Friday 1 January: Snubbed doctors volunteering to help with vaccination must persevere

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 banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/01/01/letterssnubbed-doctors-volunteering-help-vaccination-must-persevere/

789 thoughts on “Friday 1 January: Snubbed doctors volunteering to help with vaccination must persevere”

    1. Wot?
      Sorry, this is too much for my pore brane after six hours sleep. Is Matt wishing NOTTL happy new year? Why the ball and chain?
      (I’d probably best leave the computer alone until the kettle has boiled).

      Edit again: Happy New Year, Araminta!

      1. blackbox2: The clue is in the non-Telegraph typeface, which has probably been superimposed by Minty.The original caption was probably “Happy New Year”, which is meant to be ironic since it is not easy to be happy when one is carrying a ball and chain, i.e. restricted to one’s house. But a Happy New Year to you and all NoTTLers from Elsie Bloodaxe, who is now about to take an extended break from this site.

        1. Thank you Elsie, and happy new year to you too. One step too far for me to interpret…
          Hope you have a nice break and return refreshed.

  2. It’s all Attenborough, the Archers and how awful Brexit is on Toady. Happy New Year, Nottlers all!

      1. Re-tuned the crystal set to TakjRADIO. Better. Apparently, Sky broadband has an average speed of 59 megabytes.

          1. The Sky ad made the classic mistake of confusing bytes with bits. Sloppy work, does not inspire confidence.

    2. ‘Morning, JBF. It’s just an extension of the BBC’s usual practice of making up ‘news’ items about its own programmes. It’s why I long ago gave up on most of their stuff.

    3. I wonder if the Beeboids have looked out and discovered that the sky didn’t fall in.

    2. Good morning.
      Sorry, but that cartoon is lame. I’m glad I gave up on the Telegraph.

  4. Good morning, One and all and wishes for a very Happy New Year sans EU. Now, a story of our time:

    Follow the science!

    Medical experts were asked if it is time to ease the lockdown?

    Allergists were in favour of scratching it, but Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.

    Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but Neurologists thought the government had a lot of nerve.

    Obstetricians felt certain everyone was labouring under a misconception, while Ophthalmologists considered the idea short-sighted.

    Many Pathologists yelled, “Over my dead body!” while Paediatricians said, “Oh, grow up!”

    Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while Radiologists could see right through it.

    Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing, and pharmacists claimed it would be a bitter pill to swallow.

    Plastic Surgeons opined that this proposal would “put a whole new face on the matter.”

    Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea.

    Anaesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and those lofty Cardiologists didn’t have the heart to say no.

    In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the assholes.

  5. Good Morning to all you lovely Nottlers and a very Happy New Year and Freedom Day to you all! 🎉🍾
    Many thanks to Geoff and hope this year is a good one! Well, at least better than the last one!

      1. Come on, don’t sink to his level of digging up yesterdays differences…there will be plenty of new ones today!

          4. When we visited the island of Kizhi on our Russian river cruise, we were warned about the snakes in the surrounding grassland.
            I’ve never seen a boatload of tourists stick so closely to their guide.

          5. There’s a village nearish to Drammen called Ormåsen – translates to Adder Ridge.
            They built a kindergarten there, and were amazed that the place is full of, well, adders! It was even in the TV news! Who’d a thunk it?

          6. The irony of Sir Reresby’s notice is that he didn’t have any snakes on his estate. The sign was just to scare off intruders.

      1. bb2 you’ve got us – surely that must be a cheering thought?….oh hang on a moment….

    3. Must admit a strong desire to shout in their faces HAA HAA! Suck it up, you bastards!

    5. Just think back to how the Democrats treated Trump until the next US election and you’ll have an idea of the lengths the remainiacs will go to, to try to ensure Brexit fails and hoping a Starmer Labour government can take the UK back in.

  7. BBC reporter wanking on about the difficulties lorry drivers might have going to France. He should review how difficult it was in June 1944 and then recalibrate his reporting.

    Happy New Year Folks!

  8. The Guardian view of Brexit: a tragic national error. Editorial. 1 January 2021.

    In one sense, they are right. Political parties must look forward, not back. In another sense they are profoundly wrong. This is a day of sadness. Britain’s departure remains a tragic national error. We have expelled ourselves from a union that was good for this country and the world The role of the anti-European press in making this happen was decisive, so it is somehow fitting that a government led by journalists has slammed the door. But at least the EU can no longer be blamed for our continuing tensions, inequalities and failures of governance.

    The EU was and is an antidemocratic regime dedicated to the elimination of the European Peoples. As to the anti-European press; where was this? I must have missed them. Did they vote? This was a victory for the little people who despite the lies and propaganda cast their ballots to leave this monstrous regime. Whatever continuing tensions, inequalities and failures of governance occur in the future I will happily blame the UK Government for them and not some unelected Marxist bureaucracy!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/31/the-guardian-view-of-brexit-a-tragic-national-error

    1. ‘Morning, Minty and Happy New EU free Year.

      That puff is typical Graudian – I wonder they’ve survived this long. Maybe, this year or next, we will see the collapse of the EU and the demise of the Graudian. Two happy occasions to look forward to.

      1. Morning Nan. The Guardian is a Globalist Trojan Horse and will be going nowhere. It will be needed to support the coming EU clandestine war on the UK!

        1. It’s what we love about you, Minty, your ongoing optimism! We shall just have to KBO.

      2. I’m pretty sure the Guardian’s survival isn’t left to market forces.

        The Guardian’s parent organisation is Guardian News and Media, as shown here, on the Guardian website:

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c83dfaaa6f539e12feb24e9796cddc4ae1002fc0306126f8e6f67534b2440a97.png

        Guardian News and Media has a special relationship with guardian.org, a US based non profit:

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5d292d946deb21aa3d9eaf4f6e5511e7c5cc7f742c4d55bef7b61a5aef166ccf.png

        guardian.org is funded by a number of strategic partners, as shown on their website…

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/47868c2ac7fade252e9ec15c454636f5f6717ac1a3bd092b070867cb8dbf248e.png

        So while the Guardian claims to be supported by its readers, it seems from these websites to be getting a lot of its content from an organisation that is funded by the usual suspects.

      1. Of course we are, and always have been, a part of Europe – it’s a geographic fact – but part of the EU, no, no more.

        Ignorant Guardanista journo.

    3. 327995+up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      And a happier New Year,
      I honestly believe that from the outset the only party to achieve success from the outset was UKIP.
      Working against impossible odds from the outset as in brussels & as clearly shown these last couple of decades lab/lib/con
      brussels assets.
      The UKIP PARTY 2014 won the eu elections, designed and triggered the referendum the latter via people power under a UKIP banner.
      These were Country changing major successes.
      Even up to yesterday I was hearing yes,
      UKIP internal squabbles all the time,not sparing a thought that these were in the main instigated by internal moles.

      Plus those that were saying such, my belief
      this current party’s supporters / ex pat supporters give a complete body swerve
      to the treasonous, treacherous Country damaging actions of major, the wretch
      cameron, the treacherous mayday and the highly suspect johnson as I believe time will
      prove his true agenda.

      To my mind the ball & chains have been cast off but we still have, as a Country a
      walk about ankle bracelet as elements of the “deal” will prove in time.
      There are still the same pro eu Canis lupis
      wearing ovis overcoats in play who up until 24/6/2016 & thanks to the real UKIP, were willing rubber stampers of brussels.
      I do believe that inclusively re-set is re-entry plus resettlement of “guest’s” bolstering these ex pro eu party numbers.
      These politico’s are playing the long game.
      Ps,
      There ain’t no good current lab/lib/con coalition MPs, they ALL answer to the hydras main head.

      1. Now that we’re out and have our Independence, what will UKIP’s new name be, Ogga?

          1. Keep the elite’s feet to the fire so we make the most of our opportunities now we’ve taken the first step on the road to freedom, I hope.

        2. 327995+up ticks,
          Morning NtN,
          Wishing you a happier New Year,
          The real UKIP done it’s job in bringing ALL peoples of decency together under one banner 24/6/2016 proved that people power works.

          Instead of building on the referendum success and having an anti treachery proven pro UK force in place the peoples self inflicted a 4.5 year delay
          by returning to lab/lib/con via the ballot booth.

          Real UKIP under Batten was a success story in the building, the facts are there to be checked.

          That was NOT to be allowed to continue hence triggering the treacherous input of the
          party’s Nec / farage.
          The real UKIP, treachery took it down.
          The existing UKIPs if it needed a new name it must in ALL honesty be inclusive of sh!te.

          A new real UKIP party is sorely needed because to my mind the ” deal” has a ratchet attachment and we are still in grave danger of being, click by click
          winched back in.
          ALL the political pieces are still in place.

    5. Oh well, if the Guardian’s upset then whatever the deal was, it can’t be all that bad.

      1. Good moaning, bb2.
        I haven’t the time or ability to absorb the 2000 (?) pages of guff, so I judge today’s result by the anguish it has caused to certain people and institutions.

    7. Well said. I actually feel a little bit sorry (just a teeny little bit!) for people who can never find anything good to celebrate about this country or our history. They can see only negatives, not the exciting opportunities that Brexit brings. Oh, and of course we were never ‘anti-European’ the EU is not Europe.

      Let’s leave the Negative Nellies to their misery, they are a small minority anyway. Here’s to a brighter future where we take our destiny in our own hands!

    9. We haven’t expelled – that implies no choice. The EU was not good for this world – Bosia, Serbia, Ukraine are evidence of that.

      The UK is unequal. There’s a wasteful clique of Lefties demanding that other people pay for them to pontificate. Those tensions do not exist except in the minds of squabbling children who want what other people have.

      The grauniad is laughable in it’s pitiful desperation.

  9. Happy New Year – ever the optimist? – Nottlers, all.

    If you have a few minutes to spare then reading the article linked to below, is well worth the time. The graphs towards the end are very interesting: the large spike in the UK last Spring stands out. Repatriation of old folk to care homes? If so, then the person/persons who ordered that move has/have some difficult questions to answer.

    Dr Malcolm Kendrick – What is left to say

  10. A slightly better DT Leader today…

    The year just gone was such a dreadful one – ruined as it was by pandemic, lockdown and economic chaos – that many people will try to put 2020 behind them and forget it. But Britain needs to reflect, to learn from what went right in the past 12 months and what went wrong. With two vaccines being rolled out, we have a chance to get on top of Covid-19 and, with the added impetus of the one great development of the year, Brexit, for the Government to reset itself.

    But both of these require bold institutional reform. Institutions that we long believed we could rely upon let us down exactly when we needed them the most. In many cases, it was because the managerial class had lost sight of its basic function.

