooks be severely punished.”

        3. We used to have an occasional curry at school dinners.
          Some of those on my table were not keen so I used to have several helpings!

        4. We used to have an occasional curry at school dinners.
          Some of those on my table were not keen so I used to have several helpings!

  86. For those late on parade.
    I’m pleased to say Phizzee’s efforts on the operating table were reasonably successful.

    He has the telephone numbers of 3/4 of the nurses in attendance.

  87. That’s me for this Friday. A very agreeable day, even though the frost lasted all day. Shifted four cwt of manure. Gathered lotsa kindling. The MR slaved (oops – that’s me toppled) in clearing the ground cover in the shrubbery. Grass cut.

    Tomorrow, up betimes (© S Pepys Esq), as Colin the tree man is coming to finish the hedge height reduction. And then fell three trees. Another disadvantage of the plague is that, as we have been here for years, we have used twice as many logs, twice as much electricity etc etc – although, of course, none in France! On the plus side – global warming (!!) has meant that we have not turned on the CH…yet. I expect it will be needed in May when an ice cold summer arrives.

    Have a jolly evening. Well done to the NHS (clap) for plundering young Phil’s insides AND sending him home. It is quite extraordinary what can, nowadays, be done under a local anaesthetic. Let us hope the boy lasts the night.

    A demain.

  88. Well, had a check on the Efco petrol saw and got the large bits of very well seasoned beech up in the ruins of the old stable sawn into logs for chopping.
    Realised the chain brake was not working, so stripped the cover off and found the brake spring had snapped, so ordered one from Twiggs.
    Went back up to shift the logs and got about half the ones I’d cut earlier down the steep bit of bank ready for moving to where I want to stack them.

    Then I thought instead of rolling or carrying one at a time, use the wheel barrow.

    Loaded two 18″ logs into the barrow and began pushing along the fairly rough bit of relatively level hillside only for one foot to slip. As I tried moving my other foot forward to regain my balance, it caught on a length of ivy and I fell forward banging my face on one of the logs resulting in a nasty gash on my left eyebrow, abrasions round the left side of my eye and a broken pair of glasses!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13e7cebe2968e116221bd4928d1c215d6bd754ae9f498ff34a36ef6fa1b7e0bc.jpg

    So a visit to the Minor Injuries Unit at the Whitworth Hospital in Darley Dale with the Dearly Tolerant. Dealt with in less than half an hour with the gash being superglued.

    Could have been a lot worse though.

      1. Wearing them now.
        Felt a right idiot, but it could have been a lot worse. Imagine if I’d hit the log nose first!

      2. Wearing them now.
        Felt a right idiot, but it could have been a lot worse. Imagine if I’d hit the log nose first!

      1. Bloody annoying more than anything else!
        And I’ve still got those bloody logs to shift!

        1. And therein lies the real problem.
          The work doesn’t go away.
          I’m currently shifting an oak which was covered in some sort of Ivy, and foolishly hit a finger while trying to strip it off (it’s two inches in diameter in places). Not much damage other than a nail on the way out, BUT now every time I hit the bits I want to remove with the hand axe it hurts like Hell.

    12. It could. When I see MOH overload the wheelbarrow I always tell her not to. “Do two runs instead.” . Does she appreciate my advice, I don’t know?

  89. Have received blurb about Petition re removing requirement for “vaccination” for NHS and health care workers.

    Can anyone explain the use of the word “deployment” rather than employment please? I thought that it was “jabs for jobs”. No ifs or buts you were out on your ear if you refused the jabs. They suddenly seem to be using a different word. Is there some hidden meaning behind this? I am so suspicious of everything coming from HMG it I always understood deployment to mean moving people around.

    1. I believe as Savage Squalid couldn’t afford to lose face a compromise was suggested. Frontline staff refusing the jab would be given the opportunity to be redeployed to non-customer facing roles to retain the talent and training. I don’t believe it to be possible though for 80,000 people.

      Making threats that you cannot follow through on is idiotic.

      Is that what you mean?

      1. Think you’re right Phizzee, they did say the staff would be redeployed. Agree with you it was utterly impractical with 80,000 of them. Squalid savage has been caught on the hop maybe, didn’t expect such a swift U-turn.

      2. You know I think I prefer the name Squalid Savage, really descriptive. So that’s what I’m going to call him from now on.

    2. Deployment suggests they’re being sent to the Ukraine to support the troops who will be “damaged” by the Russians when they invade.

    3. A certain large computer company used to (and probably still does) use deployment to get rid of excess staff. Emails would appear telling you that you had been deployed to a new division, report to your new home office on the other side of the country.

      Do that several times and only young mobile workers would remain.

