Saturday 29 February: If the idea is to slow the spread of coronavirus, why are there no health checks at airports?

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 not as good as ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be blacklisted.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/02/29/lettersif-idea-slow-spread-coronavirus-no-health-checks-airports/

650 thoughts on “Saturday 29 February: If the idea is to slow the spread of coronavirus, why are there no health checks at airports?”

  2. I’m thinking all this fuss over corona is just another globalist reality scare, maybe they are practising for something bigger they have up their sleeves.
    Will we all be forced into having anti corona injections soon?

      1. When the pop man (Dickmans from Newbiggin) with his horse & cart (later a van) used to come by our house on a Friday in the 50s/60s we’d get in the supplies of Woods pop, Sarsaparilla (my favourite, but pronounced sasparilla down our way) , Cherryade (my second favourite – ideal with fish & chips), Cream Soda (for my Aunt Alice), Dandelion and Burdock, Limeade, Lemonade (ugh- left a slimy coat on the roof of your mouth, hated it). A shilling a bottle with 3d on the return (if the cap was in place and the label intact).

        All the bottles had a hard black plastic screw top with a red rubber seal apart from the Cherryade. Cherryade was special – all on its own. It had the white porcelain cap with rubber seal and wire brace just like the one in your photo. I never knew why cherryade always, but the others never. It was just the way the world was. Part of my reason for loving cherryade so much was that bottle top. An early lesson in physics and mechanics all in one go.

  3. SIR – When I became an airline pilot in the late Sixties, it was clear that more large runways were needed in the South East than the four shared between Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. In the half-century since, several proposals have been made and abandoned at new or existing airport sites. While British governments have procrastinated, extra runways have been built in Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich and Madrid.

    Long-haul airliners are already bigger, considerably quieter and far less polluting per passenger-mile than 50 years ago. Increasing their size further would not satisfy the demand to serve more destinations non-stop. So maintaining Britain’s lead in air travel depends on another runway.

    The supine attitude of successive administrations culminated in a lame-duck prime minister’s damaging commitment to so-called carbon neutrality by 2050, unmatched by rival countries. That commitment clinched the court case against a third runway at Heathrow.

    The present can-do Government should either support Heathrow’s appeal against the judgment or give Gatwick’s second runway the green light.

    Chris Scott
    Netherne-on-the-Hill, Surrey

    1. A second runway at Gatwick does not solve the problem though. It is the hug airport that needs the expansion. In the short term Heathrow needs another runway. . Longer term we need to consider where a new multi runway airport can go. . Some have suggested Birmingham but that would in my view be daft as it is the second largest populated area and do you want a 5 runway airport have planes flying over densely populated areas

      Boris Island has been ruled out for several reasons. I think Manston is the best bet. Plenty of room close to London and HS1 and can easily be integrated into the Old Oak Common Hub. Every other location I can think of has to many problems

      1. SIR – Our exit from the EU demands that we trade and travel globally, but we will lose our prime position in Europe if we give air-travel advantages to French and German competitors.

        Why was the vote of an elected Parliament to approve a third runway at Heathrow (Letters, February 28) overturned by a court on the basis of a claim made by Greenpeace and others, who are not elected, relying on theories about climate change caused by carbon dioxide?

        This really is the end for the British economy, as every investment and infrastructure project will now be challenged on the same basis.

        Michael J Cole

        Wolstanton, Staffordshire

    2. No thanks, Mr Scott. Anyway, by the time it has finally been built, cheap and plentiful air travel will be on the wane. Besides, battery-powered airliners will barely make it to the end of the runway, thus rather defeating the object!

      I reckon the millions of people who live near Heathrow or under its flightpaths will, for once, be incredibly grateful for the failure (so far) to build another runway.

      ‘Morning, JBF.

  4. XR –
    If the only way of saving human life on this planet is to stay at home, wrap up warm and breathe slowly then the Coronavirus has beaten us to it.

    1. And why the jump from Dennis to Jorge? (BTW, I can think of a name beginning with J that’s easy to pronounce.)

      1. The weather forecast bods are all Remainers, hence their pronounciation of Jorge..

        Good morning.

        We had a bit of a blow last night , seems to have died out now .

          3. We have done likewise, with the dog, who likes her comforts. Deffo not a day for being out and about. Keep warm.

          4. Yes’day I had the Breton fish stew at Cote – fabulous!

            I’m making it my go-to dish when the menus (which change tomorrow) fail.

          7. We are well on the way to becoming the Isle of Cambs….. it is really getting to me now, all the oozing mud and dirt underfoot when walking the dog – it is getting progressively worse.

    2. ‘Morning, Angie. In Janus Towers it is pronounced ‘George’, although the alternative version is “this bloody weather”.

  7. Flooding & Climate Change

    Perhaps a good indication that climate change had had nothing to do with he recent flooding is that as far as I can tell Europe has had no real flooding and nor has the Somerset Levels flooded since proper management of the rivers was resumed

    The areas flooding are know areas at risk of flooding and the flooding appears to be down to poor management of the rivers. Building on flood plans and general over development of the land in these areas. It is a problem that has building up for decades with nothing dome about it

    New developments are simply connected up to the already overloaded drainage network which then cannot cope with heavy rain. The problem is compounded by so called flood prevention schemes which basically just build up the river banks

    1. Morning Bill

      We are an undulating country , you know , uphill, down dale and flat land .. water has to run somewhere, here the water is running down off our steep fields , flooding the ditches , overtaxing the small streams and rivers and accumulating on our floodplains .. water meadows.

      In a field 200 yds away from me , there is a proposal to build over 400 homes.. At present there are sheep and their lambs grazing .. the fields around us are like quagmires lower down .. and the road floods .. and the water has filled the ditches .. our river with it’s crumbly river banks is at capacity and more .. poor old farmers have probably lost a lot of their sown crops..

      It has been a long wet winter..

      I wonder whether our Southern climate is now very similar to the climate in Eire.. weather patterns are altering?

    2. 316703+ up ticks,
      BJ,
      Many of us know that the eu is a wrong un and has been such for decades, the
      electorate realise that building on flood plains is well out of order, same as rape /abuse, well out of order, but to
      complain via the ballot booth could very well bring a party into disrepute then where would we be, I ask you ?

    3. It is well known that by preventing excess river water from flooding the flood plains, problems are caused downstream where the surplus water has to go somewhere.
      However, that is not the only problem with raised river banks. When the flood plains have been flooded, the banks prevent the return of the water into the river as it subsides, delaying the recovery of the affected areas, often fields either full of crops or waiting to be planted.

    4. As the then Minister of the Environment, Owen Paterson, concluded the flooding of the Somerset Levels was due to people slavishly following EU rules about not dredging.

      Of course Cameron sacked Mr Paterson for telling the truth about the EU and put Adultera Truss in his place. In many ways Cameron was as bad as Traita May.

  8. Morning Each,
    To confirm the establishments take on plague spreading
    it will be included in the next manifesto prior to the next
    General Election, ie as in a rhetorical verbal, NFAN.

  9. Caught the One Show last night.

    I see that having got rid of the nauseating Matt Baker, they’ve replaced him with a clone. For a moment I thought it was the original MB, but then I saw that the nose was straight.

    2. I watched 4 minutes of the local news to catch the local weather forecast, that was the sum total of my BBC viewing yesterday.
      I don’t expect any increase today.

    3. That programme seems to be nothing but a stream of plugs for stuff happening elsewhere on the BBC. Avoid.

      1. It’s the same on all BBC channels – repeated plugs for other programmes. Even on the radio.

  10. Morning all, storm Jorge named by the Spanish Met Office blew in last night but looks like it has blown out onto pastures new this morning.
    We had rain all night, I can’t help but fear for those already suffering from floods and what is likely to be a worsening situation.

    1. We heard a brief squall pass over us at half threeish this morning. Lasted all of five minutes.

    2. A friend of mine who has returned to the UK after more than a decade living in Spain can’t wait for it to be over.

      She’s already sick of ‘Horhay’, the South American pronunciation being used by the BBC.

  11. Fun and games at Heathrow last night. Was due to fly to Riyadh, checked in, in the departure lounge then informed we couldn’t fly as Saudi temporarily closed borders due to the virus. No problem with that but getting home at 10pm was fun, had to stay in a hotel as I was too late to get the last train home. Now for fun and games trying to recover cancelled hotel bookings. Fortunately the airline will give full refund.

  12. SIR– Sixty years ago today my wife proposed to me. Two wonderful sons and four grandchildren later, I am convinced I was right to accept.

    Tony Renouf

    Woolhampton, Berkshire

  13. Morning again

    SIR– In the long run, the coronavirus pandemic may have a valuable lesson to teach us.

    An unwanted problem, originating in the city of Wuhan, is threatening to bring large sections of the global economy to a halt. It isn’t, therefore, difficult to imagine the havoc the Chinese government could wreak if it were actually trying to do so.

    The moral is that we should divest ourselves of strategically important links with China as rapidly as possible and develop the necessary replacement technologies in partnership with the rest of the free world while there is still time.

    I’m sure the British electorate would forgive a short wait for 5G under the circumstances.

    Alan Duncalf

    Bampton, Devon

    1. 316703+ up ticks,
      Morning E,
      The sound of the shot is still echoing in the ears of Alan Duncalfs neighbours.

    2. Industry struggling as their source of supply is shutting down? This, surely, is one example of where diversity should be our strength. Move forward a couple of decades as gas, petrol, diesel etc. are phased out and powering almost everything is based on one source,electricity. Little or no diversity in power supply is a disaster waiting to happen. In the meantime the PTB better get on with building how many Hinckley Point Cs in twenty years?

      1. In the 40s & 50s we had lots of power cuts – candles were always at hand.
        No real danger – coal fires meant we were warm & the kitchen stove could slow cook anything.

        Move forward 70 years – dependent on electricity which is dependent on windmills & IT to manage supply – gas boilers need to light & pumps to pump the water.

        If you have a wood stove it might be the best idea to hold on to it along with a stock of dry wood.
        Do not block off your chimneys as the coal fire might be what is needed

        1. I’ve got open fires and solid fuel heating, as well as a stock of candles and some oil lamps. I’m not so sure my neighbours, who have “modernised” their house, would be as well off in prolonged power cuts.

  15. SIR – Instead of employing people to remove unwanted invasive growth from Bournemouth’s cliffs, Bournemouth decided to go for an “eco” solution: goats (Leading Article, February 27).

    Scores of trees were cut down to provide the hundreds of sturdy eight-foot fencing posts required. Two or three miles of six-foot-high chain-link fence were manufactured. All of this was transported to the site and erected. Residents and visitors using the cliff-top seats now have to view the beautiful Dorset bay and the award-winning beaches through the six-foot wire compound while we wait 10 years for the seven goats to eat their way from pier to pier.