    Coronavirus took the world by surprise, it’s true, and many of our policies, mistakes and outcomes were repeated in other countries. There were also real triumphs, of course: altruism, sacrifice, and British scientific accomplishment.

    But when the pandemic exploded back in March, we also discovered we had no domestic diagnostics industry, there was a chronic shortage of PPE and a self-deluded, arrogant assumption that we were prepared for pandemics when we were actually relying on the health equivalent of the Maginot line. The NHS was so underprepared and overwhelmed that the Government felt it had to lock down the entire country to protect the health service – and to repeat the exercise later in the year, and again increasingly today, even though the NHS has had several months to get ready.

    We knew that Covid was deadliest for the elderly, yet Covid patients were discharged into care homes. We knew it had minimal effect upon the young, yet teaching unions were reluctant to enter the classroom. And Public Health England, the quango that spent years lecturing us on our weight, turned out to be embarrassingly incompetent.

    Other institutions were found wanting, too. The churches, which should have had much to say in the midst of such death, closed their doors. There were too many cases of the police hounding citizens who went for a walk, while turning a blind eye to rioters. And MPs were, initially and for too long, silent about the invasion of liberties or government by ministerial decree.

    We need to make an honest assessment of where these institutions went wrong. In most cases, it is a matter of returning to first principles: teach children to a high standard, arrest criminals, provide sufficient healthcare coverage so that the life of the community can continue. We can learn from abroad – from, say, Germany, where public health is decentralised and coherent, or Israel, which treated its vaccine project like a military operation, and where citizens can choose from four competing non-profit health organisations. It is time to acknowledge that our top-down, bureaucratic health system has not functioned as it should. Deifying the NHS only shields it from necessary critique.

    This year, the Government will have to pursue a wide-ranging, courageous reform agenda if it is to succeed, and it can channel the same energy and dedication that got us out of the EU against the odds. Boris Johnson, writing for this newspaper today, captures that spirit: he speaks of innovation – public and private – of new technologies, investment in infrastructure and using the “Brexit-given chance” to “turbocharge” the economy, to “regulate differently or better”. The trick is never to give in, to set an ambition for the country and push on to its completion, refusing to bow to the Whitehall or media consensus on what is or isn’t possible.

    Brexit was not just about Europe. It was a howl of frustration at decades of failure by the institutions listed above, the sharpest revolt found among men and women, often from poorer backgrounds, who have paid the greatest price. Our old relationship with the EU was a damning indictment of pervasive decay excused by elite condescension. People were told to swallow what was good for them, even when it patently was not.

    We have a government, validated by the UK/EU trade and security agreement, that has one of the most powerful mandates for change in history. This is not a year to be wasted, any more than 2020 is to be forgotten. It must be the year of radical reconstruction.

    1. A great opportunity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
      Morning, all Y’all. Happy 2021!

        1. No. Searching as best they can, bearing in mind there are minislips still going on, but unless they went away away for Christmas, there’s little hope for the missing 10.

        2. No. Searching as best they can, bearing in mind there are minislips still going on, but unless they went away away for Christmas, there’s little hope for the missing 10.

    2. Well those are all very good points, but I fancy the Telegraph will stall at the measures necessary to carry through meaningful reform. Diversity as a goal must go, in order to get anything to function efficiently, for example. Anyone who tries to tackle diversity, or its mutant cousin BLM, will find the weight of the Soros-funded establishment against it. The likes of the Daily Telegraph would retreat in confusion within five nanoseconds of being labelled as racist, colonialist, elitists.

  12. An interesting letter…dare we hope that he’s right?

    SIR – The Prime Minister deserves huge credit for enabling Britain to leave the transition period with a better than expected trade deal with the EU.

    The EU clearly sought to restrict competition from a resurgent UK by insisting on a mechanism to insure we don’t deviate too far from it in terms of standards, thus maintaining its obsession with the single market rules.

    However, it appears not to have understood that this is a double-edged sword. Now the UK can insist on the EU matching our standards lest we are undercut in trading.

    For example, we are now within our rights to demand that those EU nations that don’t pay their workers the same minimum wage as we do should have tariffs on goods exported to Britain, and that maternity and paternity rights are harmonised with our levels.

    More importantly, why should British businesses be subjected to unfair competition from Irish companies, which enjoy a significantly lower corporation tax rate than is in force in the UK?

    I suggest that the lawyers for UK plc work on getting a level playing field with our EU competitors.

    Steve Narancic
    East Challow, Oxfordshire

    1. Nice thought, but it falls down on two counts; firstly expecting our lot to take advantage of it and secondly expecting the EU to take any notice (they’ve always ignored anything they didn’t like, even among their own rules and regulations).

  13. Topics on BBC Radio Today Programme.

    BRITAIN has left the EU.
    Will Northern Ireland choose to unite with the Republic Ireland
    Nicola Sturgeon asking the EU to leave the lights on “We’ll be back”

    The BBC intend to continue being a political nuisance.

      1. I agree, BT. That or a full national lockdown for months. Saw last night that they were building the pressure on London hospitals. It that pressure continues the effect will not remain within the M25. The only good news around is that seasonal influenza is down 98%!!😎

        1. My leaver friend said they are taking patients to Bristol and Plymouth because London hospitals are chokker BUT he does not have the Internet.

    2. I like the concept of the cartoon, but in my opinion FREE AT LAST would be a better caption.

      1. Hi Elsie. When I was in w/rose the other day I saw that they had marmalade oranges already.

  16. As an irregular contributor here, I do wish everyone, including those with “Differing opinions” a Happy New Year – Happy at least because it is unlikely to be worse than 2020!

    I am reminded of Alfred Lord Tennyson: “Ring out the false, ring in the true”. If only he had known how much falseness there is these days. (I don’t need to mention the organisations which promote such falseness and negativity)!

      2. Excellent News (if it isn’t fake news):

        The ardent down-voters have made a New Year’s Resolution to stop down-voting in 2021.

        We wish them a very Happy New Year and the best of luck with their resolution!

          1. How unkind,… when Richard takes the trouble to keep
            the Birthday List updated [and endures insults when
            he does so.]

    3. It would be great if other countries adopt the same practice. The Billionaires above would quickly be reduced to millionaires!

    4. Excellent. President Trump was toying with the idea of treating soshul media as publishers wasn’t he and then taxing them. Shame he didn’t get there.

    2. Happy New Year to you Robert.

      Do many people actually find boobs like that attractive? I certainly don’t.

      2. Whatever the size, a natural hang is attractive and normal. I utterly loathe plastic (silicone), “enhancements” they are not!

      1. Take a closer look. The left arm appears detachable at the shoulder. There is a dark line ( not where the bra strap is ). Believe it is a mannequin.

          2. I am – she knows the warqueen from ‘job before proper job’.

            What’s a bit funny is how many Northern lasses are so blessed in the bosom department.

      1. ‘I don’t like men with too many muscles’.

        Janet Weiss. (Rocky Horror picture show).

      1. Good for them.

        Any British glass company could have done the same, but their managements were all occupied with whining about Leaving the EU.

  25. Morning all and a Happy New Year

    SIR – We sympathise with all the retired doctors like us who have been having difficulty volunteering for a clinical role, including vaccinating.

    What is needed is a single entry point, which recognises the expertise of this large group of professionals, who are desperate to help, and qualified to do so, and which cuts through all the paperwork.

    There are multiple entry points to become a vaccinator, but they all involve being employed and paid by the NHS, and endless bureaucracy.

    Tiresome and upsetting, it feels like a snub after years of practising safely, but it’s the only way for now. Don’t give up: it is becoming increasingly apparent that we are needed after all.

    Dr Victoria Hamilton

    Dr Rhys Hamilton

    Woodcote, Oxfordshire

    SIR – In contrast to Claire Barker’s 21-document paper chase (Letters, December 26), my husband completed an online application form, one phone interview, one zoom verification, a DBS check and a health questionnaire. A retired consultant anaesthetist, he is looking forward to his first training day with NHS Wales.

    Sue McFadzean

    Swansea

  26. Good morning, a Happy New Year to one and all and Good Lord, Radio 3 is letting it’s hair down with Bert Kampfert’s Swinging Safari!!

  27. SIR – My employment provides medical insurance, so I only use private medical services. My private GP says I must now register with the NHS to get the Covid vaccine.

    Private clinics all over the country must have thousands of patients who qualify for an early jab but are being forced to go to a struggling NHS.

    Why can’t vaccines be supplied to private practices, thus relieving the strain on the NHS and increasing the number of locations where inoculations can be had?

    Christopher Marriott

    London SW11

    SIR – It is understandable that the focus is on UK residents, but I hope those of us who live overseas, including diplomatic staff, will not be left to the vagaries of whatever country they are in. Embassies or consulates should be enabled to provide this vital service.

    Gregory Miller

    Bangkok, Thailand

    SIR – You report (December 28) that a government source has said: “We are operationalising everything for the first Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs in arms.”

    This is presumably the process known as “operationalisation”.

    Charles Lewis

    London N2

    1. Christopher Marriott only uses private medical services. I take it, then, that he doesn’t use the A&E department of his local hospital, or need an ambulance to get him there if needed.

      1. Like you, I assume that he does or would if he needed it but I also assume that he paid his NI contributions so is entitled to use the NHS. However, distributing coronavirus vaccines to private medical services would be an additional logistical and administrative burden, and contrary to the equitable treatment of all citizens. Christopher Marriott just wants to be able to jump the queue.

    2. No, Gregory Miller, when you live abroad, you take out a healthcare insurance policy that will enable you to get the healthcare that is available where you live. It’s part of living abroad, that you aren’t at the mercy of entitled to NHS care.

      1. It depends on why you are living abroad? Many people living abroad were sent there by their employers and continue to pay UK Income Tax and NI contributions. They should not be penalised.

        1. All the ones I’ve met have medical insurance from the employer, and they often get the fees paid at international schools for their children too!

          1. That may be the case for some, but not all, and in any case, the countries where they are working may not have the medical resources or infrastructure or priority system that would allow expats to get a coronavirus vaccination. All that Mr Miller was arguing for is that expats would be treated as they would be in the UK. Some expats would not, in my view, be entitled to such treatment but there would be many who should be.

          2. Nobody in their right mind would accept an overseas posting that didn’t include health insurance. One weighs up factors like healthcare against the benefits of the exercise, before deciding to go abroad or not. It is part of being an adult and taking responsibility for one’s own decisions. The Government won’t and shouldn’t be there to rescue people from the consequences of their actions.