      2. It could be bird flu we all die of next, I’ve seen cases talked of somewhere can’t recall where. Of course some will die because they’ve had the vaccinations!

      3. “Hospitalised patient in Bedfordshire succumbs to eye-bleeding ”
        They really should not be allowed to watch the BBC, and especially not ‘The One Show’ in hospital.

  92. Picked up a hitch-hiker.
    Seemed like a nice guy.
    After a few miles
    He asked me if I
    Wasn’t afraid that he might
    Be a serial killer?
    I told him that the
    Odds of two serial
    Killers being in the same car
    Were extremely unlikely.

    1. We are not there yet but media are softening us up to the military being called in.

      Trudeau has passed the buck to our provincial premier, we now have a state of emergency declared. Up to a $100,000 fine for blocking the roads.

      On a talk show a politician ominously described the scene as the government not being to control its citizens.

      1. Will the military move against their own citizens? I read there were calls from some nutters in the US to send their military.
        Right now, I bet the elites are thinking that if only they had trans-human soldiers, they could program them to do what they wanted.

    1. I stopped going to the cinema years ago for the reason that some idiot with an Afro would sit in the row in front of me. That is cultural insensibility in my book.

  96. Barrister wigs are ‘culturally insensitive’, Britain’s top black QC claims

    Barrister wigs are ‘culturally insensitive’, Britain’s top black QC claims – after colleague with an afro was ordered to wear one or face disciplinary action
    Leslie Thomas, QC, said the wigs, or perukes, are ‘fashioned for caucasian hair’
    Top black barrister said they were ‘nonsense’ and do not belong in 21st century
    Barrister Michael Etienne was told he could be sanctioned for not wearing one
    The wigs were fashionable in the 17th century to hide baldness, linked to syphilis

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10501697/Barrister-wigs-culturally-insensitive-Britains-black-QC-claims-colleague-afro-ordered-wear-one-face-disciplinary-action.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailUK&ito=social-twitter_dailymailUK

    2. I always thought there was something odd about these baldy people. So they’ve all got syphilis,that fits…

    3. My sister in law is half Sri Lankan; she is a barrister and QC. She has what might be politely called “tanned” skin. She has no problem wearing a wig.

        1. No, she is a beautiful lady and I understand why my brother fell in love with her. Her father, also Sri Lankan served in the RAF in the war and was President of Magdalen College Cambridge.

  97. Spot the arrogant, pig ignorant bastard.

    If he had wanted the nanny to be nearby, why didn’t the cheapskate buy her a business class ticket?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10503589/High-flying-barrister-41-family-removed-BA-flight-armed-cops.html

    It’s a great pity he can’t be struck off for bringing the law into disrepute.

    Perhaps the nanny had a seat in business class, but I doubt it.

    EDIT.
    It seems that she had been downgraded. However, when I posted I did not see mention of that in the article and having had experience of similar I had looked for confirmation.

      1. The sense of entitlement oozes from his picture.
        If the nanny had been booked a business class seat then he has every reason to be aggrieved, but if not he deserves everything he got.

    2. Nah, she was booked in economy and he was just trying to pull a fast one.
      “Mr Banner claimed that even though there was a spare seat close to him in business class, cabin crew staff insisted that nanny could still not sit in it“

    4. He did have a point though:-

      Matters became heated after Mr Banner was informed that the children’s nanny had only been allocated a seat in economy when he arrived at the boarding gate.

      Mr Banner paid for business class tickets, but his nanny had been downgraded because BA oversold the flight.

      1. In that case, I’m not surprised he was so upset, especially if there was an empty seat in Business class.

      3. So I see this morning, but when I posted yesterday I am almost certain that that sentence had been omitted from the article.
        I had specifically looked for whether he had.

    5. Try reading the DM article before passing judgement. 1) he did buy a business class ticket for the nanny. 2) BA downgraded the nanny to economy saying they had overbooked in business class. 3) there was a spare seat in business class next to the person you dismiss as “the arrogant, pig ignorant bastard”

      1. In which case BA is at fault.
        However, when I posted I am fairly convinced that that fact had not been put in the article.

    6. “Matters became heated after Mr Banner was informed that the children’s nanny had only been allocated a seat in economy when he arrived at the boarding gate.

      Mr Banner paid for business class tickets, but his nanny had been downgraded because BA oversold the flight.”

  98. Q: Should all these western leaders who’ve treasonously been following a WEF script to terrorize their citizenry be tried at The Hague and executed if found guilty?

    A: No, do it in Davos next January and include all the BigTech and BigPharma execs.