    Welcome to the bonkers world of the eco-warrior.

    Clifford Green

    Bournemouth, Dorset

    1. I suppose it should reduce the risk of invasion, Mr Green?

      Better still, set Greater Thunderbum to work with some gardening tools, that should give her something useful to do.

      ‘Morning, Epi.

  16. Absent fathers are fuelling knife crime in Britain, warns police chief as she says youths are turning to drug dealers for role models

    Police chief says absent fathers and lack of role models is driving knife crime
    Jackie Sebire says violence had become ‘normalised’ for many teenagers
    Britain’s top officer on violence warns that many do not fear going to prison
    She said that some parents even failed to collect their children at police stations

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8058381/Absent-fathers-fuelling-knife-crime-Britain-warns-police-chief.html

          1. Morning Anne,

            Just wondering whether these youths are taller and fatter than their fathers.. and lack all respect for authority .

            Here in all our medium size villages there are problems with youths , they leave tiny cannisters around , and cause chaos with painting graffiti and upsetting rubbish bins , they are out of their tiny minds with alcohol and social drugs .. Their parents cannot do a thing with them .. When they reach an age where they have cars, they then race around the village , and cause havoc in other villages and towns .

            They don’t understand what the consequences are of having a police record .. and will certainly never ever be able to hold a responsible job down .. Ignorance breeds ignorance .. and there is alot of that around .

          2. Good Lord, Belle.
            Next you’ll be suggesting we interfere with their human rights by disciplining them.

    2. Good morning Maggiebelle

      The trouble is that absent fathers are the sort of fathers who would do even more damage to their progeny if they were not absent. In fact many abused and bullied women and beaten children would have been far better off if the scumbags had gone away rather than stayed.

      1. The homicidal ‘uncles’ who don’t like being interrupted while playing ‘Call of Duty’.
        Morning, Rastus.

      3. ‘Morning, Duncan, Tom Lehrer was always en point with most of his songs and many are still relevant, given today’s attitudes.

  17. What deep thinkers men are…

    I mowed the lawn today, and after doing so I sat down and had a cold beer. The day was really quite beautiful, and the drink facilitated some deep thinking on various topics.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/40127ee27f2701eb81850db9473befa07c25364465415ff56ccd8b87001a0741.jpg

    Finally I thought about an age old question:

    Is giving birth more painful than getting kicked in the bollocks?

    Women always maintain that giving birth is far more painful than a bloke getting kicked in the bollocks.

    Well, after another beer, and some heavy deductive thinking, I have come up with the answer to that question.

    Getting kicked in the bollocks is more painful than having a baby; and here is the reason for my conclusion.

    A year or so after giving birth, a woman will often say, “It might be nice to have another child.”

    On the other hand, you never hear a bloke say, “You know, I think I’d like another kick in the bollocks.”

    I rest my case. Time for another beer

    1. NtN, soon we’ll be able to obtain the definitive answer as a man who was once kicked in the bollocks transitions to a woman, becomes pregnant and then gives birth. It must happen, as to deny the idea is a hate crime, n’est-ce pas?😎

  19. The plague-hit community that sealed itself off from the world

    Joe Shute visits Eyam [in Derbyshire] whose residents in the 17th century made the ultimate sacrifice

    ‘The schoolchildren in Brighton, I was told during my visit, had developed a new playground game – “Coronavirus Tag” – which bears echoes of the old nursery rhyme “Ring a Ring o’ Roses” that children used to sing to describe the symptoms of the Black Death. Today, the rhyme is engraved into the gates of Eyam Primary School.’

    SIR — Joe Shute urgently requires a proper education in British history! The Great Plague of 1665–1666 was NOT the “Black Death”. That was the name given to a former plague that lasted between 1347 and 1351, over three centuries prior. Does the Daily Telegraph never check the veracity of “reports” presented by its vacuous new breed of uneducated journalists?

    1. Those who are charged with checking the veracity of reports drafted by uneducated journalists are as uneducated as the journalists.

      2. Good (belated) afternoon, Maggie.

        That indeed was the incident I was involved in 43 years ago. As one of the first on the scene, it was I who discovered the body of the elder lady buried in the snow. I was also a friend of the young lady whom Hughes raped in the previous August that accounted for his remand in custody (from which he escaped).

        I have Peter Howse’s book on order and look forward to reading his authoritative account. I have just finished reading another book on the topic written by a journalist. This book is filled with so many errors and fictionalised accounts that I have made a full list of them, with which I intend to confront the author.

        As my sergeant said to me and my young colleagues at the time, “No matter how long you serve you will never again have to experience an incident as horrific as the one you have experienced tonight.” I have never forgotten his words.

    2. If she’s courting clubbing with the idea to breed with him she’s going about it all wrong, IMO.🤢

      1. Quick. Hie thee to a chemist before the panic buyers beat you to it.
        Mind you, there’ll be no water …. (glances out of window) …. ah …..

    2. ‘Morning, Anne, I will also adjourn soon for some brekkie and the DT puzzles. Don’;t fret about the doomsayers in the Daily Wail, they, along with the Thunderbug’s puppet masters, want to screw as much publicity and money out of a gullible population as possible. Enjoy the brain exercise.

    3. You know, those girls look cute in their face masks.The Muslim lasses would look great too, if only they’d change that horrid black colour.

  23. ‘Morning All

    It seems the internet is not looking kindly on the Gretard

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6d1ed49c5c2145808429fa65ba2a1c5806e2caea60e86adeac4fdf73e5e7456a.jpg

    https://filmgoblin.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/IMG_1408.jpg

    https://i2.wp.com/www.bruceonpolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Greta-money-train-650.jpg?w=650&ssl=1

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/56ccf427bf2aa8c76d0918e189307782afcbefe16a444b969edb02951a515d59.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e4e6fc834978edde499f57b7000907e88b82c122296d6f5d1cbb81040921b39a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/433959d32f737cffd1639b1dc8f11ba0b32a72f46895fc4070cda251c76b6b6c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4c76e6c3cf756866f0e9ed959d7fcfaf5c7a09468f9e564cb42b14d042b6ce22.jpg

    1. Completely valid and sensible.
      The reason for that is to PREVENT, as with the rest of the genome mapping,commercial organisations from patenting them for commercial gain. The patent places the item in the public domain,

    1. Morning Rik. That’s more than creepy. Poor child. What a weird world we live in. When this sort of thing is videotaped for all and sundry to see how people treat their children …

      Thanks for all the funnies. Keep em coming.

    2. I thought James Woods had been banned from Twitter.

      Either way, I’m in the “it’s child abuse” category.

    2. I hear a similar conversation in our local library last week.
      The librarian asked a young lady if she liked Dickens. She thought for a moment, and replied. “I’ve been to one”.

  28. From The Guardian News –

    ” Vietnam has announced that all 16 infected coronavirus patients detected
    in the country have been discharged from hospital and declared cured, Al Jazeera reports.”

    Why has this important news come from Al Jazeera, an unreliable source ? I would have thought that news like this would have been universally available.

  30. 316703+ up ticks,
    Surely airport checks are pointless when a whole section of coast is under attack from potential bug carriers.
    As with terrorist attempts many stopped but it only takes one to get through.

    1. Morning all.
      The problem is ogga old chap, I can’t actually remember much of anything that we have ever actually got right in the UK.
      Our political classes have and still do eff up everything they come into contact with.
      But always seem to have the right solution in hindsight.
      Hey ho………

      1. 316703+ up votes,
        Morning RE,
        You would have to have the mind of Lesley Welsh to remember
        that.
        The problem is IMO that the same political mob in the main,
        reshuffled re dealt as usual, think the peoples agree with them
        after all the ballot booth states this is a fact.
        For the weekly wonga + exes, & with a decent scam to back would they complain ?
        By the by,
        UKIP designed & activated the referendum, the failure
        was not of our, real UKIPs doing.

        1. Your daughter did so well against the intruders.
          I was watching the TV programme earlier this week.

        1. Rik has just posted a link that vouvray has just listened to saying that Priti was nasty to him and briefed against him and he really didn’t like it. Having prattled on for 5 minutes, briefing against her, he said he was pursuing a claim for constructive dismissal as she had been weally weally nasty and he would make no further comment as he would pursue it through the courts.
          Judges now to decide if the HS can be the HS as someone doesn’t like her?

          3. It makes me think back to a trip to a client in Hong Kong where I was expected to solve some issues that they were having with our software.
            The initial meeting with their MD started with him telling me that although my CEO was too big to pick up, he would have no problems picking me up to throw me out of the (20th floor) window – do fix it!

            How to make friends and ensure that the final report was delivered by mail. Should I have taken him to court?

        1. You might have realised the word was supposed to be bribe. The bloody predictive text on my phone drives me nuts. One of our sons has a free iPhone he’s going to give me. I’m not sure how I’ll get on with it.

    2. ‘Leave one in 10 in hospital’.

      Does that mean that they aren’t expected to come out again once they are in there?

      Shoot the headline writers and abolish the word ‘could’ from future publications.

    3. ‘Could’ being the significant word. Its enough having doomgoblin scare the pants off teenagers, now this lot.

      1. They were all so frightened by the Doom Bug that 20,000 (?) of them gathered in the p!ssing rain to cheer on the Doom Goblin.

      3. Evening, mola. During the last war, when there was a real likelihood that bombing would cause mass slaughter, the government stockpiled coffins, but took great steps to keep the fact secret so as not to panic the population.

          1. True; at least we knew the enemy was mainly across the Channel, rather than in Whitehall.

        1. The press ? Good news doesn’t sell. The governments ? None want to be caught with their trosers down if there is an epidemic.

        2. The press ? Good news doesn’t sell. The governments ? None want to be caught with their trosers down if there is an epidemic.

        3. Some years back a newspaper was launched that would only publish good news. In a manner of speaking, it folded after a few months.

  35. The Home Office’s top civil servant, Sir Philip Rutnam, has resigned
    and announced plans to sue government for constructive dismissal.

    Rutnam was emotional as said he had “been target of vicious and orchestrated campaign against him.”

    He said that the had been alleged to have briefed the media against
    the Home Secretary Priti – an accusation said is “completely false”.

    “The Home Secretary categorically denied any involvement in this
    campaign to the cabinet office. I regret I do not believe her,” he said.
    “She has not made the efforts I would expect to disassociate herself
    against from the comments.”

    1. The left, including many civil servants, have made Priti untouchable because of the colour of her skin. More power to her!