          3. Brits overseas are not only those who are sent overseas by their employers. There are people who are visiting relatives, on holiday, supervising their second homes and so on. They may have full medical insurance but the Covid-19 crisis might mean that they cannot get a flight back to the UK or local medical services are overwhelmed. People can often be stranded through no fault of their own and, even if it is the consequence of their own actions, the Government IS there to rescue people, just as it rescues people who get into difficulties at sea or in mountains, or who smoke, engage in extreme sports or drive without due care. Of course, if you are a unique individual who had never ever acted unwisely or irresponsibly, then you can justifiably take the view that you have.

          4. Not at all. I frequently act unwisely or irresponsibly, but I don’t expect the Government to rescue me from the consequences of my folly.

          5. I have lived all over the world and, believe me, there are places and circumstances where if you had acted unwisely or irresponsibly, you would soon put your principles to bed and would be only too happy to be rescued by the Government. Even in the UK, claims that you would not be expect to be rescued by the Government from the consequences of your folly are just not believable – most road traffic accidents are the result of folly of one sort or another but we don’t expect to be left injured or dying at the roadside if we are obviously at fault.

          6. Correct! So perhaps there are limits to my willingness to act unwisely or irresponsibly. I do not expect to be rescued for criminal stupidity, neither should anyone else.
            You are now extending the argument in every possible direction. What have road accidents to do with the Government providing vaccines in embassies and consulates?
            In any case, this is a very poor argument, as the Government should keep its involvement in healthcare to the minimum – the NHS is the result of us having abandoned this principle.

  28. Morning again

    SIR – The headmaster of Eton dismissed teacher Will Knowland – and was advised to consult the child safeguarding authorities (report, December 28) – after he make a lecture entitled “The Patriarchy Paradox”, which was considered too dangerous for sixth-form boys to watch.

    One would naturally conclude that its content must be revolutionary, inflammatory, subversive, original and, of course, convincing. It is, in reality, a mishmash of a few good points – for instance, men have broader shoulders and are therefore more suited than women to jobs involving heavy lifting – others that are misleadingly phrased – such as that, although women did not have the vote, it was not really unfair because until the 20th century not all men had it – selective interpretations of data and generalisations.

    Mr Knowland’s lecture should be a great basis for sixth-form debate – a provocative topic, full of Aunt Sallies to be knocked down, non sequiturs and inaccuracies to be identified, and counterarguments to be researched.

    If, as the headmaster obviously fears, Eton schoolboys are so feeble-minded that they can neither think for themselves nor be taught to do so, the fees do seem rather a waste of money. On the plus side, it is unlikely that the future will see many more Old Etonians in the House of Commons.

    Barbara Ford

    Guildford, Surrey

    1. And to you too, Johnny. I toasted in the New Year at midnight last night, and our New Freedom at 11 pm. In both cases with a wee dram of whisky and fireworks (giant sparklers) in the garden. And then I went to bed.

      1. I was pleased to see te one idiot that flys an EU flag on the coast, was at half mast this morning.

  31. Good morning, all. Happy New Year. Welcome to Day One of Year One of Independent Britain.

  32. Good morning Nottlrs, and lovers of freedom everywhere. And a Happier New Year, too!

    SIR – What happened about that enormous sum of money that we had to pay the EU in order to leave?

    Did the negotiators forget it?

    Or, as I suspect, has it been paid but is better not mentioned?

    Kevin Platt
    Walsall, Staffordshire

    Indeed, Kevin Platt, a question I have been asking during these past months. Unfortunately I suspect that your final sentence is probably the right answer.

    1. Don’t worry, Kev, we’ll just print another £39 billion.
      Edit: Sorry. Happy New Year.

    2. My question is, will we still be paying part of our VAT take to Brussels, given that it’s an EU tax in the first place? I’d love a FOI answer to that one.

    2. brilliant article, thank you for posting it. It was obvious that, once the trade deal had been passed, the remoaners would be taking a deep breath and then continuing their work behind the scenes to undermine anything Brexit has achieved and that, as Brendan says, the battle will continue but perhaps quieter. We must hope that the committees to be set up between us and the EU will be made up of robust Brexiteers to ensure progression and not regression.

      1. ‘Morning VW, and you are very welcome. We must hope that at least some of the Remainiacs will explode before they can do any more damage. In the meantime it is good to know that a successful Brexit has been very painful for them and that some will not survive to fight another day.

    3. In the words of that arch anti-democrat David Lammy, the Labour MP who furiously devoted himself to thwarting the most important democratic vote ever cast in this country, ‘we can stop this madness and bring this nightmare to an end’. He said that one day after the referendum. He said to his fellow MPs, many of whom were also seething about the temerity of the dimwitted public in voting for Brexit: ‘Wake up. We do not have to do this.’

      To be used when confronted with anyone anywhere who ever thinks that somewhere in Lammy is a half-decent sentiment waiting to get out.

      1. Yes, definitely tucked away for future use. His election says a lot about the voters of Tottenham, and none of it pleasant. The word ‘tribal’ springs to mind.

        ‘Morning, WS.

    2. 327995+ up ticks,
      A Happy New Year TB,
      Currently a top Canis Lupis in an ovis topcoat.

      Are all the ovis sitting comfortable then I will open the fairy tale with two pledges, a vow,and two promises.

  38. My BTL

    Snubbed doctors volunteering to help with vaccination must persevere

    The inability for the volunteers to be ‘taken up’ by the NHS is a SYMPTOM

    The DEFECT is the is management (a misnomer) structure of the NHS itself

    There is no FAULT with the NHS, as that is an adverse occurrence in an otherwise serviceable sytem

    To paraphrase the above

    The NHS is Not Fit For Purpose

    2. Reminds me of someone called Adolf, with the hair and the gestures. Wonder what happened to him?

      1. Exactly what I thought. At some point he even sounded like him. Will have to keep a watch on the way he walks in future.

    3. The EU isn’t working so let’s have more EU.

      In the U.K. lockdowns don’t work so let’s have more lockdowns.

      Still similarities.

      1. 327995+ up ticks,
        Have a happier New Year,
        Please let nobody be fooled the
        dormant rubber stamp is still within reach and ready for action.
        The very same willing stampers are still very much in place…… waiting.

      2. When the lies they have told are falling apart – use force and threats to try and make them believable – when that doesn’t work either – use even more, etc. They know that WE know – and THEY don’t like the fact that we do. Now all about fear and control.

        1. It’s always been about fear and control.

          The doom advertising is still on radio and TV.

          Now we’re ‘out’ of the EU can we get rid of all the yellow and black roadside contraptions telling us to keep apart, wash our hands, wipe our backsides etc that have been Partly funded by the EU but they forget to say with our own money.

        1. He’s been angling for a commissarship since he started.

          Sadly for him, the undemocratic cabal he so eagerly wants to be part of won’t let him in.

          1. They didn’t seem to bother Lily, although she has excellent hearing.
            They didn’t bother little Suzie but she was stone deaf in her later years.

          4. The ones here were very loud, could have been right outside, I jumped a couple of times, but Missy was unfazed.

      1. 327995+ up ticks,
        Morning Ptv,
        The message ( distress) was correct we were still in the eu mafia,until taken down.

      2. Only the Brits could have a flag that’s almost identical whichever way up it”s flown, and used upside-down to mean something serious.

    1. Yo Rick

      Pulse fishing?

      Only the EU would fish for

      baked beans.
      red, green, yellow and brown lentils.
      chickpeas (chana or garbanzo beans)
      garden peas.
      black-eyed peas.
      runner beans.
      broad beans (fava beans)
      kidney beans, butter beans (Lima beans), haricots, cannellini beans, flageolet beans, pinto beans and borlotti beans.

      4. That reminds me. I have confitted the left-over duck legs from yesterday and I shall (eventually) add them to some haricot beans along with some Toulouse sausages, lots of garlic, some tomatoes, and duck fat to make a Castelnaudary-style cassoulet.

        1. And thyme, of course! I also put in a red pepper (capsicum) and some chopped chillies.

        3. Oh, dear, George, what a way to spoil goo duck legs.

          Cassoulet is, to my mind an abomination, I tried it once in Toulouse and couldn’t finish it.

          1. What a boring world it would be, Tom, if:

            (a) we all like the same things.
            (b) we all told each other what was ‘good’ and what was an ‘abomination’.

            I, personally, love mushy peas, another of your ‘abominations’. I’m betting there are many things that you relish, such as disgustingly vile bread pudding, which are true abominations.

            Oh, by the way, Happy New Year. 😘

  45. As Peddy will confirm I do, on rare occasions, repeat myself but even though I posted good wishes to all Nottlers last night I repeat:

    A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO US ALL

    1. I saw the photo you posted last night richard – I assume the ham was as delicious as it looked.

    1. My nephew was the top medical student of his year at Clare College Cambridge and then moved to the Radcliffe in Oxford for the final years of his training but he decided to become a GP rather than a specialist.

      The buffoon Gideon Osborne buggered up pensions to such an extent that it became no longer economically viable for him to continue in work so he retired at the age of 58 — 20 years younger than Joe Biden who hopes to be president of the USA for the next 4 years- i.e. up to the age of 82.

      But even if he wanted to do so my nephew would not be allowed to help.

      We are mad.

      1. 78, damn that’s as old as Trump will be in four years.

        Watch for the he’s too old brigade to change sides if Trump stands again.

    2. It’s because they are terrorists. I kid you not. To be allowed to jab people they have to prove they aren’t terrorists.

  49. Some interesting statistics from the DT here. I wonder how accurate they are? (Apols if already posted, I’ve only just come across the article.):

    More under 60s died on roads last year than those with no underlying conditions from coronavirus

    Only six under 19s with no underlying conditions died from Covid-19 in England

    By
    Mason Boycott-Owen
    28 December 2020 • 7:00pm

    Almost three times as many under 60s died in road crashes last year as those without health conditions killed by coronavirus, NHS data shows.

    Just 388 people under the age of 60 with no underlying health conditions have died of coronavirus in England, NHS data has revealed.

    The figures show that only 0.8 per cent of all deaths from coronavirus between April 2 and December 23 came from this group of the population.

    In the same time 45,770 people had died with underlying health conditions, while 1,979 were viewed as healthy.

    Of these, only 388 were between 40 and 59, 44 were between the ages of 20 and 39, and only six were younger than 19.

    In comparison, during the whole of 2019, 955 under-60s died on England’s roads.

    It comes amid further criticism of the Government that their policy on lockdown and the tier system is doing more damage to the economy and mental health of it’s working-age population than only shielding the vulnerable.

    Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party’s new guise, Reform UK, told the Telegraph: “We don’t advocate ending social distancing at this stage, or for a moment turn our backs on hand-washing and sensible precautions.

    “But how many young people have committed suicide? How many young people have had their careers destroyed? How many young people are suffering serious mental health problems? You have to weigh these things up.