    1. I’ve often thought that the American voting system needs a bloody good sort out, but NOT at Federal Level.

      1. As does ours, BoB.

        Too many Muslim Postal Voters with no idea how many are wives and, indeed, who is under that burka.

  100. Sometimes one’s jaw drops so far in disbelief that it’s difficult to get it back in place and functioning properly. I’ve just about managed it after listening to this quite astonishing piece of moral and intellectual conceit. The objective position that the speaker claims is detonated by her use of ‘anti-vax’ and the Starmer scuffle to make her point.

    It’s only 10 minutes long. Give it a go and marvel at it!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00146jj

  103. So if Bas gets the job who would we have ‘looking after us’?
    Bas Javid
    Sadiq Khan
    Nadhim
    Sajid Javid
    Priti Patel
    Rishi replaces Boris.

    This once Great Britain is no more.

    1. Stop it. Nicely meant Belle. I have already had this discussion with MH- we don’t count any more.
      Pointless and useless, which is why I am listening to Vivaldi. Did you know in his era he was thought too progressive?

      1. Vivaldi…

        Imagine landing in Kano en route to Lagos , circa late seventies in the heat , not allowed to disembark , because the aircraft was taking on new passengers … the cabin doors were wide open , steps to the aircraft , hot air pouring into an already full flight … we sat inside for 2 hours … persperation pouring off everyone , very smelly atmosphere, but guess what … as a placebo .. Sabena (airline ) played a recording of the Four Seasons . Condensation was pouring off the cabin walls , we were thirsty, hot and fed up and somewhere on the edge of the Sahara.

        Funny thing music , memories come flooding back.

          5. Had some funny experiences on planes… on the way to KL we stopped on the tarmac in Dhaka for an hour or so – not allowed to disembark so it was hot sitting there. A crowd of Bangladeshi got on and we continued on our way. They were all smoking and quite unruly. On the way back from KL about 10 days later a different lot of Bangladeshi had been doing some major shopping. They were more unruly than the first lot and the stewardesses had a hard time keeping them in their seats. The smoke was foul too.
            Another time we were on our way home – and we had to change planes in Kuwait. A lot of completely burkad up women with eye slits got on. One of them sat just behind us. When we were nearing Heathrow and gathering up our stuff OH’ s jacket couldn’t be found and we knew it was in the overhead locker. Then I noticed the cuffs just visible under the black binbag and the woman apparently asleep. Had to get the staff to make her take it off so we could retrieve it.

          6. I expect there are some real hairy travelling stories to do with flying some where or other .

            My late step mother was flying to Australia to visit her brother , and a fracas broke out in the row of seats behind her , drunk stroppy passengers, and a fight took place , the stewards had to secure the passengers in something like a straitjacket each , it was a very frightening experience for many .

            She had a lovely surprise a few months later because she was rewarded with a Club class 2 way ticket back to Australia when ever she wanted ..

          7. Whenever she wanted? That was generous. Not that it would be anh good these days… who would want to go there now?

          8. Like the Indonesian GARUDA – Generally All Right Under Dutch Administration.

            In Taiwan on a flight from Taipei to Kaohsiung the airline had FAT on the tail-plane and we unanimously christened it Fuckin’ Awful Transportation

        3. Flew often to Kano to join my parents for the school holidays. At least the heat wasn’s so humid… I remember boarding to strangely hollow piano music several times.
          Worse was sitting in a VC10 at Lagos, fuelled and waiting to head North, whilst the army (with armoured cars) fought a battle on the airport with the rebels. That was a tad scary.

  105. Evening, all. Went racing this afternoon for the first time since February 2020 (after which, having been caught up in Storm Brian, I caught Covid). It was partly sunny, very cold due to the lazy wind, and I had a severe bout of seconditis until the penultimate race, when I picked a winner, albeit the odds-on favourite (the first such came second in the first race). I bought myself a new hat and I must have been the chap’s only customer because as I was about to leave with my purchase, he said, “hang on a minute,” then rooted in his box of stock before handing me a flat cap in the same tweed as my jacket. “Here you are,” he said, “it matches your jacket.” Thank you very much! Two for the price of one, can’t be bad! There must have been a good 60 of us in the Members’ Bar and only one wearing a mask.

      1. Thank you. I met a couple of friends there and it was good to have company. Oscar had been dry when I got back home, too, which was a bonus! The first thing he did when I got back was go out and have two enormous wees. Good boy!

      1. Didn’t take a camera, I’m afraid. I’m not a photo junkie. Neither does my phone have a camera.

    1. ‘A supporter of Brexit, she describes herself as a One Nation Conservative. Morrissey is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on British Sikhs, and Taxation.’
      ‘She previously had a brief career in acting and films.‘
      Yeeha!

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