    1. You have got to be a particular sort of person to follow Adonis on Twitter.
      Perhaps that explains some of the comments.

        1. I didn’t think you did, but a lot of those that made comments probably do.
          I put them in my “D***head” classification category.

    7. As someone tweeted, he was in charge of two of the most poorly performing Government Departments. The East Coast rail franchise farce happened on his watch, as did Windrush. And now there are rumours he was complicit in briefing against the HS. No wonder he is threatening to sue for ‘constructive dismissal’. I believe it’s called ‘doubling down’.

      1. He will struggle to claim constructive dismissal as he resigned. It can be done in some circumstances see below

        Constructive dismissal

        Constructive dismissal is when you’re forced to leave your job against your will because of your employer’s conduct.

        The reasons you leave your job must be serious, for example, they:

        don’t pay you or suddenly demote you for no reason
        force you to accept unreasonable changes to how you work – eg tell you to work night shifts when your contract is only for day work
        let other employees harass or bully you
        Your employer’s breach of contract may be one serious incident or a series of incidents that are serious when taken together.

        You should try and sort any issues out by speaking to your employer to solve the dispute.

    1. Way to go, Priti.
      Let’s hear it for stroppy short women.
      We get results.
      Currently listening to some moaning desk pilot; karma.

    2. I am a simple old fella with simple thoughts.
      If during my working career I refuse to carry out an instruction from my manager, I would have been sacked.
      If I took the trouble to explain why I considered it necessary to ignore the instruction and my manager disagreed, I would have been sacked.
      I see no difference in the case of this Snivel Servant. He refused to carry out an instruction from his Minister, for that reason alone, he had to go.
      I am sure he can occupy himself counting out his pension.

      1. I remember my manager at work when i once asked him what I should do with huge the roll of bubble wrap someone had left on his desk.
        He said oh….just pop it in the corner.
        I was there all day.

    3. Good heavens. I love his last sentence – I’ll make no further comment at this stage” – what a joke!

      And who’s orchestrating a campaign now – some twaddle about the health and safety of 35,000 snivel serpents that it’s his job to safeguard.

      I do hope Cummings stiffens Boris’s backbone and that BJ doesn’t give in to this bullying. I fear the worst.

      1. 316703+ up ticks,
        afternoon V,
        What is boris doing in the position he is in, PM, without an unstartched backbone ?

  40. After Rutnam’s rant the senior snivel serpents will have the knives out for her.
    I hope Boris stands firm and supports her. That will get the message across and could be the catalyst for change. All the lefties will be up in arms but that will be difficult for them because of her skin colour.
    Could be the initial battle on the way to winning the war.
    Or will Boris wilt?

    1. 316703+ up ticks,
      Morning A t great,
      All I hear in regards to johnson is hope this hope that, the uncertainty at this late stage in the mans character is unbelievable, why is this ?

      1. Really ogga we’re no different to you. You hope that one day Gerard Batten will be in power. He’s not and Boris is.

        1. 316703+ UP ticks.
          Afternoon A t Great,
          I can assure you in the nicest possible way that is you voted for one of the toxic trio ( lab/lib/con) in the last say, two decades the between we, you & me there is a large gulf of difference.

          1. I voted UKIP in the last 2 elections, I hoped it would make a difference. It didn’t, therefore, you have to live with the reality of life. I rest my case.

          2. I voted UKIP in the last 2 elections, I hoped it would make a difference. It didn’t, therefore, you have to live with the reality of life. I rest my case.

      2. You hoped that GB would remain leader of UKIP. He didn’t, live with the reality of the situation. It seems that you hope for more than me. When will you have another vote to put him in as leader? And until then………….

        1. 316703+ up ticks,
          A T Great,
          Are you aware of what has happened and the actions that the NEc took regarding Gerard Batten, I do not believe so, or that Batten has quit the party after being a founder member a duration of 28 years.
          By allowing these treacherous NEc types to get away with what they are doing / done lays down a pattern for future use, as in anybody being of a decent honest political nature will be dealt with in the same manner.
          I do not “hope” for anything like you “hope” is a very fickle commodity I look for certainty.

          1. And the certainty is that UKIP will not be in power during my lifetime.
            Prey tell what certainties you know about UKIP and anything else.

    2. What a shame that Pritti Patel cannot put all snivel serpents onto the same pension arrangements as everyone else – perhaps the new Chancellor could help her with this. That would learn ’em!

    3. ‘Morning,Alf,

      With a bit of luck the canting, placemen called snivel serpents will, by their vociferous rants, give themselves as way as the ones who need removing – bring it on!

    4. I had little time for Rudd, but I always suspected the HO snivel serpents deliberately mucked up the Windrush business to show who was in charge.
      It looks as if Rutnam was up to his oxters in that episode.
      Good riddance.

      I have also sent a supportive email to Priti at both her constituency office and the HO; I hope she see at least one of my emails. She needs the support.

    1. Andrew Castle, LBC this am, interviewed an observer in or around the Greek -Turkish border (he may have been a Sky reporter but I can’t be certain of that). Anyway, the interviewee declared that there are plenty of women and children in the migrant horde and followed that with the explanation of why the majority of the migrant horde we see are young men. His explanation was that the young men are better suited to going first, settling and then finding a home for his following family. I have a one word explanation that is more accurate: CONQUEST.

      1. So, the women and children first is just a Western thing? The men bugger off and leave the women and children to face the bombs. Nice.
        Thanks, but no thanks.

    2. It’s time this daft country tightened up on all this nonsense.
      It’s become too easy to get hold of EU passports any one who arrives with no ID can apply for one most EU countries will be too keen the supply them if they knew they might be moving on to further invade the UK.
      Let them apply for temporary jobs as in agriculture or construction projects.
      It’s not advisable to allow them to get their feet too firmly under the table. I smell a rat.
      It’s been widely made public the people who have worked 40 years or even more are receiving the basic pension of not much above 6.5 k per year.
      I would imagine a person working in a temporary job will receive more them that, they is no way they could survive here.
      Arrive in a rubber boat in Kent or in the back of a truck with a few kids and you’ll receive more than 4 times that plus many other free benefits.
      Roll back the money gifted to the EU and most of the foreign (except for natural disasters) aid and help support the elderly who have worked and supported the UK for many years.
      Before ‘I pop my clogs’ it’s something I would dearly like to see happen.

  45. I’ve just used a brief pause in the precipitation to go up the road with van & S@H & pick up the logs I sorted earlier this week.
    Precipitation has restarted with a sudden brief hailstorm, but there appears to be a couple of hours of no rain later this afternoon, so hopefully I’ll be able to get the saw-horse out and a start made on getting the logs cut, chopped & stacked.

      2. I’ve been in the 20deg warmth of my sunny green house, tidying and latterly out side pruning the already much budded growth.
        Dog walk before the expected rain arrives.

      3. Some long time ago we moved into a flat. The hall needed to be papered and painted. A brief check confirmed that the old wallpaper was several layers thick, including some that had been varnished over, maybe in Victorian times. It was going to be a major job. We had four young children running around, crawling, climbing etc, so the use of dangerous implements was not a good idea. I had been thinking about a steam machine, but was afraid of it and prudence suggested that scrapers and water would be safer.
        I look through our local free paper at the small ads. There was an ad for wallpaper removal. I phoned them up and arranged a date. Two men arrived first thing and all of us moved out for the day. They had steam machines. When we came back, the walls were bare, and all the paper that had been removed was neatly tied up in black sacks. No mess, no danger. Perfect. All for less than £50.
        There are few things in life that turn out as well as you hope. That was one of them.

        1. It’s only one wall, and only one layer of paper. The top, patterned layer has come off, leaving the second layer underneath, which is not coming off so easily. Tomorrow, it’s the steamer that’ll be used on it. For now, it’s a wet sponge…

          1. Woodchip wallpaper is a butter ugger; two layers with a sandwich of wood chips to clog things up right royally.

        1. Our neighbours have their garage half full of split logs.
          I’ve got a couple of stacks in the garden in boxes, for the new pizza oven i’m going to build out side.

    3. Check out yer Napier Log Tables for efficiency, BoB.

      I’m sorry but I cannot help, after 10 plus years in HM Forces, to read you ‘S@H’ as ‘Sick at Home’ which is what it meant to us.

      1. Not far off, Still at Home.
        24yo welder & fabricator son, the only one still to fly the nest, though Student Son does inflict grace us with his presence during holidays.

  46. Britain is reporting one death from the Satan bug.

    He was on the Diamond Princess and died in Japan. He lived abroad.

    Why is he counted amongst Britain’s death toll when he has been nowhere near Britain, as far as I can see.

    1. You know the way our idiotic media works Sos.
      Bookings for cruises will be taking a dive eh.

    1. They’re defending her not because they know anything, but because they hate Patel and what she stands for.

      I find it interesting that by suing the government, which is acting from public mandate, he is really suing his employer – us – because he didn’t do as he was told.

      I imagine there’s some truth in the anger and shouting (which is unnecessary) but Civil Servants cannot be sacked by ministers, so there are few methods of bringing an unruly official in line with policy. There will be a settlement somewhere as the statist obstructionist view won’t want to come out in court.

  48. Rutnam’s gone and may he be the first of many that have worked against the people of this Country. There is, of course, a slight problem, who will replace him? If it’s a clone with the same ideas and mindset then nothing has been gained. The elected government need to make examples of a few more ‘heads’ and ‘deputy heads’, pour encourager les autres. One is never quite enough to force meaningful change.

    1. The whole structure has to be riddled with the same ilk. Whoever’s been hired in the last 35 or 40 years will have been of the ‘right’ sort.

    2. The second in command is stepping up. The head of the Civil Service is the one who makes the appointments. He has a never ending supply of “cookie cutter”* clones.

      *Apologies for the Americanism. I felt that it is le mot juste.

      2. That’s the beauty of the English language. It’s flexible but still can be understood in its regional and national variations.

        1. ‘Afternoon, Anne, whilst I understand Horace’s use of ‘Cookie Cutter’ it’s only because I can speak and understand the American Language.

          However I beg to differ, as it is somewhat more than a regional and national variation. I have to classify it as a foreign language because I still find it hard to get acclimated to being burglarized

        2. ‘Afternoon, Anne, whilst I understand Horace’s use of ‘Cookie Cutter’ it’s only because I can speak and understand the American Language.

          However I beg to differ, as it is somewhat more than a regional and national variation. I have to classify it as a foreign language because I still find it hard to get acclimated to being burglarized

    3. “Rutnam’s gone and may he be the first of many…”

      My God, how we wish, Korky. Augean Stables springs to mind; where is our Hercules?

        1. We need a modern day Joseph Bazalgette to create a method of flushing the Establishment sewer without causing another Great Stink in the Thames.