    “Our belief is that lockdown doesn’t work anyway. An endless series of lockdowns, tiers one, two, three, four, and rumours of tier five – it’s not stopping anything.

    “Our argument is that yes, if you are vulnerable you should shield, but we have to get on with our lives. If the alternative is that we lock ourselves down until we’ve vaccinated the entire country then you’re writing off another year at least.

    “The number of private businesses that go bankrupt in the next few months will be eye-watering. The number of people who miss cancer diagnosis will be shocking. And the whole damage to the nation’s general state of mind and morale incalculable.”

    The Government is reportedly currently considering further stricter measures to combat the spread of coronavirus, just over a week after announcing a new tier 4 which covered London and much of the south of England.

    The concern by scientists on the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies is that the reproduction rate, or R, could go above one in January.

    Yesterday’s latest figures from the Government showed that 41,385 more people had tested positive for coronavirus in the UK while 357 further people had died.

    A leading BTL comment:

    Paul Ralph
    30 Dec 2020 10:23AM
    Although it is well known that lockdowns kill many more people than they save (especially in terms of life years), the government and the media do not care. One study at Bristol University estimated 500,000 would eventually die as a result of lockdown policies – presumably an awful lot of people with cancer diagnosed too late … and many other notable killers besides. The government is only too happy to listen to its cabal of modellers and psychologists, to ignore independent, honest medical scientists (those not ‘bought’ by big Pharma, Chinese money or their own ambitions for fame and power) and to go on with its manic destruction of everything we once held dear.

    Major, reputable studies studies have clearly shown that there is no evidence for non-pharmaceutical interventions having any effect on the progress of the disease, no evidence for a-symptomatic spread, no evidence that any young child has ever transmitted the disease, no evidence that masks have (overall) a beneficial effect, and so on…

    The reason many people on all sides of this debate are going crazy is because science has been debased and all but abandoned in the face of this irrational, hysterical cult. We risk the global loss of rationality, whilst no longer having even religious faith (other than the god ‘Covid’) to take its place.

    Meanwhile, according to the NHS England Data, only one of the 43 deaths reported on Sunday was under the age of 60.

    1. I do wonder if the under 60s with no underlying (known?) health problems may harbour a genetic blip. It is only recently that BRCA1 & 2 genes were discovered to show a susceptibility to breast cancer.

      1. There was something alluded to on here a few days ago that suggested that herd immunity was a fallacy and did not exist.

    3. It’s a pretty weak virus when it can only only succeed with the help of some other issue.

      Key brilliant minds realizing that they only need to vaccinate old, lardies and anyone with other problems.

  50. 327995+ up ticks,
    May one suggest to kick off with, we re-set the House of Lords with a complete new set starting with the 30000 rising real UKIP members that were under Gerard Batten leadership.

    After ALL, for the past three decades “you” have tried the sh!te line, why not for once try the right line ?

    1. The ‘right’ line being reserving the House of Lords for the hereditaries only and restoring the Law Lords as the highest court of appeal, while dissolving Bliar’s ‘Supreme’ Court.

      1. 327995+up ticks,
        NtN,
        In the nicest possible way then why has that NOT been done ?
        People power works, the referendum proved that.

        1. It’s not been done because of all the politicos who wish to stuff the upper house with their own sycophants, who will help them with the ruination of the country.

          The hereditaries, by their very nature have a vested interest in the continuity of their estates and, in order to maintain it, the long-term future of the country as a whole, rather than the short-termism of the politicians, who can only look as far as the next election and maintaining their comfortable seats.

          In that vein I agree that there is a need for a new, British biased party but I’m afraid that UKIP in its present guise, comes nowhere near fulfilling the criteria.

          1. 327995+ up ticks,
            Afternoon NtN,
            As I thought I pointed out clearly as far as I and I would believe many more see Ukip currently as part of the lab/lib/con coalition party.

            A good starting nucleus would be those who could not stomach the treachery meted out to Batten by the party nec and resigned membership.

            I might add that a new party should contain a strong element of Batten views on the dangers of
            islamic ideology, because as sure as a current tory MP/ PM will lie that is going to be a big issue shortly.

      2. Could you dissolve Bliar while you are at it please, Nanners? And his ghastly missus?

  51. Sony Movies tonight (Ch 305) at 2100 GMT The Day of the Jackal

    Will he, or will he not, succeed this time!

    1. Good day, Rastus.

      Since it is the first day of a New Year
      perhaps you will be kind enough to
      re-post the ‘Birthday List;’… indeed
      there is one coming very shortly to be
      swiftly followed by several others.

      Thank you.

      1. A Happy New year Garlands.

        You are quite right – one of our lovely lady Nottlers has a birthday tomorrow.

        Here is the list: (Any updates please let me know – I don’t seem to have you on the list)

        02 January – 1947: Poppiesmum
        07 January – **** : Lady of the Lake
        08 January – 1941: Rough Common
        10 January – 1960 : hopon
        16 January – 1941 : Legal Beagle
        18 January – **** : Stormy
        23 January – 1951 : Damask Rose
        27 January – 1948 : Citroen 1
        02February – 1941 : Sguest
        11 February- 1964 : Phizzee
        22 February- 1951 : Grizzly
        28 February- 1956 :Jeremy Morfey
        29 February- **** : Ped
        05 March—– 1957 : Sue MacFarlane
        08 March—– **** : Geoff Graham
        26 March—– 1962 : Caroline Tracey
        27 March—– 1947 : Maggiebelle
        27 March—– 1941 : Fallick Alec
        19 April——- **** : Devonian in Kent
        26 April——- **** : Harry Kobeans
        24 May——– 1944 : NoToNanny
        08 June——– **** : Still Bleau
        09 June——- 1947 : Johnny Norfolk
        09 June——– 1947 : Horace Pendleton
        23 June——– **** : Oberstleutnant
        25 June——– 1952 : corimmobile
        01 July——— 1946 : Rastus C Tastey
        12 July——— **** : David Wainwright
        18 July——— **** : lacoste
        19 July——— **** : Ndovu
        26 July——— 1936 : Delboy
        29 July———- 1944 : Lewis Duckworth
        30 July———- 1946 : Alf the Great
        01 August—— 1950 : Datz
        03 August—— 1954 : molamola
        10 August—— 1967 : ourmaninmunich
        18 August—— **** : ashesthandust
        19 August——-1951 : Hugh Janus
        04 September- 1948 : Joseph B Fox
        07 September- **** : Araminta Smade
        11 September- 1947 : peddytheviking
        12 September- **** : Ready Eddy
        13 September- **** : Anne Allan
        15 September- **** : veryveryveryoldfella
        26 September- **** : Feargal the Cat
        30 September 1944 : One Last Try
        07 October—– 1960 : Bob 3
        11 October—– 1944 : Hardcastle Craggs
        25 October—– 1955 : Sue Edison
        01 December– 1956 : Sean Stanley-Adams
        06 December– 1943 : Duncan Mac
        10 December– **** : Aethelfled
        16 December– **** : Plum-Tart
        21 December– 1945 : Elsie Bloodaxe

        (E&OE)

          1. I have told you before about the need to capitalise proper nouns and so I am surprised you still need or pretend not know it. However, I have decided to be indulgent and let you get away with it in the hope that you will be less severe in future towards those who make typos. I am a tolerant, reasonable man so I have amended your entry.

            I do hope you will Listen to this song:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n83lto4tgb4

          2. No you haven’t; you’ve got the wrong man. Not that it would make any difference. I have been peddytheviking from the day I joined Disqus & always will be, unless I change my mind. I am well aware of the rule of capitalising proper nouns.

            What a grumpy old crosspatch you can be sometimes. And don’t be so patronising.

          3. Grumpy? Crosspatch? Hardly my style. Patronising – pots and kettles, man!

            What was it Corporal Jones said?

            You love criticising other people’s grammar – but why don’t you like people teasing you back? What makes you as sensitive as an unanaesthetised sore tooth?

            Anyway, Caroline and I wish you and yours A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

          2. : -)).

            Rastus, without wishing to be rude,
            I do not advertise my birthday, I am
            happy to celebrate others!

    2. If he does, the General’s successor will let us join the EEC in the early Sixties. Fingers crossed the flics get him again.

  53. Scientists have discovered that they can trace the genealogy of each human back through history. Every successive generation back the human form metamorphosed from its previous incarnation. They can go back through the stone age, from when we split with monkeys and came out of the trees, even back to when we slithered as worms out of the mud of the primordial soup. This goes back millions of generations and permits us to see where we emerged as a species.

    The astonishing thing about this research is that it was much easier for the scientists to determine the genealogy of Liberals. It seems they only emerged from the primordial soup a mere seven generations back! This gives rise to a theory similar to the one about concurrent (and conflicting) evolution between primitive man (Homo erectus) and the neanderthals, the latter of which died out after losing the battle of co-existence.

    My theory is that Liberals—who are genetically programmed to be opposed to progress, decency, courtesy, good grace, good manners, etiquette, discipline and common sense—will soon become as extinct as the neanderthals they emulate.

    1. It is interesting that their idea of progressive is to go backward and their concept of liberal is oppressive in the extreme.

      They proclaim tolerance, but only by labelling people. They wail about inclusivity by excluding those they hate. Those they hate are any who hold a different opinion to them.

      2. As has been brought into sharp focus of late, the Liberal Democrats are neither liberal nor democratic.

    2. That Ed Davey is very wormlike.
      “Neanderthal-inherited genetic material is found in all non-African populations and was initially reported to comprise 1 to 4 percent of the genome. This fraction was later refined to 1.5 to 2.1 percent. It is estimated that 20 percent of Neanderthal DNA currently survives in modern humans.”
      They’re still with us, some more than others. I remember a SciFi novel with a pure Neanderthal guy in the present day. He had a few issues as I recall.

      1. The story of the last Neanderthal was by Philip José Farmer, a short SciFi novella called ‘The Alley Man’.

      2. I recall (very vaguely) reading about a theory being peddled by scientists in China that the Chinese were the descendants of Neanderthals who apparently had superior intellects to other hominids. I think that it was part of a plan to present the Chinese as being a master-race and, thus, destined to be THE world power. Can anyone else recall this theory or am I simply showing that I am descended from some stupid hominoid race?

        1. I remember there was a book about the Chinese having explored the whole world by sailing fleet in the year dot. Left takeaways behind in their wakes.

      2. On the upside, if we strike the stupid waste and recycling law from statute we can stop shipping our excess waste off to Africa who dump straight in the sea and start recycling it properly, building necessary power stations to do so.

        Then we can stop pretending for the sake of a destructive EU law.

  54. Families, eh?

    “President Macron promised a new dawn for France and a European renaissance as he delivered a traditional New Year’s Eve address designed to offer fresh hope.

    In a speech billed as a message of “hope and unity”, Mr Macron said in his televised address that the first months of 2021 would be beset by crises but held out hope for the spring.

    “Let’s prepare now for this spring of 2021 which will be the start of a new French morning, of a European renaissance. Let’s continue being a united, sharing people, proud of its values, its culture, confident in the future and in progress,” he said.

    His speech seemed lost on his father, who in an interview with Le Monde had earlier depicted his son as a self-serving politician. In his first public comments since his son entered office, Jean-Michel Macron, 70, said that he had been happy when his son came to power in 2017 “in the manner of [Napoléon] Bonaparte”, but Le Monde said relations had since become distant.

    “The bonds seem to have weakened,” said Marc Ferracci, an economist who was the best man at Mr Macron’s marriage to Brigitte, the first lady.

    Mr Macron’s father said he detested the “narcissism” of the current epoch, but added of his son: “Emmanuel is a great actor, a seducer. That is useful in politics.”

    Commentators suggested that the president’s father has been irritated at the way his son has portrayed the central figure in his childhood as Germaine Noguès, his maternal grandmother, who was a schoolteacher. Mr Macron rarely makes reference to his parents, both doctors.

    Commenting on Mr Macron’s relationship with his grandmother, who is credited with honing his intellectual abilities, he went on: “Emmanuel is capable of drawing from everyone who might be of service to him.”

    Mr Macron’s address came with the French economy having shrunk by 9.5 per cent last year and the country recording 64,381 Covid-related deaths.

    Nevertheless, his popularity rose by seven points, according to an analysis of seven different polling institutes by Le Journal du Dimanche. His average approval rating was 32.1 per cent at the start of the year and 39.4 per cent at the end. The newspaper attributed the rise to a sense of national unity during the spring and autumn lockdowns.”

    The Grimes today.

    1. “Emmanuel is capable of drawing from everyone who might be of service to him.”

      Lol. Slap !

    2. “His speech seemed lost on his father, who in an interview with Le Monde had earlier depicted his son as a self-serving politician.” Tautologous?

          3. 327995+ up ticks,
            Afternoon M,
            And a happier New Year,

            Mr Macron’s father said he detested the “narcissism” of the current epoch, but added of his son: “Emmanuel is a great actor, a seducer. That is useful in politics.

            Prior to -ucking things
            up, guaranteed.

        1. Never was one, Grizz. The French – in their despicable froggy way – only ever used Scotland to divert England’s attention and resources away from French machinations in Europe and elsewhere.

          1. It really exists. I was at a boisterous dinner party at the French Institute in Edinburgh to celebrate the 700th anniversary. ( After I left to go home a policeman tried to arrest me…but that’s another story.)

            Historically it was encouraged by the Scots to fend off the ambitions and predations of Edward I, King of England.

        1. At least the imams will approve of the uniform.

          Oh wait, boys have to wear the same gym kit?

  56. I’m very late on parade; first footing my parents then wandering along Prestwick Prom on a very clear, very crisp morning (it’s not expected to get above freezing between now and our 09.00 tee time on Sunday!).

    Still, all that aside, I wish you all a Happy New Year and, as seems apparent from the comments, continued release of stress through the use of this fine safety valve…a calm lagoon among the tempests of strife on the other side of the reef.

      1. Nil seen but the tide was in and hitting the seawall along the Prom. I’ll keep my eye out on future strolls.

        1. Yo Fergal

          HMS Sanderling was the NAS at Abotsinch!!!

          I was there in the late 1950’s for a course as a Sea Cadet

          1. Ah, our ‘local’ NAS is/was HMS Gannet, situated on the northern side of Prestwick Airport. No, I didn’t see any gannets on my stroll either. 😉

          2. Gannet had the Sea Kings, to clear the way for the Nukes

            One Sunday, our frigate, which was alongside in the Clyde NB was sent to Action Stations.

            The helo was launched to getthe Commanding Officer of the Base back to his HQ

            The helo was then relaunched, loaded with Warshot weapons

            A peky Russky sub had been identified in ‘our waters’

    5. HNY to you

      Ooh nice , where are you playing golf on Sunday .. Moh has played various courses in that area .

      Years and years ago I walked in to Troon , and was politely informed I should have used the ladies entrance!

      1. That welcome was a few seconds before her majesty retorted piss off, we are not playing here.

        Turnberry on the other hand (pre trump) was quite welcoming.

      2. I play at Prestwick St Nicholas, where under normal circumstances you would be welcome at any door; normally open 365 days a year as it sits right on the coast but it was closed on Thursday due to snow!
        The weather is forecast as below freezing until at least the end of the week, so temporary greens are in play. Still, a bit of social exercise will do me good.

  57. Bliadhna Ùr Mhath!

    Good morning and a Good New Year to all ….. hope there are not too many sair heids among ye today!

    At last we have our country back, free from the dead hand of the EUrrgh. Maybe the fishing transition period is not such a bad thing, it’ll take us five years to rebuild our fishing fleet and all the infrastructure that goes with it. By and large, I think Johnson got a good deal – better than we might have expected.

    Anyway after more than four decades, I’m happy enough to find myself in the condition to which I was born – a free subject of the British Crown instead of a citizen of the Evil Empire.

    And as a bonus, I’m delighted to see Wee Krankie’s peevishness!
    :¬)

    1. Good Afternoon Duncan – Best New Year wishes to you and yours. Nice sunny crisp day down here in North Yorkshire.

    3. Welcome back Mr. Mac! Hope you had a wonderful family gathering and a grand New Year! Regards to you all!

      1. 327995+ up ticks,
        Happy New Year VVOF,
        Forewarned is forearmed lessons must be learnt from the last 4.5 years, did you not hear the first click of the re-entry ratchet with the
        “deal” being signed ?

    7. Good day, HJ.
      With best wishes to you, your wife
      and family, for a Happy, Healthy and
      Peaceful 2021.

        1. Good day, Hugh.

          The good wishes apply to you
          as well as to Handsome Jack…
          as I still call him!

    8. Happy New Year Duncan, I trust you partook of the magic liquid last night – slainté

  58. Good afternoon all.

    I started to listen to BBC’s World at One …. they promised a new pome about M.Luther King by Benjamin Zeph … click.

    These shonets never give up, do they.

    1. Yes, I did the same, and always do when I hear the Zeph……name. Unfortunately they have the barsteward on speed dial. Quite frankly my dog would do just as well…I might put her forward as she has one very good quality that is popular with the Blik Broadcasting Corpn. You can probably guess what it is?

    2. HNY ISSY

      I guess we will be renamed Caribritain before we know it , the wrecking of this wonderful country of ours is escalating so rapidly, remember what happened when we were locked down , the unimaginable bad dream transpired to be true!

    3. It’s even infected ITV racing; they did a feature on “reliant on racing” – ie those people whose livelihoods depend on racing and racehorses. What did they choose – a farrier, a saddler, a silks maker, a trainer, a jockey coach, a feed merchant or a corn chandler? Of course not. They chose Fr33dom (sic – he spelled it out) who was black as the turban-type hat he was wearing, with an impenetrable accent, and who ran a riding school (tarted up as an “academy”) for inner city kids (who all appeared to be black in the clip). As far as I could gather from what he was gabbling, the nearest he got to racing was that he liked it (sorry, was “passionate” about it). No doubt he’ll be mentioned in the next Honours fiasco.

  59. Beast from the East fears as forecasters warn of ‘sudden stratospheric warming’ in next two weeks. 1 January 2021.

    Britain could be hit by a new ‘Beast from the East’ in the next fortnight as forecasters warn of ‘sudden stratospheric warming’ above the Arctic.

    In 2018, when the last ‘Beast from the East’ came in, the UK was gripped by travel chaos, with drivers stranded overnight on motorways and heavy snow forcing schools to shut.

    Grahame Madge from the Met Office said: “Many weather agencies are united in the view that this SSW will take place next week.

    Thank God for Global Warming! Here I am basking in subtropical Britain!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/01/beast-east-fears-forecasters-warn-sudden-stratospheric-warming/

    3. ” subtropical Britain! ” – So THAT explains why so many people here have dark tanned skin.

    4. The term ‘sudden stratospheric warming’ was coined relatively recently to explain why, in some winters, cold air extends further out from the polar regions and how it effects us in the UK i.e. giving us cold spells when the usual westerlies are blocked. It’s nothing new but it’s one of those terms that is seized upon by the more excitable elements in the media. Meteorologists have a better understanding of what’s happening in the atmosphere (the effects of El Niño and La Niña are also well understood) but I don’t think they really know why these fluctuations occur. Of course, there are some who will always make what they think is the obvious link but this Met Office feature makes no mention of global warming or climate change:
      https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/types-of-weather/wind/sudden-stratospheric-warming

      The BBC weather forecasts have been talking of east or north-easterly winds for a couple of days but have been fairly cautious about the possibility of snow. Indeed, for a few weeks now most of their outlook forecasts have been a bit more measured, sticking at 7-8 days rather than 10-14.

      1. For a decent covering of snow over the UK all that is required is a Polar maritime airmass and a northerly wind

    1. By permitting the Liberals to take power and flood the country with insurgents opposed to our way of life, we, on the Right, are complicit in the destruction of the fabric of a once-admired society.

      This is nothing more than self harm on a national scale. Our ancestors will be squirming in their graves.

        1. Might have been someone who wanted to wait for his bus out of the rain and discovered there was no room for him. Have the police interviewed those 3 witnesses?

        2. Why? Outside my doctors is a bus stop and some oik had graffiteed the windows.

          There’s a can strewn in the road outside.

          I don’t understand why people behave this way. It’s base, savage and primitive. Heck, even the dog behaves better. Such people should be rounded up, collared and trained like animals before they can be treated as people.

    3. We must keep bothering, those who wish to uphold the Christian beliefs and traditions, the ropers would like nothing better than for the indigenes to give up.

      I would say they are beneath contempt but they are not even worthy of that thought.

      1. Time to muster our forces and commence the Tenth Crusade.

        This time we must ensure total victory.

        2. I think it’ll be an even longer fight than the one for Brexit and will be a lot bloodier. Our laws have been adapted so that they can hate us but woe betide the reverse.

    4. My guess is that the culprit’s religion might just possibly begin with M and end in uslim

  61. Happy New Year to All!*. We watched the New Year concert from Vienna but it was not the same.
    Anyway, here is a little something from the Scottish Student’s Song Book that is not in German.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvGg3fZfVEI

    * I feel a bit ambivalent about this as I have no great hopes.