      1. Those were my thoughts too. You should see his face as he is getting out of a car. Mulish doesn’t come into it. I would think he has never been gainsayed in the whole of his employed life.

        1. Of course he hasn’t. He’s a senior civil servant. A member of a clique that looks alike, thinks alike, acts alike. He’s used to contorl and power from behind a desk, a comfortable seat and holding meetings with people who think alike, act alike and look like him, from all the right schools.

          If he truly cared about the staff of the HO, he would not now have resigned and would be working with Patel to resolve the conflict while carrying out her mandate. That he isn’t says a fair bit.

      3. I read somewhere that ‘being dull’ is among his personal attributes. Looks like someone who has lost circa £200K pa and found a fat pension in return.

    1. Yes. The Coronavirus COVID-19 is a distraction.

      I’m not panicking about the virus. If it gets me, it gets me. So be it. I am panicking about the panicking!

        1. I am ‘panicking’ as such on behalf of our dog. I went out to replenish her supplies this lunchtime – I thought it would be quiet – and could scarcely find a space in the carpark, which the pet place shares with a small garden centre. People (mainly men) were walking out in a constant stream with great sacks of dried kibbles over their shoulder. “Gosh, I hope there’s some left for me!” I thought, as I quickened my pace, “I have probably left it too late, as usual.” However, it was still well supplied although a couple of shelves were bare.

          I think I will kick back now, have a g&t, do some ironing and listen to classic fm. All at the same time.

          5. ‘Afternoon, Poppiesmum, Best Beloved has a recipe for Dotty’s food involving Turkey mince and a whole host of veggies. I shall ask her for it when she returns from Norwich – she’s currently attending the Theatre Royal for Noel Coward’s ‘Blithe Spirit.’.

            She never asked but I for-went my ticket, in order that Dotty didn’t have to be alone for up to 9 hours. Not that she cares that much for me except as a ball-thrower (she’s a Mummy’s girl) but at least there’s a presence in the house.

            I’ll publish the recipe, once it’s available. It has been identified as far, far cheaper than bought food but of course, it depends on the size of the dog.

          6. Would be delighted to have BB’s recipe, NTN. We have a small dog, a Maltese cross….. under 10 kilos but larger than the average Maltese as her mother is a Chinese Crested-Powderpuff. However, the male determines the ancestry and he was a Maltese. See my avatar for a photograph. That is she. We don’t like to leave her for too long, either – although she is a happy little soul I think she is nervous – we have had very occasional evidence! – when we are not there if there are sounds outside (esp. with this wind) to which she is not accustomed. In ‘pack terms’ you may well be ‘leader of the pack’ and be treated with the respect due, whilst BB is rest of pack (such as it is) and best friend.

          7. Here you go, Poppiesmum – a little late but better than never:

            That Dog Food Recipe

            (Makes 2.5 kg of dog food)

            Ingredients

            1.5 litres water
            450g minced turkey
            375g brown rice
            1 teaspoon dried rosemary
            225g frozen broccoli, carrots and cauliflower

            Method

            Prep: 5min Cook: 25min Ready in: 30min

            1. Place the water, minced turkey, rice and rosemary into a large saucepan – simmer.
            2. Stir until the minced turkey is broken up and evenly distributed throughout the mixture
            3. Bring to the boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
            4. Add the frozen vegetables and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
            5. Remove from heat and cool. Refrigerate until using.

    2. I don’t see a lot of women and children. Nor doctors. Teachers, nurses. I just sea illegal economic freeloaders.

      1. I see much the same except a large number of these men are probably Islamist fighters looking for new bases in Europe.

        I doubt the Germans and their EU Commission poodle will be asking Erdogan for a refund having previously given the bastard billions of our money to contain the exodus of assorted Syrians and other scum.

        We truly inhabit an utterly dysfunctional political world.

    2. There was a very tall stand of trees near us, where wood pigeons used to roost. They were at least 70ft tall, and in the winter shaded out house and garden. They were given a major trim this week, and it looks quite bare now, but does mean that we won’t be shared from the sun for quite a few years.
      Another neighbour has planted a row of leylandii trees just ten feet or so from our rear fence. We’re keeping a close eye on them. At the moment they’re only at fence height, but give it a year or two and they’ll become a nuisance…

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/53711783606b394b1467b0ebc23c10ebc94fee5e309c8ea5e95de691fb841b67.jpg
      Photo shows the last few trees just before they get cut…

          1. In the dead of night – why not, as identified elsewhere, Leylandii are another arborative weed?

      3. Yes , we have Leylandi and Sycamores in the next drive way.. they have grown rather large , and play havoc when the sycamore shed their seeds and leaves. We have kept our garden fuss free.. beacause we have alot of hedge to keep trimmed.. .. alot of hedge!

    3. Plant a Russian Vine adjacent to the pole. It will be covered in no time with greenery and feathery white flowers in the late summer and autumn.

  56. JULIET SAMUEL

    Free speech is being crushed by fear of the mob. It’s time to fight back

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d22dd771707fccde909d7729cdc27e41ab5aa217b25cb0322c2962e56fe6372.jpg
    In certain circles, it’s something people whisper. “I voted Brexit,” they say softly – when they think it’s safe. The quietest ones are civil servants, followed by academics and then London professionals. They are not “out” at work, and often not even at dinner parties.

    Brexit has been voted through by this country twice. Yet many of these “powerful” people – for they include plenty of those villains known as “straight, white men” – are still afraid to voice support for it. They sense the vicious atmosphere around us, which polices what people are and are not allowed to say and who is or isn’t allowed to say it. It is a domain that allows for no explanation and forgives no transgressions. Free speech, while nominally still free, is being subverted by fear.

    That is the reason I agreed to be on the advisory council for an organisation that launched this week called The Free Speech Union. The FSU aims to offer support to people who are prosecuted, fired or mobbed, with no due process, for things they have said. It may be less than a week old, but in some eyes, it has already committed an original sin. It was founded by Toby Young, the writer and free school founder, otherwise known as “that misogynist, eugenicist gammon”, who was hounded out of public life in 2018 for historic Twitter posts about boobs.

    Naturally, for certain social media activist types, this was all very triggering, as they say. The snide ones wrote about how Young’s “pathetic” club is only for “Twitter dads from Surrey” (is fathering spawn in Surrey such a crime?). The officially offended, like Baroness Kennedy, quickly branded the FSU a haven for “an awful lot of ugly views”. Others online simply called it a “cover for hate speech”.

    “Hate speech” is a self-consciously powerful term. It brings to mind a group of bullying yobs cornering a foreigner at a bus stop and harassing him with slurs. But this is no longer the legal or moral extent of hate speech. Many people now believe that hate speech includes: training your dog to do a Nazi salute, sharing rude limericks about trans people, reading the Daily Mail, debating differences between genetic populations, suggesting immigration may affect wages, quoting Shakespeare or saying that women are those born with two X chromosomes.

    This ever-changing set of rules interacts in complex ways with other new codes, like the hierarchy of “intersectionality”, or victimhood, whereby people are or are not allowed to say things, cook foreign food or take certain political positions, depending on their skin colour or sexuality.

    The safest course of action, faced with this mind-boggling array of bear traps, is not to say anything. Express no opinions, make no jokes and take no risks. That, in a nutshell, is the impulse the FSU was founded to fight.

    We are always doomed to be preparing for the last war

    Salisbury Plain is not an obvious place to hear the Muslim call to prayer. But every so often, it rings out across the soggy grassland, past the sheep and ponies and windblown beech trees, over passing cars to the nearby villages. If they hear it, the locals know that there is a military training operation in progress.

    The Afghan village is a relatively recent addition to the army’s training facilities in the area. The more longstanding training set is, naturally, the German village.

    It has been around since the Eighties, though it has been enhanced since then by the addition of a mock refugee camp housed in containers. Visitors aren’t allowed in, but you can hike to the entrance on a squelchy road deeply rutted by trucks and gaze at the huddle of mean, empty houses from a distance.

    Copehill Down, as the village used to be called before the army commandeered it, tells us that we are always doomed to prepare for the last war. It was built decades after we needed to know how to take over an Ortschaft. Notwithstanding the poor state of the Brexit negotiations, I don’t expect that the army will need to prepare for that particular scenario any time soon.

    The Defence Review, in which the Government has promised to look strategically at the threats we face, is long overdue. With adversarial powers like China and Russia now engaged in a veiled conflict of political and economic systems, rather than overt military competition, defence can no longer be easily separated from other types of spending, like science and skills training.

    The next addition to Salisbury Plain may be a virtual village, rather than a Potemkin one

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/29/free-speech-crushed-fear-mob-time-fight-back/

    Hmm. Is the Afghan village intended to be a training facility or to make the British Army’s Muslim soldiers feel at home?

    1. 316703+ up ticks,
      Morning WS,
      I am supporting the one / ones who have wrongly done via the establishment, jail time for their honest stance.
      …………… Hearts of Oak.

      Ps The English / GB version.

    1. It’s a recognition that in some parts of the world democracy is unlikely ever to survive.
      Islam and Western style democracy cannot co-exist, however much one pretends that they can.

      1. …however much one pretends that they can

        How about replacing “one” with “anyone” to make it a bit more accurate.

          1. To me it makes a clearer statement. “One” is more often used these days to refer to oneself, not people in general. We could probably blame the Royal usage for that.

          3. I’m more old fashioned and still use the word in the general sense.

            I prefer “one” to “you”.

            I would tend to use “anyone” in cases such as “if anyone cares”

          1. Born, bred in England. Americans usually guess I am English – while my English relatives think I sound American. Comes with living half my life there and half here, I suppose. But these days, we do travel on our blue passports.

          2. That’ll be the American ‘Blue’ passports, I take it, as ours are held up in the Franco-Polish passport scam.

  60. Well that’s all the heavy logs I collected this morning cut to size ready for chopping & stacking.
    The lighter stuff can wait until that lot’s out of the way.

    The weather this afternoon is still cold, but there’s some pleasant sunshine, though I don’t think I’ll be venturing further than the bathroom this evening.

  61. Dear God!
    The Fins have come up with a sexy little dance to get rapists more aroused so the finish quicker and reduce the ordeal times for the victims:-

    What happened to the spirit of the country that turned back the might of the USSR in the winter war?
    https://youtu.be/d27vHyt2IPA

    1. “The Fins have come up”
      Heck, I thought it said the fins have come off, and looked for the fish.

  62. Good morning all. Finally stopped raining here but much flooding nearby, sadly.

    Their Love Lives

    Three guys were sitting at the bar, shooting the breeze. Their conversation eventually turned to sex.

    The first guy said, “You know, I’m really lucky. When my wife makes love,
    she’s like an acrobat. She can get into the most incredible positions.”

    The second guy said, “I’m lucky, too. My wife is like a world-class pianist when we have sex. She’s got the most talented hands you can
    imagine.”

    No one spoke for a moment. Then the first guy said to the third guy, “George how’s your wife in bed?”

    George took a sip of his beer, then replied, “I guess you could say that my wife makes love like a chess player.”

    “A chess player?”

    “Yeah. Every twenty minutes, she moves.”

    2. Talking of which, a few years ago i was sitting with friends at a table with a black and white checkered cloth, having lunch in a small bistro in Hampstead, one was a chess player.
      It took him 10 minutes to pass the salt.

  63. Their firewall prevents me from reading the whole article, but the normally leftist Times seems not to care for the now resigned gentleman:

    “Sir Philip Rutnam’s trail of disasters not a pretty picture”

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sir-philip-rutnams-trail-of-disasters-not-a-pretty-picture-r37m830pf
    “Not everyone’s a

    fan of Priti Patel. But our firebrand home secretary might not be wrongon everything — such as the potential upside in getting shot of her most

    senior civil servant, the permanent secretary Sir Philip Rutnam.

    Businesshas seen enough mayhem under him. Think back to his former role as thetop official at the transport department. It was on his watch that along

    came 2012’s west coast rail franchise fiasco — after First Group landed

    the contract with a preposterous £13.3 billion bid.The

    derailed incumbent, Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Trains, took legal

    action, claiming the bid competition was flawed, prompting the then

    transport secretary Justine Greening to instigate a review. It fell to

    her successor, Sir Patrick McLoughlin, to unveil2…

    “

  65. Over the past couple of days one or two folk have queried my reporting of rainfall in my locality. Well just to say I told you so.
    Here’s a report from the BBC website:
    “Rainfall data from the Met Office has shown that this month has been the wettest February since records began.
    An average of 202.1mm rainfall has fallen this month, surpassing records for February 1990, when 193.4mm fell.

    And here are the current figures for my locality:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5984095df5660fb7394ff87a35e4dc6dd5e277db251ea963bdf45a42323c4e8c.png

    As you can see we are now 600% above the historical monthly average!

    If the same rainfall pattern continues through the Summer and through to next Spring it will be very similar to what occurred in 1314-1317, which was slap bang in the middle of the Wolf Minimum of Solar activity.

      2. “But today’s top story is that we have a coronal hole facing our planet today.”
        Source; The sun.

        1. It’s not the coronal holes facing the planet that worry me – its the ar5e ‘oles on the planet that keep me awake at night!

    2. You’re still quoting that website that I questioned. I’d like to see the Met Office figures that show London and the SE has had eight inches of rain in February.

      Here’s a BBC video (before yesterday’s rain) that shows that the SE has had slightly more than double i.e. about 3 inches. I doubt you had 5 inches since.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/51680910

      1. Some of these figures can be very local.

        We’ve had inches overnight during downpours when the slightly wider area showed a fraction of the amount. Our driveway was washed away and one of the houses down the hill was flooded out, yet the town showed next to nothing.

        On another event the town was swamped and all we saw was the odd shower and mainly sunshine.

      2. Some of these figures can be very local.

        We’ve had inches overnight during downpours when the slightly wider area showed a fraction of the amount. Our driveway was washed away and one of the houses down the hill was flooded out, yet the town showed next to nothing.

        On another event the town was swamped and all we saw was the odd shower and mainly sunshine.

      3. We have suffered very heavy rainfall on many many occasions this month. After over 8 hours of persistent heavy rain yesterday I do not doubt the figure of 12.2 mm reported by weather,com. I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the figures. Furthermore my garden is supersaturated more so than any time than over the past 35 years.

      4. We have suffered very heavy rainfall on many many occasions this month. After over 8 hours of persistent heavy rain yesterday I do not doubt the figure of 12.2 mm reported by weather,com. I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the figures. Furthermore my garden is supersaturated more so than any time than over the past 35 years.

    1. Another snowflake with a reality problem. I guess, from the supporting ‘female’, whom I recognise but cannot name, that this is a spoof.

        1. Thank you, Anne, they try to do Monty Python or ‘That Was The Week…’ and fail, miserably.

    2. That bugger sat next to me on a flight. Dressed as a woman with binoculars pretending to be a plane spotter. Had the passengers giggling, all except bloody me that is. Luckily a very short flight.

    5. I remember switching on the telly and Eurovision was in progress.
      Within a few seconds I knew for certain that I was watching the winner.
      Can’t remember the song, but it was some Irish group that was very good at dancing.

      1. People who are on annual salaries or pensions i.e. paid every calendar month, have to work an extra day and/or wait an extra day for their payment.

        1. Alternatively they get 3 extra days free and have to work the 4th one. Always two ways of looking at anything.

        2. On the Railway the tradition is four weekly paydays so once a year you get two paydays in a single calendar month.

          1. People who are paid weekly or four-weekly (e.g. the state pension) are not affected by the leap year having an extra day.

        3. But there are only 29 days in February, not thirty or thirty-one. So they get paid for days that they are not working.

    3. T_B, I laughed when I read the caption from the Sun, “every four years roughly”
      Can you remember having a leap year after 3 or 5 or 6 years, ever!

          1. Technically I certainly don’t remember them. The next non-leap year will be 2100, if mankind is still around and or we’re not using a Muslim calendar.

    4. T_B, I laughed when I read the caption from the Sun, “every four years roughly”
      Can you remember having a leap year after 3 or 5 or 6 years, ever!

    1. She wants to get rid of the bastards for a reason. Just like Trump did across the pond. I see light at the end of the tunnel………….

    2. She wants to get rid of the bastards for a reason. Just like Trump did across the pond. I see light at the end of the tunnel………….

      1. Rutnam is throwing his toys out of the pram. The BBC are relishing this and gave him a good slot on the !pm radio 4 news to advertise his distaste for Priti Patel.

      1. A C Grayling is the Spider Woman leader of the disastrous ‘unlawful’ proroguing ‘judgement”. Soon to be out on her ear when the ‘Supreme’ (Ha Ha) Court is abolished.

        1. I’m a bit confused. Lady Hale has I think retired but certainly is no longer the leader of the Supreme Court. I heartily agree that the S C should be abolished but, like HS2, think it unlikely. Grayling’s appearance is like Lady H I must say.

          1. Hi, Vouvray, if you scroll down you will see my Oops and apology. That twerp uses a spider icon and has longish hair. I mistook it for the not so Hale and Hearty (She’s more like fail and farty). My apologies, once again.

        2. Oops, sorry, it was the ‘Black Widow’ icon that fooled me. He needs either a hair cut or a throat cut.

    2. Clearly the law is being broken but we now seem to have a police force with a political agenda. The officers should have asked them to move and should they have not done so they should have been arrested

      2. Just a small one to start with, the political types become worse as they get bigger and older.

      3. Just a small one to start with, the political types become worse as they get bigger and older.

      1. Knew a couple here. She got pregnant, then they got engaged and planned to marry after she gave birth. Her mother was just a delight. A good Italian Catholic lady from New Joysey, “I told huh, first you get engaged, then you get married and then you have babies”.

      1. Too busy bonking to be business busy, more likely. I love a bit of alliteration on a Saturday evening with a nice chilled sauvignon blanc.

          1. Not a great fan of chardonnay but the New Zealand sauvignon blancs I’ve got are very nice. Chilean merlot can be good and the Portuguese ‘black reds’ i.e. very dark in colour wines, I ordered, are excellent.

          2. I agree.

            But there are a lot of superb whites made with chardonnay grapes.

            I you haven’t tried it/them, I can recommend several, a Pernand-Vergelesses might be a good starter for 10

          3. I’ve received a couple of chardonnays from my wine club, both Pays d’Oc IIRC. They were the both quite good but I would have a NZSB or a decent pinot grigio before the chardonnay.

          6. I’ve received a couple of chardonnays from my wine club, both Pays d’Oc IIRC. They were the both quite good but I would have a NZSB or a decent pinot grigio before the chardonnay.

          7. I agree.

            But there are a lot of superb whites made with chardonnay grapes.

            I you haven’t tried it/them, I can recommend several, a Pernand-Vergelesses might be a good starter for 10

          8. Sauv blanc is a bit too sweet for me to have with meals – like Vouvray, nice chilled sitting outside on a summer’s afternoon. I like chard as long as it not the “oaked” style.

      1. 316703+ up votes,
        Afternoon NtN,
        The party I belong to ( the real UKIP) never gave away
        the rights of free speech as with many other issues handed over to foreign forces
        to begin with.
        The lab/lib/con pro eu coalition did, gladly.

        1. Good afternoon, ogga

          Many of us agree with most of UKIP’s philosophies and policies. Many of us would join were it not for the fact that party cannot organise anything properly and seems to be a complete shambles.

          Can you not see that?

          1. Or possibly that it’s been deliberately sabotaged from within. These organisations always get infiltrated, political parties as well as anarchist groups, etc.

          2. That’s what MI5 and “Special Branch” are for. I also allows the infiltrators to seduce women.

          3. 316703+up ticks,
            Afternoon R,
            I can see all to clearly what has happened & what is happening.
            The party first mode of voting over the decades regardless of consequence ie, worn out , point of collapse infrastructure, political cover ups, murder, mass paedophilia, etc,etc all down to the governance parties.
            Many seemingly put party before underage family members and most definitely before Country, yet you among many others are telling me that I have impaired vision.
            Have you not seen my post pointing out and asking the reason WHY the ersatz NEc within UKIP is hell bent on destroying the party , WHY ?
            Why has UKIP when having a run of success , always been
            suppressed WHY ?
            It is always allowed to go so far then is reigned in, orchestrated.
            How can one say it “cannot organise anything properly” when
            it organised worked hard at & triggered the referendum, have you and others the gall to now tell me they had a hand in the treacherous bollocks shown by the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition party post 24/6/2016 ?

            May I suggest that you and those that agree with you best check out spec-savers, urgently.

          4. There is nothing worse than traitors and enemies within and I am sure you are right that there is a cancer within UKIP determined to destroy it. Chaucer described as as the dangerous fire which burns in the bedding.

            But the enemies within are not just confined to UKIP – we have millions of British people who loathe Britain and wish to betray it and we have a very long way to go before this has been stamped out.

            Don’t get me wrong – philosophically I have always supported many of UKIP’s ideas and I only wish that a coherent leadership could emerge to make it into a more positive and effective force in British politics.