  62. Apologies if anyone has already posted this – Neil Hamilton’s comment on the Brexit deal, and UKIP’s post Brexit role.
    According to him, we are still stuck with the Yooman Rites, and he points out the the UK-EU committees could be infiltrated with Europhiles who would hand us over in all but name to the EU.
    https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1378277/Brexit-news-Boris-Johnson-deal-latest-vote-pass-House-of-Commons-fishing-sell-out

    Brexit was only ever the first battle – our country is rotten with people who want it for themselves – Soros shills for the WEF programme, Islamists who would like to make Britain muslim and CCP members making sure that nothing negative must be said about China, and our industry and research should be hollowed out by that country.

    1. The UK needs to prepare as quickly as possible for a complete rupture with the EU. A three year timescale seems possible, so that only the reclaiming of our fisheries is outstanding at the end of five years. Barnier has already promised that the EU will impose sanctions such as cutting off electricity interconnectors. Nor should we forget that the EDF is owned by the French government.
      Sensibly the UK would start developing the Rolls Royce local nuclear power stations, or similar, with all speed.

      1. We need to recognise that doing nothing will result in losing everything. Unfortunately, as Kipling noted, the Anglo-Saxons’ preferred state is doing nothing and drinking beer after work. They only rouse themselves rarely.
        This particular fight is going to last half a century or more.

      2. Unfortunately, your use of the word ‘Sensibly’ combined with the ‘UK‘ has let down your post.

    2. Blackbox, there is nothing more likely
      to sink one’s spirits than reading the
      truth about our so-called leaving of the
      EU.
      I received an e-mail this morning, from
      Neil Hamilton, wishing all UKIP members
      [yes there are still some about] a Happy
      New Year but to also be aware of what
      our current leaving does NOT achieve.
      As others have said, by no means is the
      battle over, there are more trip-holes than
      in our village pavement.

      1. I haven’t read my emails yet, so I look forward to reading that when I open up the inbox.

  63. Just found this festive carol I arranged a while ago…

    Bid King Tony on the look out
    On the feast of Stephen
    When the EU lay all wrung out
    Deep in crisis even
    Brightly shone Cherie that night
    Though her face was cruel
    When a poor man came in sight
    SHOUTING: “BLOODY FOOL!”

    “Hither, pleb, and stand by me
    If thou know’st it, telling
    Yonder peasant, who is he?
    WTF‘s he Yelling?”
    “Squire, he lives a good league hence
    Underneath the mountain
    of Tax and VAT, nil recompense
    Whilst MPs restore their fountains.”

    “Bring me cash and bring me wine
    Bring my Burberry hither
    Thou and I will go see the swine
    And berate him thither.”
    Pleb and Tony forth they went
    Forth they went together
    Through the Deplorable’s wild lament
    And the bitter weather

    “Squire, the night is darker now
    And the EU appears stronger
    Fails my heart, I know not how,
    It can’t go on much longer.”
    “Delete my emails, every page
    Shred them all boldly
    I shall find the Plebian rage
    Freeze my blood less coldly.”

    In his master’s steps he trod
    Where the path lay tainted
    “Heat” was on to the sod
    His life story being printed
    Therefore, unChristian men, be sure
    Wealth or rank possessing
    Ye who now will FIICK the poor
    Shall find yourselves depressing

      2. Works just as well – Bid = none too subtle reference to wealth making abilities…

    1. Someone my son has worked with in the past has just made a game that sold two million copies (probably at around five dollars each). The lad is 19.
      There are a lot of opportunities out there that didn’t exist when we were young.

        1. Don’t get me started on the expensive tat sold as “pet toys”. We were give one – expensive plastic horror made in China. They ignored it but played with the box and wrapping paper.

          In the main, when they are not eating, play-fighting, galloping round the house and looking longingly out of the window, G & P play all day with a large cardboard box full of packing paper; two corks on a string; three balls made from scrumpled up newspaper wrapped round with sellotape*. They like the old plastic practice golf ball with hangs from their basket.

          They also like the two settees and MY chair!

          * I am thinking of marketing these!

          1. They have lovely red/gold fur – you could start a business making kitten skin mittens.

            What? What have I said? It’s only a suggestion… 😀

          4. When our two blackies were kittens, OH made them a climbing frame made of an old loo seat (not the part with the hole) a post and things on strings – table tennis balls, etc – they loved it.

          5. Our two have a plastic wastepaper bin with toys in it – orange table-tennis balls and weird sandbaggy things with feathers. When bored, they tip over the bin, rummage for the desired toy, then chase it in either solo or twin-cat mode around the house until it vanishes into a place they can’t reach. Then they tear the scratching post a new one…

          6. Spartie has a tin waste paper ‘basket’ full of toys. He chewed the actual basket so we had to give him something more robust.
            He tips it over and scatters toys all round the house. At bedtime, it’s like clearing up when our sons were small.

          7. Dolly has a squeaky duck. She likes to bounce up and down on it. Dirty biatch. She also has a long squeaky duck billed platypus that Garlands gave her. She like squeaky things.

    2. Hell, good for them. They’ll be saved endless, pointless meetings where people talk about nothing for hours on end. They’ll never have to wade through interminable management speak written by people trying desperately to make the simple complicated to justify their importance. Never sit through pointless reviews where other people will tell them what to do.

      More, they’ll never worry about that nonsense for their kids.

  65. If any of you Cambridge people want to remember – there is a program on BBC News 1.30 – 2pm today – – Being black at Cambridge – -or catch it on catch-up.

    1. We never had any such problem in my day. We didn’t let ’em in.**{:^))

      **[Of course, I’m referring to that abysmal little twerp, Stephen Toope, the Canadian Vice Chancellor (£492,000)]

    2. I couldn’t even watch the trail, never mind the wretched programme. I intensely dislike being force-fed this pc diversity claptrap, which is why the BBC is usually my very last choice before it goes off.

      1. The BBC went off long ago. It was best before Blair….( and possibly even earlier than that).

  66. “The morning after the 1997 general election”, which was won by Tony Blair, “the corridors of Broadcasting House were strewn with empty champagne bottles”. (Jane Garvey)

    This morning (Freedom from ‘EU Know What’ day) the entire building was ankle deep in wet nappies and all the windows steamed up with gin fumes and smeared mascara. The (EU) flags are at half-mast (all 7542 of them) and comfort food is being shipped in by the wagon load.

    Do not rejoice my friends, they are not done yet. Already they have instigated a programme of revenge. So far today there has been 14 anti-British transmissions and there is to be an edition of ‘The Archers’, or a discussion about it or ‘Women’s Hour’ every 30 minutes or so until the government caves in and promise to return to the folds of the EU.

    I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year, but the future’s grim. We shall fight them on the beaches, we shall…

    1. Happy New Year Ped and all Nottlers!

      I wish there were any corridors left in Broadcasting House. Aside from entrance hall and council chamber, the 1932 building has been vandalised to create “open plan” offices. Empty now, as most staff will be “working from home”.

      1. Happy New Year, Our Susan.

        “working from home”. …Or Labour Party headquarters – or The Grauniad…

    2. From June 2016 to December 2020 is longer than WWI.
      Are we now looking at WWII timescale?

  67. 327995+ up ticks,
    May one ask of any current tory member have we any fishing grounds protection vessels at sea putting into practise the new determent rulings regarding the rape / abuse of the seabed or will this be given the rotherham treatment via the three monkey nautical department, for decades.

    Plus will the governance party’s be running a charity in lieu of
    incoming “guest’s” lack of funding, or will welfare be taking on a new title to support the new electorate incoming member.

    Was the Dover beach-head active today ?

    Bad Deal Better Than No Deal? UK Parliament Rubber-Stamps Johnson’s New European Treaty

  68. From the DT:

    “Two weeks ago, as his presidency entered its final weeks, Donald Trump issued an update on the country’s National Space Policy (NSP) directive for all US space activities. Perhaps the most controversial part of the directive was the US’s ambition to build a nuclear power plant on the moon by 2027.”

    3. Couldn’t they practice on earth first and help solve the power supply problems?

      I am sure they laughed when the US first said they would be sending a man to the moon.

  69. Afternoon all, I reported previously last month that myself and Mrs VVOF had to self isolate because the youngest daughter had tested positive for the virus and we had close contact with her before it was known. The daughter’s 10 days ended yesterday and she is now feeling fine, fatigue and high temperature gone. We of course would have ended our self isolation at the same time but unfortunately Mrs VVOF developed symptoms on Christmas Eve with a test taken on Boxing Day and confirmed positive 24 hours later. Mrs VVOF described it as having a typical winter type bug/cold with a dose of tiredness. Her isolation now ends tomorrow as confirmed with reminder texts and phone calls from Test & Trace with threats of fines if not adhered too. Obviously because I am with her in the same house, my isolation is the same and I have had texts from Test & Trace as well.
    I as yet have not developed any symptoms, unless you consider boredom being confined in home since 20th December as one. I pray that I stay in the clear and I can finally get out if only for a walk in this brisk air.
    Some good news to report is the number of friends and neighbours who have rang, text or e-mailed offering to do any shopping that is required for us. As both Christmas and Boxing Day plans were abandoned food is not a problem for us and the unwrapping of presents from family is definitely being stretched out this Christmas. 2021 is most welcome in this household after the experience of the end of 2020.

      1. Thanks Bill, she is on the mend I think although I have read reports of people suffering setbacks on the recovery path.

    4. “Mrs VVOF described it as having a typical winter type bug/cold with a dose of tiredness.”

      Quite likely as there are more than a few virologists being ignored by the MEEJAH and the PTB because they view it as being little more than a variant on the common cold.

      2. We think we had covid end last December 2019 before it made itself centre stage in Feb/March. A bad winter virus-type bug of which the defining and overwhelming feature from the start, through to the end (and beyond from time to time) was fatigue.

          1. Yes. I couldn’t get warm. No fever or burning up though. Labyrinthitis – the room would spin when I turned my head. Stomach ‘upset’ although mild. A copious runny nose started on Day 3 and lasted twice as long as it usually does (usually 48 hours) with these things, I must have gone through ten boxes of large (man-sized) tissues. It started with fatigue on the evening of 28 December, (Day 1) the following day (Day 2) was accompanied by a sore throat getting steadily worse over that day and the next, the shivers kicked in on Day 2 – 3. Then the runny nose. Oh, aching muscles in my back also, slight loss of appetite, slight nausea and of course lost my sense of taste and smell but that always happens with a winter virus in my case. I didn’t really have a cough. My husband came down with the same thing at exactly the same time – fatigue, sore throat, a bit of a cough for several days and that was that! But we both suffered fatigue in the evenings from time to time for weeks afterwards.