          5. 316703+ up ticks,
            Afternoon R,
            This Chaucer chap had it right, now listen up, Gerard Batten took the interim leadership for one year, the membership multiplied by 13000 plus, he asked the membership for £100000 & received in reply £300000.
            As he stated he would stand down after a year to allow a leadership election, he did just that then added his name as a candidate.
            The ersatz NEc judged him to be “not of good standing within the party” and disallowed his bid.
            Are you getting the idea that something is amiss ?
            Next up was Richard Braine who won the leadership election
            very convincingly, he in turn wanted Batten as deputy, denied by the ersatz NEc, Braine was obstructed in every way by the NEc until he resigned as leader.
            Getting the picture ?
            The leadership was in place, the leader pulling in support on a daily basis, at the same time putting the party in the financial black, there was NO WAY that could be allowed to continue
            hence the sleepers were triggered.
            In my book it is FEAR of a success of the real UKIP that has brought this about, nothing more, nothing less.

          6. Oh, Ogga, we are not blind – we are aware that more than something is well amiss.

            The questions are:
            What will UKIP membership do about it?
            What can UKIP membership do about it ?
            When will UKIP membership do something about?

            Questions, questions but answers, came there none.

            Until there is visible movement against the current NEC, you are all lost – I shall have nothing more to do with it until you have a viable NEC and an elected, credible leader.

          7. 316703+ up ticks,
            NtN,
            You mean you would not help to rectify what has taken place at least that’s honest.
            We had a very credible leader in Gerard Batten that is what this is all about, research first then comment please.

          8. I’ve done all the research necessary and I find the current UKIP wanting. End of story.

            Until it’s put right my recent membership stays cancelled.

            If you are the fanatic you appear to be, then why don’t you get stuck into the NEC and put it right, rather than blethering on this forum with mere platitudes?

          9. 316703+ up ticks,
            Evening NtN,
            You are correct in the start of your reply, then you go downhill somewhat in not wanting to help, sad really.

          10. 316703+ up ticks,
            By the same token what will the current lab/lib/con supporter / voters do about the state of these Isles especially over the last two decades in rectifying matters such as mass treachery, mass
            paedophilia rape & abuse, mass knifing / acid scarring, cover up of odious dealings so as not to tarnish the
            parties GOOD name ? any time soon ?

          11. I must say, Ogga, that you seem a little, shall we say, misguided in such a reply. Why be so rude to, as Rastus says, many of us on here who may support many UKIP ideas?

          12. 316703+ up ticks,
            Afternoon V,
            Please allow R to reply himself as he knows full well where I am coming from and have been for a great number of years.
            There is no rudeness intended just facts.
            Many just refuse to face facts as is seen by the voting pattern
            believing more in hope, & that is a sure fire way of losing a country, as you can see it is working out well is it not ?
            I am “misguided” then have R querying my eyesight, enough I say enough,I am standing eyebrow deep in politico’s / parties of a proven treacherous nature and being castigated by many of the very peoples who support / vote for them.

          13. Yet, Ogga, you still desperately HOPE that UKIP might sort itself out.

            Until you get a proper, democratic NEC then No Hope!.

          14. 316703+ up ticks,
            Afternoon NtN,
            Wrong again I don’t depend on hope in politics be a fool to, look at this governance party currently the membership is hoping that is all you hear “we hope” boris does the right thing, are the peoples bloody joking the future of the country at stake and many are “hoping” certain has NEVER entered the equation.

          16. Ain’t it just amazing how 99.9% of posters on this forum are always, “Wrong Again”.

            Perhaps we should all enrol in the UKIP thought correction classes, run by your good self.

            You are heading for the dangerous shoals of ‘blocked’. Attend your own thought-correction classes.

          17. 316703+ up ticks,
            NtN,
            I do beg to differ I would only say “wrong again” only in the context of those still supporting / voting for the lab/lib/con coalition,and you occasionally, these facts speak for themselves
            on viewing the condition of the country,more of the same is NOT the way to continue going.
            It is your prerogative using a blocking card.

  75. Speaking of which……….

    We were sitting in a little café overlooking a French market square. At the table next to us a couple were arguing… in English, speaking as quietly as their argument allowed. We stared out at the square. We didn’t speak to each other. We were earwigging!

    “You only have café au lait at breakfast time” the woman said.

    “Who says?” the man replied.

    “Anyone who knows”

    “Anyone who knows what?

    “Anyone with savoir-faire.”

    “Savoir-faire. What’s that when it’s at home?”

    “It’s knowing what to do… which you clearly don’t!”

    “And I suppose you do?”

    “Well better than you!”

    “That’s you isn’t it? Always thinking you’re a cut above everyone else, me especially. Well let me tell you, Marie always has café au lait… or as I call it milky coffee… every evening… and her family are French aristocracy. So you can put that well and truly in your savoir-faire and smoke it!

    “Ah, Marie, lovely, sexy Marie! I wondered how long it would take you to get her into the conversation. And when do you see Marie of an evening, eh George? Is there something you need to tell me then?”

    “Yes dear. I’m leaving you. Olé!”

    NH.

  76. British and US troops home in 14 months under Taliban peace deal. 29 February 2020 • 4:58pm.

    Britain’s force of 1,100 troops in Afghanistan could be home by next spring under an historic agreement between America and the Taliban aimed at bringing peace to the country.

    The accord signed on Saturday in Doha said America will withdraw “all military forces of the United States, its allies, and coalition partners” within 14 months if the deal holds.

    Evening everyone. Well the Americans have finally surrendered which is a better ending than Vietnam. Who is the next moron going into this hellhole? Probably the Chinese!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/29/american-nato-troops-could-leave-afghanistan-14-months-taliban/

    1. Probably the Chinese!

      The Chinese are probably ruthless enough to give it a try. However, sweet and sour pork won’t go down well.😎

    2. 316703+ up ticks,
      Evening AS,
      The lawyers will be slavering what with
      another 1100 fresh potential war crime
      candidates on offer.

    3. 316703+ up ticks,
      Evening AS,
      The lawyers will be slavering what with
      another 1100 fresh potential war crime
      candidates on offer.

    4. The Russians had a go about forty years back.
      And the C19 Great Game was played out in that area.

    5. The Russians had a go about forty years back.
      And the C19 Great Game was played out in that area.

    6. Lord knows why there has always been so much fighting in Afghanistan. It is, after all, the bit of land left between the surrounding countries that nobody wanted.

      1. It is, after all, the bit of land left between the surrounding countries that nobody wanted.

        Perhaps that tells us all we need to know about the people that inhabit that godforsaken piece of the Planet?

    1. Our news outlets have never shown anything of this.
      Perhaps they are embarrassed.
      It looks like Johannesburg.

        1. I remain surprised that the French Parisians put up with this scum shitting and urinating in their boulevards.

          The area around St Denis, the first Gothic Cathedral, where French kings are interred, is evidently a no-go area for white people and non-Muslims. The current invaders make the former Algerian occupants of the Arrondissement look peaceful.

        2. I realise that TB. 😊
          But look at the website The death of Johannesburg.
          It looks like that part of Paris.
          Africans make a filthy mess of most of their cities and towns. It’s the easiest thing in the world to pick up your own rubbish. There’s no labour shortage.

    3. How recent is that clip? The Mayor(ess) of Paris was adamant that those living under motorways and the like would be moved to camps outside the city.
      In any event, I expect it will all be nice and lovely by April when the tourists arrive.

    1. A propelling pencil..

      Question is how did he rally to the challenge .. he is whoppingly heavy and rather grunty , sweaty and clumsy sounding ..

      He must be terribly fertile .. Five children already!

      2. Boris’s critics cannot now accuse the PM of not having balls.
        However, as it Leap Year, credit must go to Carrie for taking the initiative and being the girl on top!

  79. Just happened to have the TV on last night about midnight while getting ready for bed, when the Bbc interviewed a Californian law professor about the USA’s handling of the Corona virus. I wondered why they weren’t talking to a medical expert, and then it became obvious. Although admitting Trump was handling it OK, she went on to complain about his treatment of the media, claiming he was starving it of information in violation of the 1st Amendment. Unbelievable!

    1. Just like over here then. With people saying why isn’t the government doing this – why isn’t Boris going to flood hit areas – what isn’t the government telling us about the Coronavirus … it’s ridiculous. The media has blown this all out of proportion. Apparently 2008/9 13,000 died from flu in the U.K. so far 1 UK person has died from Coronavirus and that was in Japan.

      I think Alf has already put a link on regarding the new virus about an hour ago.

    2. Perhaps the corona virus has already mutated into the virus invented by Dean Koontz in his book of 1981.
      It turned people’s brains into puss.
      Description Posted by TB yesterday morning.

  80. Corona virus worr
    I feel sorry for the poor bloke who, after having told the foreign doctor he had a temperature and worried about the corona virus, was told to go home and self immolate ? ? ?

    2. Well if you suspect a high temperature, self immolation is the way to go.
      After all, it guarantees the high temperature and probably sanitizes while you are at it.

  83. Hoorah. It’s stopped raining and Spartie can go for a walk.
    A spot of Spekkie reading: Douglas Murray on form.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/how-sinn-fein-got-away-with-murder/

    “How Sinn Fein got away with murder | The Spectator

    The online world should be credited when it gets something right. And on Twitter an account titled ‘On This Day the IRA’ gets something very right. Granted, it’s not your usual internet fare. It includes no videos of cute animals sneezing. It is simply an archive-rich account which records what the IRA did on that day in history.

    Naturally, each day brings more than one thing to commemorate. On the day I’m writing, the account records James Keenan and Martin McGuigan, two Catholic 16-year-olds blown up by the IRA in 1979 while they were on their way to a Saturday night dance. There are also anniversaries from 1977 and 1988, and Reginald Williamson, a 46-year-old father of two who was killed in 1993. The girlfriend of the off-duty RUC member was driving behind him in a separate car after a night out together. She described the effects of the under-car bomb going off. A bang, a scream, and then, as she ran over to her boyfriend, the first fruit of the IRA’s labours: ‘I looked down and his legs were gone.’

    Aside from families, friends and this sombre account, few people remember these dead. Few joined the ranks of famous victims who emerged from larger, or state-caused, atrocities. The families rarely got any apology out of the IRA greater than ‘Sorry our car bomb went off early, or in the wrong street’.

    If there was any justification for this, it was that in the North and the South of Ireland things needed to move on. For two decades, such sentiment held because the peace held. This in spite of disturbing corners, such as those secret portions of the Good Friday Agreement that allowed the loved ones of people killed by British soldiers to seek justice, while the families of those killed by the IRA were expected to watch their murderers walk free, and sometimes into government.

    Now elections in the Republic of Ireland have come along to further unsettle this moral equilibrium. Three weeks ago Sinn Fein won more votes than any other party, and as a result the political wing of the IRA is negotiating to form a government in Dublin. True, there have already been upsets. Soon after the election there was a Labour-like scandal when it turned out that one of SF’s new elected representatives, Reada Cronin, had a social media history that even Baroness Chakrabarti might have thought fishy. Among other things, Ms Cronin appeared to favour the idea that the Rothschild family conspired with Adolf Hitler to bring about the Holocaust.

    Over the days in which Cronin was forced to do the usual apology tour, I’m sure I was not alone in feeling that there was more to say. Have we become so preoccupied with online crimes that actual crimes have begun to take a back seat? Or is there perhaps a certain boredness — a certain tedium — with stating the bleeding obvious? Whatever the explanation, while the press were focusing on one Shinner’s anti-Semitism, a voice in my head kept shouting: ‘What about the paramilitary wing? What about the death squads? What about all the dead — all the Jameses and Martins and Reginalds?’ A party so unbothered, if not proud, of its actual crimes will hardly be detained by a few online infelicities.

    True, the party has spent recent years adapting to the new ‘social justice’ mantras that have swept Ireland even faster than every-where else in recent years. SF have almost managed their rebrand from murderous nationalists to social justice internationalists. Though it has included some grindingly noisy gear changes. Four years ago a Sinn Fein senator in the North claimed that the 1981 hunger strikers died for gay rights. How I would love to have seen someone say to a naked Bobby Sands, sitting in his cell: ‘So I hear you’re doing all this for the gays, Bobby?’ For his response would likely have been neither diverse nor inclusive.

    But it is all of a piece. While most people weren’t watching, the Shinners dolled themselves up for a new generation. And the election results showed how many people in Ireland were persuaded by this. Deciding in the process that the past was less important than the future, as though the two were separable. So we can now observe a party trying to form a government whose relatively kindly face is Mary Lou McDonald — a woman very happy to shout the IRA slogan ‘Our day will come’. The Dail is adorned by Dessie Ellis, a former IRA man reported to have been linked to around 50 murders. Even the party’s younger sparks like David Cullinane are happy to toe the old line when it comes to the murderers. Cullinane concluded his election night address with all the old slogans, including ‘Up the RA’ [IRA]. Picked up on by the national press afterwards, Cullinane said he had nothing to apologise for and in any case, his comments were about the past, not the future.

    The discovery that Gerry Adams is on Sinn Fein’s negotiating team cast further doubt on that — curiously, though, Sinn Fein didn’t announce his involvement in the talks. Only when the party’s own internal documents were leaked and revealed that Adams was on the team did a new generation have another chance to get used to the idea that Sinn Fein don’t always tell the truth.

    So is it all in the past? Not according to Ireland’s own police chief, Drew Harris, who this week said what everyone in the intelligence and policing community knows — which is that Sinn Fein the political party is to this day still overseen by the army council of the IRA. Meaning that the next Irish government could be led by the only party for miles — or decades — around that comes with all the advantages that can be accrued in a democracy from having your own armed assassination gang.

    Perhaps this is what history always feels like. Politicians lie to gain power. Memories fade. As the ‘On This Day’ account reminds us, people get away with murder. But Sinn Fein’s success is a reminder also of one of the great mysteries of Ireland, both North and South: how a people famous for remembering everything can have forgotten so much.”

    2. Good afternoon all.
      Some Nottlers may recall that there was an historical inquest last year in the UK, and one of the witnesses had to ask permission to testify from the current head of the PIRA council, who apparently lives in or near Dublin. It must be alarming for the Army in (the Republic of) Ireland to realise that they are watched and presumably infiltrated by a criminal organisation.

    3. The IRA murdered people, so did the terrorists purporting to be Unionists. Just not law-abiding Unionists, obviously. None of the terrorist groups were anything other than murderers, and often stupid and mistaken ones at that. The roots of these horrors go back hundreds of years and gave rise to injustices that continued well into living memory. The idea of “one man, one vote” did not apply in NI in 1968*. That was forty years after all women over 21 got the vote in Great Britain. In addition to that gerrymandering was traditional. The civil rights movement in NI looked to Martin Luther King for ideas in changing this deliberately engineered oppressive anachronism. The UK government were entirely complacent and incredibly stupid for not intervening directly, introducing direct rule and making the necessary democratic changes. They had the example of the colonies to follow, had they wished – Kenya had universal suffrage in 1961. Douglas Murray seems to have forgotten the adulation and celebration of Nelson Mandela, the reprieved murderer.

      *In 1968 I lived in Scotland and I had the vote in council and Westminster elections. Had I been in NI, neither would have been the case.

      2. This song was very popular in the early 70s amongst the British Forces in Germany where I was stationed at the time. It was said that the PTB banned the song from the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) but it had plenty of air time somehow.

        1. Banned by the BBC, but it was never off BFBS.
          Who remembers Richard Astbury of BFBS Germany??

          1. Old Asters was a right sleazy one to the wives who called into his show, asking the most suggestive questions etc. One day one woman called in and was stringing him along for a few minutes then announced that she was his wife. Cue jingle: Asters Asters Asters…

          2. I remember a lass telling him she was going to be married in a couple of weeks and him asking if it was going to be white wedding.
            “Yes,” she replied.
            “Do you deserve a white wedding?” came his next question!
            How the hell he didn’t get knuckled I don’t know!

          3. Old Asters was a right sleazy one to the wives who called into his show, asking the most suggestive questions etc. One day one woman called in and was stringing him along for a few minutes then announced that she was his wife. Cue jingle: Asters Asters Asters…

          4. There was another song about the blessed choggie wallahs in NI which went: “Belfast, Belfast, lovely town, doesn’t matter if your skin is brown…” I’d love to get a copy of that one.

          8. There was another song about the blessed choggie wallahs in NI which went: “Belfast, Belfast, lovely town, doesn’t matter if your skin is brown…” I’d love to get a copy of that one.

          9. Ah, I remember it being banned by one broadcaster and my addled memory assumed that it was BFBS. Thanks for correcting me. Good days, though, weren’t they?

  84. New Zealand Rugby is inspired in introducing a national under-85kg competition – English rugby could learn a thing or two
    S’wat I said two years ago.
    Rugby Union players are getting too big and it is spoiling the game.

    2. Yes, and too powerful with it. When I played * our half-backs and backs weighed (in stone) pretty much the same as the number on the back of the jersey. Although, myself asa wing , I was working hard to reach that number.

      *Very loose use of the word.

  85. Interesting comment from the Spectator

    “There
    has been an interesting deletion from the record of Matthew Parris’
    Times column of 22nd February attacking Priti Patel. In the original
    column Parris assures readers that the sources of his information about
    Priti Patel’s bad conduct must remain confidential but he assures the
    reader that they are of the highest standard and probity. He stated that
    as is normal for all journalists his sources must remain confidential
    and that his readers must trust him as to the quality of the information
    he is presenting against Priti Patel. Amazing that this part of the
    column has now been deleted just as the now former permanent secretary
    is trying to deny having briefed against Patel.This stinks to high
    heaven.”
    Now THAT’S Awkward

  86. “Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe suspected of having coronavirus”
    Not that bloody woman again.
    I will apologise if I am wrong. but the odds against are about a million to one.

    1. Her husband puts me in mind of Brendan Cox. Not sure why. Something to do with being oleaginous and seeking publicity in the McCann mode of operation.

      Folk who seek to blame others for their own mistakes and cause the British state enormous costs in the cover-up of their own evident misdemeanours.

          1. Not a perfect location but a perfect location does not exist. Manston already has one large runway that can take any plane, It has enough space to be expanded to at least 5 runways, Planes would mainly take off and land over the sea minimizing noise . It could be connected to HS1. It is far away from London as well that traveling to the airport by rail would be an attractive option. Currently the HS1 line i rated to 300kmh (186 mph) but could be upgraded. This would put London within about 20 minutes with connections to the rest of the rail network being made via the proposed Old Oak Common rail hub

    1. All this “anti Priti” stuff would, of course, be racist (and probably sexist) except, she’s a Tory – so it’s OK!

      1. Priti Patel is the MP for Witham, one of the more crime ridden areas in North Essex. She knows at first hand the problems associated with thieving Roma folk and Irish Travellers, County Lines drug gangs brazenly operating outside our schools and a wholly inadequate police presence on our streets.

        I for one wish Priti well and she certainly has the support of my immediate associates and friends, all of whom wish to see some positive action to combat and defeat criminals in our area.

          1. I agree Bob. Priti Patel is one of our better MPs and needs our support.

            Having been involved in several high profile government buildings my experiences of the civil service left me in no doubt that most of their minions are clock watchers, and both obstructive and incompetent. The more senior characters such as Under Secretaries were no better.

    2. A C Grayling is certifiable and has been for decades. Care in the community would be an insufficient confinement, either a full blown mental asylum or else a prison for nutters might suffice.

    1. Yup. Decades ago I used Microsoft on Windows NT with Norton anti-virus software. The Norton rubbish took an hour to load and thereafter slowed the machine chronically. I switched to Macintosh thank God.

    2. Yup. Decades ago I used Microsoft on Windows NT with Norton anti-virus software. The Norton rubbish took an hour to load and thereafter slowed the machine chronically. I switched to Macintosh thank God.

  102. 4 months for the EU to reach a deal with us. . June is the date the EU set as they wanted time to agree it with all the EU countries. In reality I suspect the EU will move on that date rather than have us walk away

    1. You underestimate the innate arrogance of the EU. The EU continues to believe that they are in the driving seat in negotiations with the UK. They could not be more wrong.

  103. Premier League must toe VAR line, says Fifa’s referee chief, as radical review of offside planned for next season
    All this fuss about offside or not offside.
    All players have pretty accurate GPS trackers sewn into their shirts. Why can’t they take this positioning to show whether or not they are in front of or behind the other player?

  104. Sleb Mastermind
    Ade Edmondson wins with a score higher than the other three combined
    Should be retitled

    Cruelty to Dumb Animals

  105. Ferrets in a sack.
    A Spekkie read: you may need to concentrate rather carefully.

    Labour’s dark secret is safe with Keir Starmer

    Nick Cohen

    29 February 2020 7:00 AM

    “Keir Starmer knows. He’s not saying anything, not letting one word of criticism of the Corbyn regime escape his lips, but he knows better than the journalists who cover politics, better than you, me or anyone who hasn’t lived in Labour for the past five years, the depth of the disgrace of the British left.