          3. Just one of those things, I suppose, just one day at a time, lots of vaseline for the nose. Just a bad winter virus. It felt like ‘flu but I knew it wasn’t as it didn’t completely knock me off my feet. With ‘flu that is the defining feature, you don’t have the strength to move about the place. Fatigue is different.

          4. I had “Un-Flu” in February 2020, and felt sufficiently weird to take it to the doc. Tired, mostly-flu like symptoms, but not much by way of schnoz leaks. Whaat was bad was a feeling of shivers with goosebumps, that would start in the middle of my back and work outwards. Never had that before, and became quite paranoid about it. Doc sasid nowt about Covid, despite taking a test from the inside of the back of my skull (through the nose). I was flat for nearly a week, then recovered.

          6. Having to stay in bed separates ‘flu from a cold for me; I can keep going with even a bad cold.

          1. For me it was more like a bad dose of ‘flu with a dry, persistent cough that made me wheeze (still get the wheeze from time to time now). I had normal ‘flu in January (and I’d had the ‘flu jab!) so my T cells ought to have been revving on all cylinders.

        3. That sounds very familiar, as Mrs VVOF remarked, “if it was any year but this, I would have not given it any significance”
          The interesting question now is, did I, have I the virus as well but am asymptomatic. As I have no symptoms I am not entitled to a test and can do no more than isolate myself away from 20th Dec to 3rd Jan.
          I would hate to be a Typhoid Mary so to speak.

          1. See my reply to Obersl. below, vvof. My husband had a much milder ‘dose’, he recovered more quickly and he is six years older than me. Having said that, he has always weathered winter viruses more easily than I have, they have always knocked me off my feet.

    5. If it’s any consolation, when I had it in February (before the panic struck), MOH didn’t succumb, so I hope the same will be true for you.

      3. An hospital delusion. You think you are still young and beautiful – they see you as aging baggage to be got rid of.

        1. No, that is the art of making 2-dimensional paintings appear 3-dimensional., especially murals. My uncle in Kenya was very good at it & did the décor for several hotels around Mombasa.

      1. …and a Happy New Year to you Garlands.
        I’m feeling better already after shaking off 2020 disaster. Of course it could be the sherry….Hic!

  71. Is Hancock guilty of misleading the House? Richard Tice reporting on the Nightingale (that was) at the Excel in London.

    https://twitter.com/TiceRichard/status/1344648440333160450

    Is Sky News a genuine news reporting concern or an apologist for the government? Tough one, this.

    https://twitter.com/TiceRichard/status/1344694082443083777

    Is Khan honest and worthy of being the mayor of our capital? Awkward – took nano-seconds to make a considered judgement.

    https://twitter.com/TiceRichard/status/1344675712486297603

    1. ‘Is Hancock guilty of misleading the House.’

      Has there ever been any doubt, Korky?

      1. When we get out of this mess I imagine Hancock will be in some trouble. Every word, every slimy smirk and the laughing when he was allegedly crying are all on record. I do not know how he, and others, sleep at night.

        2. While I agree with you about the smirk etc and the amazement he can sleep at night, I very much doubt he’ll be in trouble. Promoted sideways, a nice sinecure somewhere, golden handshake and a hefty pension are the more likely end results.

    2. Given that Sky News is now owned by Comcast, IMHO it is in the same leftist group as CH4 News, the BBC, and those US News networks Comcast owns, e.g. MSNBC. No wonder they’ve (in my view) gone from being impartial (and by far the best TV news in the UK) to partisan left wing remoaner/third wave feminists. All in the space of a few years. And to me, OFCOM has willingly let them.

  72. OT. I have just discovered that my Magnolia Solangeana is edible. You can lightly pickle or dry the petals for salads. The bark and leaves can also be used. Use the leaves as you would Bay Laurel and the bark powdered has properties of Dopamine. Good for stress/anxiety. Well i never.

    1. The leaves of the Day Lily flower are also edible. The yellow ones have a slight citrus flavour….

    2. I assumed that you were referring to the bame actress playing the part of hideously white Anne Boleyn.

  73. Evening, all. I trust you’ve had a good first day of “freedom”, if only from the toils of the EU. I’ve been out with my dog, but apart from that, I’ve been imprisoned; tried a jigsaw, but the light was poor and I didn’t get very far under artificial light. Watched the racing; my pvr failed to record, but I caught all bar the first race and they showed highlights of that as I had switched on just as they were giving the result. Rang a couple of friends, one of whom had run the flag up to celebrate Brexit Day 🙂 Today is the start of my “Fit to Ride” campaign, but I haven’t done very well yet 🙁 It is very cold, but not quite so cold as yesterday; already I can feel lethargy seeping into my soul, alas!

    1. Yesterday was bright and sunny, although very cold, but that makes a difference.
      Today, in spite of being the first day of Freedom from the EU, was cold and raw, with no sun.

      I definitely have lethargy in my bones.

      1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc287ffc7fb8ce9a12181cdc392aecf66689694d9f82e611c86cba83f901c2df.jpg

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6e71b4332f6305602ee545f41e97a6b57b13e35c2f55d869408e0912d355ca6d.jpg

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06510a267f13307c5ad2ede172db00617f696165eba679db1483a44f7fc3d084.jpg

        Yesterday provided a very heavy frost , thankfully the sun was shining , and our dog walk was a real pleasure , very enjoyable but very cold . Notice the sunshine on the flowering gorse, amazing , we could hear it clicking in the sun/ cold!

          1. Sorry. Downvoted you by mistake. Corrected.

            I know exactly what you mean. I’ve resorted to drinking my cocktails under a sun lamp. 🙂

        3. Lovely – is that a view from your house?
          Pooch is very well camo’d in that bracken.

      2. I went out to fetch something from the car, which at the moment is my outdoor fridge, at 6 pm in just a T-shirt. It was a bit chilly.

        1. Why is the car in the fridge? I can understand the keys being there, but the whole car??

          1. The car is not in the fridge, the car is the fridge. Doh!

            In Germany & Sweden the balcony served as the walk-in fridge/freezer in winter.

        1. I am not a morning person at the best of times, but these days I have to make a real effort to drag myself out of bed. It’s only if I have a riding lesson booked that I find it (relatively) easy to motivate myself 🙁

          1. When i get up i need several hours of Nottl before i can face the world. And a couple of pots of Tea of course.

          3. Sounds wonderful. 🙁

            I don’t like people speaking to me in the mornings.

            I’m happy enough to thank the postie but that is about it.

          4. You and me both, Phizzee! MOH used to be a terrible chatterbox (speech problems have put an end to that now) first thing and it would make my head explode 🙁 If I managed to grunt a reply I was doing well.

    3. I’m not normally in favour of suicide – but in your case, Mz Jones, I’m prepared to make an exception. Just don’t leave a mess for someone else to clear up like you usually do.

    5. Who are you going to bring with you, Poof?

      I’m willing to meet you anywhere to discuss how much of a wanker you are!

      1. What would you say to him, he appears to be a terrible motor mouth !
        Abit like that Jo Brand and Janet Street Porter and that ghastly SNP twit that looks like a bulging haggis !

    6. Many thousands of Britons were born out of wedlock, and as children there was nothing that they could have done about it; Owen Jones sounds like a religious maniac, the sort of person who would enthusiastically push his victims off a rooftop in Iraq.

        1. I know.
          But I understand that it is official Guardian policy to mock people who were born out of wedlock.

    8. Depends on whether it’s a cuddly, friendly, Antifa-supporting leftie who posts it, or an evil, right wing extremist working class male.

  75. Saw a report – can’t remember where – describing the conclusion of the Brexit negotiations as a “sovereign-to-sovereign” agreement.

    What a load of bollocks. The EU is NOT a sovereign state, nor does any sovereign state recognise it as such. Despite its pretensions – flag, anthem, TWO capitals, ambassadors, plenipotentiaries, and more “presidents” than ticks on a deer – it’s nothing more than a treaty organisation that has grown too big for its boots.

    With the UK’s leaving, the EU has lost one of the permanent seats on the UN Security Council that it considered belonged to it by right. Now it only has France to do its bidding, which from Brussels’ view is most unsatisfactory since the French, for all their “EU solidarity” bullshit, will always put France’s national interest front and centre.

        1. Dunno if you have seen this. Posted by Cochrane a little while ago. My friend and neighbour as a new recruit was posted to the Falklands on HMS Illustrious on his first tour. He rose to chief petty in engineering. Strangely enough his daughter now outranks him. Oh how we laughed. 🙂

          This was the RAF response. Interesting prog. https://youtu.be/D3ZdOo9dtC8

    2. My only hope is that Ireland will be shafted by the EU re their tax regime and will start to see the benefits of Irexit. After all, they voted against Lisbon before they were forced to vote again.

    1. #metoo :-((
      What a waste. He could have maybe decanted it into plastic drums (5 litres) and sold it / given it away.

      1. When one of our local breweries went bust, they let it be known that you could take a keg for free, the only stipulation being that the empty keg had to be returned by the end of the month.

        There was a reason they went bust, it wasn’t just bad financial management However, free beer was free beer.

    2. Grizzly, yes that is sad
      but what is more sad…nay even tragic
      is this man and many, many more
      are not only losing money, they are
      losing a way of life they have chosen,
      as their career… to offer succour to
      others, to be an hospitable Host;
      who will replace them?
      And with what?

    3. Not a pub I’ve been in, but I’ve heard good reports about it.
      The Alex in Derby is currently selling ale to take away.

      1. The Alexandra, the next-door Brunswick, the Exeter Arms and the Dolphin (all in Derby) are four of my favourite pubs on the planet.

        1. I was saddened a couple of years back when I picked up a copy of The Derby Drinker to find that Jill, the barmaid at the Brunswick when I first arrived in Derby in 1990, had died.
          An absolutely brilliant lass at her job. Would take all sorts of light hearted abuse and return the fire with generous interest!

          1. Coincidentally my favourite Derbyshire pub was originally called The Brunswick. It was a characterless off-town centre pub selling keg beers and was about to die on it feet. A local CAMRA group saw its potential so bought it from whatever brewery was looking to off-load it.

            The cleaned it up and added some old church pews and shove-ha’penny tables, steadfastly refusing to ‘modernise’ it or add juke boxes or one-armed bandits. After a row of twelve real-ale pumps were added to the bar, The newly named Derby Tup, on Sheffield Road, Chesterfield, opened its doors to become the area’s flagship CAMRA pub.

            I first visited it in its first month and became a regular soon after. I still miss going there.

      2. Why didn’t he sell the casks off? Is that a rhetorical question since I have no answer for you?

        I would assume that those metal casks are supplied by whatever brewery and are returned empty for refilling.

    2. You’re on the Ham side of the river.facing downstream. I spent a lot of time on that island and what was wasteland behind the lock keeper’s cottage out of picture on the right. I lived for a couple of years in the riverside flats on the Teddington side on the opposite side of the island where you’re moored . Grew up in Ham to your right. Sighs, sorry that just brings back happy memories (out of the house) from my childhood. Downstream of the lock dead ahead are a few beaches on the Ham side where we’d picnic and swing from tree ropes. Thank you.

      1. ♫ “Now Teddington Lock is a beautiful place
        But the price of the whisky is grim
        How nice it would be if the whisky was free
        And the Lock was filled up to the brim” ♫
        — Andy Stewart

      2. I spent the first seven years of my life there, and often used to dream of the bit of wild land on the Ham side of Teddington Lock. It was developed in the 1960s, but I used to dream of walking across the common as far as a building with a clock tower not far from Eel Pie Island.

        I used to walk past the TV studios to get there, and my younger sister was very fond of the gatekeeper, who sometimes let her work the gates.

        All the Victorian houses in the row where I lived were demolished in the late1960s and 1970s and replaced by blocks of flats, but the house where I was born was much smaller than the others, and is the only one in the row that survived. It’s still there now, although they’ve done it up a bit since I was there.

        There was a piece of music I knew by heart and used to annoy my brother by singing it when he was trying to sleep. I never heard it from 1964 until a few years ago, when somebody discovered a recording and posted it online. It was Stanley Bate’s ‘Associated-Rediffusion March’ that they used to start up the programmes on ITV. When I heard it again, all the old childhood memories of Teddington came flooding back.

        1. Going to have to talk about it again. Just finished the 2nd bottle. Ham (sand) pits they were called as far as I know. Eel pie island is downstream from there. Talk tomorrow. Off to bed.

          1. I loved these romantic old buildings. Strawberry Hill was another. Hammersmith Bridge was also another of my favourite. St Alban’s with its copper roof was always my image behind the old rhyme with hands “here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open it up and here are all the people”. There was an evocative Festival of Britain style 1950s swimming pool at Wades Lane (I think) with painted plaster, which has long gone.

            The building I dreamt of is a bit of a mystery. The roof of the clock tower was Regency style, not Gothic, and curved. It could have been Ham House or Petersham. I knew the Terrace Gardens in Richmond very well, but never connected it with Ham Common. Alternatively, it could have been a concoction of my dream, not existing in real life. The place this building was had the same atmosphere as the main road in Hampton, and also the market place in Kingston, both of which I would see from the car when dozing in the back.

        3. Wait, the building on a clock tower. Could that be the tower at the Catholic girls school, can’t remember the name, towards Twickenham?

  80. And another:

    “Don’t Cry For GB Angela”

    It won’t be easy, you’ll think it strange
    When I try to explain how we feel
    That we don’t need the EU after all that you’ve done

    You won’t believe the signs
    All you will see is the UK you once knew
    Although debt distressed up to the nines
    At sixes and sevens with EU

    Brexit had to happen, we had to change
    Can’t live our lives under the EU heel
    Looking out of the window, staying out of the sun

    So we choose freedom
    Running around, trying everything new
    Not that that impresses you at all
    We never expected it to

    [Chorus:]

    Don’t cry for GB Angela
    The truth is we never liked t’EU
    Even through the Blair days
    And Brown existence
    (keeping the Sterling promise)
    We kept our distance

    And as for fortune, and as for fame
    We shall invite them in
    (Though the Remainers think they will be denied)

    The EU’s an illusion
    Its not the solution they promised it to be
    The answer was here all the time
    We’ve left the EU and it frees GB

    Don’t cry for GB Angela

    [chorus]

    Have I said too much?
    There’s nothing more I can think of to say to EU.
    But all you have to do is look at GB to know
    That every word is true

    1. It didn’t grab me at all. I found I was nodding off in the earlier scenes, and then I couldn’t really follow it.

        1. That’s me stuffed then…….. I don’t know if OH will want to watch all of it or not.

      2. I agree – it was very slow and unrealistic. The portrayal of diplomats was crass and the constant hopping backwards and forwards in time was confusing. On the other hand, there wasn’t much else to watch on any of the main channels.

  82. Saturday 2nd January, 2021

    poppiesmum

    HAVE A MARVELLOUS BIRTHDAY

    and

    VERY MANY HAPPY RETURNS

    With best wishes from Caroline and Richard

    An excellent day for a partial palindrome?

    (Born ’47 – score 74)

    1. Thank you very much!
      How has it come to this?!
      74 was never part of my game plan in those heady, faraway days of the sixties and seventies!
      Now:
      “But at my back I always hear
      times wingèd chariot hurrying near.”

      1. 74 years young ! Many happy returns.

        Hope you have something planned and you’ve saved me some cake. You have haven’t you? 🙁

        1. Thank you! One year just slides seamlessly into the next… and before you know it, here you are at a place you didn’t think existed and wondering how you got here!

          Despite the best efforts of Government Team Covid I have had an unexpectedly lovely day. And the sun came out too! And, there is some cake left over…… but sorry – you’re in tier 4…..

        1. Thank you, molamola. I have had a lovely day, despite the best efforts of the joyless team Covid. And the sun came out too!

        1. Thank you, I’ve had a lovely day despite our being in tier 4 and Jan 2 being the traditional ‘slump’ day of the year. And after days of cold, damp, gloom the sun came out for the day as well!

        2. Thanks so much, Conway, birthdays come round ever more quickly these days. I have had a lovely day (despite the best efforts of tier 4 (grrrr!), Team Covid and the fact that 2 January is, well 2 January) and due in no small measure to all the kind birthday wishes I have received. And, the sun came out after days of mist and damp gloom!

        1. Thank you! I by the tide of Humber did once reside….. (well, almost). Marvell was one of my ‘A’ level poets, I really enjoyed the works of his that I studied. And despite the best efforts of the joyless team Covid and its tiers, I have had a lovely day, thanks in no small part to all the kind messages I have received. They have meant a lot especially on the day which, in the United Kingdom, is traditionally regarded as the ‘slump’ day after the completion of the festivities. And the sun came out (busy old fool that it is) after days of damp gloom!

        1. Thank you, Ndovu, I have had a lovely day despite having no expectations in view of our present covid season; kind birthday wishes from so many here was a delightful start, afternoon tea with our younger son on the other side of the open conservatory window (we were inside) but as we were both in tier 4 he didn’t want to come into the house in case he passed on ‘the virus’ although we are not concerned. He was well wrapped up and we gave him a hot water bottle and thick fleece blanket as well. Later this evening we had a Zoom birthday quiz session with him and his wife and our elder son and his wife which was fun. And the sun came out today as well after days of gloom!

          1. Glad you’ve had a good day ! It’s been snowing here though not a lot. Had a stressful evening – will see what tomorrow brings.

  83. I am off for the day. Jigsaw to get on with. Glasses to fill – fires to stoke. Busy, busy – that’s me.

    See you on Day Two of Year One.

    A demain.

  84. Hey ho, another night shift begins.
    I pitched up at 10.00pm as is the normal start time to find I should have started at 6.00pm. Oops

    1. Irrelevant old has-been. H I mean, not you, Plum…….. why the change of name etc? New year, new you?

      1. Hi Ndovu, HNY….
        My previous avatar was a constant reminder of the tennis I missed due to ankle injury…..Hoping to resume play this year!
        NoTTlers tend to call me Plum (Wodehouse) I’m happy with that.

    2. As I remarked earlier, the bar steward will be dead long before there is any possibility his wishes come to fruition.

      1. Before he goes he must be disgraced. The man is effluent. He and Grayling are simple thieves. Both must learn to come to heel.

    4. I’ll call for everyone to see Heseltine imprisoned and stripped of his title. MPs must learn who they serve. Frankly, I’ve had enough of such twonks pretending they’re our masters. The public boot must sit on the state neck.

    5. That’s OK. The more who show themselves as “Rejoiners” the better. We will know who they are.

    6. Did anyone ever think they would give up? We can only hope that most people will accept democracy and fail to follow them; eventually they will fall off their perch, hopefully to be replaced by people who actually like this country.

    10. MOH has had the nickname of Piglet for the last 40 years. Given to her by friends of many years ago. She has Piglet mugs etc.

    2. Khan’s in there for good. London is an over run, Left wing toilet thanks to Labour’s gimmigration policies. Getting rid of him with such a deliberate intrenched voting base is impossible.

      The solution, then is to cut off any power he has. That means cutting off his funding. Start by reducing his budget by something sensible, like 50%. No doubt his immediate response will be to hike taxes – this too must be prevented.

      heck, if Boris wants to start the year well he could mandate, by law that all councils make savings of 10% every year and to return that to the tax payer – with all savings coming from any salary over 80,000. Let’s start culling.

  89. Goodnight, everyone. We have successfully negotiated the first full day of being out of the EU and the sky hasn’t fallen in 🙂

    1. I have the feeling it may have been sold silently, and now the sunrise and the sunset are only happening at the will of the WEF though.

    1. Whats your take on this Bob? I’ve been saying the PTB are pauperising us and crushing the middle classes and it’s all about control. Pretty much what this lady is saying. The ”virus” has been a wonderful cover for what’s happening. Pretty soon we won’t be able to. … if we haven’t had a test/been vaccinated, money will only be digital and we will be completely under control. We may have Brexit but there’s something far worse coming down the line I think.

      1. The sort of trans humanism that she is talking about is theoretically possible, but I thought we were not yet there.

        Her analysis of the damage done in the US riots was interesting.

      1. Try Wikipedia. CAF is one of those token women who get appointed to boards and committees, who then learn how to ask inappropriate questions and upset the troughs.

    3. A clever lady and spot on with her comments. We all need to step up and confront the idiocy and malevolence towards us as inflicted by Johnson and Hancock and their friends in Pharma.

      1. I hope not, Sue. I have fond memories of my time among the Amish and the Mennonites of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, back in 1983.

    1. They only let us out of the EU because Britain has been so thoroughly and silently infiltrated. Blame our legendary tolerance for that.

  94. 327995+ up ticks,
    To the party before Country brigade, when the likes of johnson / farage tell you “the war is over, relax” that is the time to double the pro English / GB sentries.
    The rush to get the barely tested vaccine into peoples arms
    is on par with the rush to get the barely read “deal” triggered.
    Treacherous actions taken in haste can leave the peoples repenting in anguish.

    Delingpole: Bojo Tweets Praise for the Great Reset. Strap in Everyone, 2021 is Going to be a Wild Ride

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