    Starmer knows because he was in the meetings that excused Putin and failed to tackle anti-Semitism. He knows because he saw Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, Seumas Milne and Andrew Murray close up. And I for one would love to hear his insider account of life with the cranky tankies. More to the point, Starmer knows because he lived through the wars on the left in his own constituency.

    The media profiles do not pay enough attention to the factional struggles that surrounded him. Starmer may have served Corbyn, when his more principled colleagues refused to compromise. He may be a man of the left, as a history of offering legal advice, usually free of charge, to every radical cause from the mid-1980s on shows. But although he attended its services, he was not a part of the cult and it has never forgiven him for his failure to worship at the true church.

    Starmer would not be favourite to become the next Labour leader, if allies in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency in the north London borough of Camden had not fought to eliminate the possibility of the far left deselecting him. Elections for every minor post in the constituency Labour party have been ideological struggles of the utmost ferocity. I know Labour members who saw their free time disappear as they fought to keep the local branch of Momentum in its box. Most people in Camden Labour will talk only in private. But enough is on the record for outsiders to get an idea of the ugliness of London Labour life.

    Far from welcoming the prospect of their MP becoming leader of the opposition, Camden Momentum greeted Starmer’s candidacy with a public appeal for Labour members not to vote for him. Starmer was ‘making an opportunistic tilt to the left – because he correctly perceives that the majority of the membership wants to continue what Jeremy Corbyn started,’ it stated.

    Leftists should not be fooled. Starmer ‘presides over a constituency Labour party which contains only officers with a history of outright opposition to Jeremy Corbyn’. In other words, Camden Momentum lost elections for party posts and did not take defeat gracefully. ‘As left-leaning party members we have been completely marginalised by the right in the local party who support Keir Starmer,’ its supporters complained.

    When Jon Lansman, Momentum’s founder admitted Labour has ‘a major problem’ with anti-Semitism, Camden Momentum denounced him for ‘siding with those who have made unfounded allegations against the party’.

    The refusal to face up to racism is par for the course on the Camden left. The Sunday Times reported on one Phil Vasili, who it describes as ‘an amateur historian who has posted dozens of times saying the CIA and Mossad ‘masterminded’ 9/11. He is chairman of Unite Community Camden and its delegate on Holborn and St Pancras Labour Party’. Naturally, he saw Starmer, as a ‘right wing coup loser’ and ‘neoliberal Blairite’

    Lansman himself played a role in the destruction of the career of Sally Gimson, a Camden councillor and a friend and ally of Starmer’s. Just before the last election Gimson won the Labour nomination for Bassetlaw. She wasn’t meant to succeed. The left had decided the seat should go to a Unite nominee.

    Lansman and his comrades on Labour’s National Executive Committee went for Gimson. There were claims of ‘very serious allegations’ against Gimson. The complaints, she was told, were that she had targeted vulnerable members at constituency meetings. ‘It was a Stalinist show trial,’ her lawyer told me. The Holborn party said there had never been ‘any formal investigation into Sally Gimson’. Lansman and the NEC did not take into consideration statements from over 20 members ‘refuting the unproven allegations’. Gimson was not even present at the meeting when they stripped her of the candidacy. She heard the court pass its verdict down a phone line.

    You can get a measure of the pettiness and spite in Camden from learning that Lansman and the NEC accused Gimson of calling ‘a young member a f**king idiot’. The only reason for the complaint Labour members could think of was a trivial incident at a meeting last year. Gimson had an argument with one Duncan Michie, and told him, by her account, that he was being ‘silly’. Gimson’s accusers appeared to have turned ‘silly’ into ‘f**ing stupid’ and used that as a reason to humiliate and deselect a candidate.

    Michie is hardly a standard victim of Blairite oppression. His father, Jonathan, is president of Oxford university’s Kellogg College. His aunt Susan Michie’s family hails from Aberconway House, a 2,800-square-metre home in Mayfair. She joined the Communist party of Britain with her husband Andrew Murray, a descendant of the Earl of Perth, and through his half-Spanish Anglo-Irish mother, of the royal house of Navarre.

    Murray went to work for Corbyn. Their daughter and Duncan’s cousin, Laura Murray worked in Corbyn’s office. You get a better class of Marxist-Leninist in north London.

    You would not know about the turmoil that has surrounded him from Starmer’s campaign. His refusal to speak out is representative of hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, on the British left, who will never admit they went along with a wicked movement. I keep searching for the right metaphor for the silence that has descended on the post-Corbyn Labour party. It’s like a family with a dark secret it can never discuss. Or like Spain after the fall of Franco or Greece after the colonels were overthrown. The new leaders know that too many people were complicit in the crimes of the past, and the best tactic is to quietly move forward and forget.

    In Labour’s case, however, the arguments around Corbyn cannot be forgotten. Labour MPs have warned Starmer that the far left will come for him. It’ll wait a year or 18 months and then say that Starmer is too ‘technocratic’. There will be talk of ‘betrayal,’ of Jeremy’s legacy being ‘sold out,’ and of Starmer being ‘a neo-liberal Blairite’. Corbyn himself may lead the attack. The far left has never had so much power in Labour’s history, it’s not going to give it up without a fight, and I think Starmer knows it.”

    1. These people are absolutely evil and how can they purport to care for the people who ignorantly support them..

      They are anti establishment, anti British values and terribly controlling .. they would prefer to be servants of the raised arm and clenched fist of the RED flag..

  106. Yes, we are facing an epidemic – but it is one of panic and self-flagellation

    JANET DALEY

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2da417b1f0cdcfbb3a9d8a3989ff981dc9ebb491078025f8e24ed79c0dabdf8b.jpg
    From climate to coronavirus, medieval thinking has triggered a crisis of self-loathing

    We must all have been transported backwards in our sleep, because we seem to have woken up in the Middle Ages – to a world of child saints and plague towns and apocalyptic helplessness. To push the medieval analogy to its logical end, we could end up attributing both the coronavirus and what is now inevitably described as a “climate emergency” to divine retribution: punishment for the sins of globalisation and the pursuit of mass prosperity.

    Surely, the soothsayers will conclude, people were not meant to travel so far and so frequently from their place of birth. Nor should the goods that they produce be shipped to all corners of the earth to be consumed in alien lands. In the quest for ever-greater wealth, we have lost touch with our roots and our sacred places. This terrible End of Days is a warning…

    Well, perhaps it hasn’t quite reached this point of absurdity but give it another few weeks. (In fact, the most extreme form of climate activism already talks like this.) What is truly alarming about the response to this phenomenon in its varied forms – floods, virus, whatever – is its failure to allude to the obvious: the remarkable capacity of human intelligence for invention, adaptation and co-operation. Instead of emphasising the virtues that have permitted the most ingenious species of life ever to inhabit the planet to alter and affect the conditions in which it can survive, this bizarre cult of guilt demands endless remorse.

    Instead of hope through rational progress, the message is overwhelmingly of blame. Even while demanding positive change, Extinction Rebellion manages to sound as if it loathes everybody (or maybe just everybody in the Western world since it oddly fails to stage any protests at the Chinese embassy) and will be satisfied with nothing less than total self-abnegation. Indeed, some climate emergency spokesmen openly long for a radical reduction in the world’s population – so maybe the advent of coronavirus suits them quite well.

    The most extreme interpretations of data are presented as objective fact. The most terrifyingly tendentious projections dominate the public discourse so aggressively that any expression of doubt appears irresponsible. But the encouragement of panic is the very opposite of responsibility: it is conducive to hasty, unsound decisions as desperation replaces reasoned argument.

    No one can deny that the floods that have caused such havoc in the English regions are genuinely tragic for those whose homes and businesses have been destroyed. But to count as evidence of an imminent and inevitable change in the climate, they have to beat the 1990 February rainfall record of 193.4 mm. As of 25 February, this year’s total was 179.3 mm.

    You may say that even if the “climate emergency” talk is overblown, it can do no harm to behave as if it were literally accurate and take the precautions that might mitigate the damage. This may be true but only if it does not distract from what might be a more practically remedial problem: many experts, including some eminently well-informed letter writers to this newspaper, have suggested that the management of rivers is the more immediate cause of the current flooding. If that is the case, then evangelical climate activism with its insistence that the only possible remedies involve drastic restrictions on economic growth, could actually be a hindrance to finding an effective solution.

    This alternative view of the twin crises that are currently dominating the news cycle – climate and coronavirus – was put into interesting perspective by Mark Carney in his last interview as Governor of the Bank of England. What he told Sky News was that (contrary to the rabble rousing XR rhetoric) the need to deal with the new dilemmas could eventually accelerate economic growth: research, discovery and innovation would create more opportunities for employment and investment. That is how free market societies have generally seen the need for change – as an open field for opportunity, not an excuse for contraction. To put it even more baldly: that is the difference between rationality and superstition.

    Something has gone badly wrong when the world passively accepts flagellation from a teenage girl who was, by her own and her parents’ admission, suffering from serious mental disturbance before finding a miraculous deliverance through leadership of her climate campaign. I have all the sympathy in the world for the kind of psychological breakdown which so many adolescent girls experience as they encounter the shock of female puberty. But I draw the line at sacrificing the prosperity and security of the populations of the world (including parts of it which have, until very recently, lived in poverty) for the sake of providing therapy.

    Of course, there is ambivalence among the governing classes over this public mood. Having the population’s consciousness focused on what seem to be acts of God (virus epidemics) or events of such cosmic enormity that they appear to dwarf the power of individual states (climate change) could be quite useful. It takes people’s minds off of the day-to-day business which elected leaders are expected to handle. But when the markets begin to crash and real incomes – both in earnings and profits – are threatened, it then becomes very hard to restore morale. This is what wartime governments have always known: don’t ever let despair get the upper hand.

    So can we just remind ourselves that human beings are not dinosaurs? They are not dumb galumphing creatures, incapable of understanding and adapting to circumstances, fated to be swept away by incomprehensible events. With their outsize brains and opposable thumbs, they have triumphed over adversity and challenge many times. They will invent their way out of climate change without sending us all back to pre-industrial subsistence, and somebody will discover (probably quite soon) a way to vaccinate against this latest virus outbreak.

    But for now we must deal with the epidemic of self-loathing. Time for the grown-ups to get a grip.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/29/coronavirus-climate-medieval-thinking-has-triggered-epidemic/

    That poster: some fear, some hope?

    3. 316703+ up ticks,
      Evening WS,
      Make a start by NOT kissing (X) the
      lab/lib/con candidate in the polling booth, thereby spreading the plague.

    1. Morning Geoff. Greetings from a grey Toulouse airport. Thanks as ever…..

      1. Good morning m’dear.
        A very bright & sunny day here so with a bit of luck I ought to get the bulk of the wood I logged yesterday chopped & stacked.

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