Friday 12 November: Deaths from Covid caught in hospital were more than those recorded

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

797 thoughts on “Friday 12 November: Deaths from Covid caught in hospital were more than those recorded”

    1. Good morning, old bean. And to all other beans (male) and crumpets (female) out there. And, talking of Plum (P G Wodehouse) today I hope to make some plum crumble.

    1. ‘Morning, Minty.

      Everyone seems to be a bit slow off the mark this morning. Is there a heavy frost?

          2. Aargh!!! (But at least the BBC is not now ignoring the problem which UKIP flagged up many years ago.)

          3. The Beeb says people here have seen enough of people dying in the Channel….some distortion there I think.

        2. Was up at seven, on the off-chance that the forecast was wrong and a round of golf would happen. Sadly the sideways rain has dashed those hopes. Now contemplating what to get outside of for breakfast.

          1. “The sideways rain”? So you’re saying (© Cathy Newman) that the rain is giving you a lateral Covid test?

          1. Stop insulting our good friend Herr Oberst, Peter. If you must be rude, call him a Very Silly Sausage.

          3. Stop insulting our good friend Herr Oberst, Peter. If you must be rude, call him a Very Silly Sausage.

  4. “More than half the Russian population now live in fear of the state”—Putin’s increasing repression. 12 November 2021.

    AS THE ECONOMY has deteriorated and the internet has bypassed television, persecution of opponents has become the president’s main tool of political control. Even the pandemic has been harnessed to silence dissent. An Economist film reports on the young women standing up to Vladimir Putin. And in China, there’s a more subdued background to the Singles’ Day online shopping splurge.

    Morning everyone. I don’t live in Russia so I can’t offer a personal perspective. My views on the Country and its President are gained from a hostile source; the West’s MSM; which opinions I derive are oddly enough completely opposite to the message they seek to convey. This because I have learned that most of them are fake, and that by extension, the few that remain, no matter how convincing, must perforce be fake as well.

    When we read these assertions about Russia we have to remember that the UK is the home of 77 Brigade that seeks to undermine legitimate content on the internet; that the “Nudge Unit” acts to alter the views of its citizens, that the advertisements and programmes on TV are structured to portray a false image of the UK! That to speak out against things you do not believe will see you hounded, cancelled and unemployed. That you can be arrested for your opinions and required to kneel in support of something with which you do not agree. That you cannot get a job without being the right colour or sexual orientation or creed. All this and the lies about Covid and Global Warming.

    It is of course quite possible that we may find our own people fighting Russian Forces in support of keeping refugees out of Europe, an irony so bizarre, bearing in mind the flood crossing the Channel, that would soon have to be changed to fighting for Freedom and Democracy, Blah, Blah. I’m not going to make any vainglorious announcements myself; I am 75 and recent events suggest that I’m even older than my years. I shall support our own while despising their leaders and their motives.

    I’m not afraid of Russia or Vladimir Putin; I don’t think that he wishes me any personal ill will or seeks to change my opinions about anything I value. I wish that this was something I could say about the British Government who frequently provoke in me a nameless dread and disturb my sleep with their constant lies and fearmongering.

    https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2021/11/11/more-than-half-the-russian-population-now-live-in-fear-of-the-state-putins-increasing-repression

    4. ‘Even the pandemic has been harnessed to silence dissent’. Much like the ‘online harm bill’ then, or not as draconian?

  7. Morning all

    SIR – As a medical examiner, I have scrutinised hospital deaths since the start of the pandemic. It was evident early on that significant numbers of patients who came into hospital without Covid-19 were acquiring it there (report, November 9).

    However, it was not until later that medical examiners were asked to categorise these patients according to the likelihood of infection being contracted in hospital, and to report probable and definite cases for further investigation. Thus, the true number of patients who caught Covid in hospital and later died must be more than the 11,600 recorded by the NHS.

    Like Jeremy Hunt, I am appalled by this, and by how long it took the NHS to admit it. Mr Hunt implied that transmission from staff to patients was the main source of infection, but it was clear to me that it was mutual.

    Initially, hospitals had no rapid testing. Reliance on clinical diagnosis meant that Covid patients were placed on non-Covid wards, and vice-versa. Wards were overcrowded and staff overworked and in short supply as they too became ill. Distancing was often impossible due to inadequate facilities, and infection control teams were fighting a losing battle.

    Most importantly, the NHS totally failed to prepare for such a pandemic. Hospitals had insufficient PPE, too few isolation beds and a paucity of staff to use them effectively.

    We are in a better position now, thanks to vaccination, but the problem of poor facilities to control infection remains. This must be the priority, as well as staff numbers. Honesty and transparency from the NHS are also vital if lessons are to be learnt.

    Dr David Niblett

    Turvey, Bedfordshire

    SIR – At a local recycling centre, there’s a sign showing the percentage of waste recycled. If hospitals displayed the percentage of staff who have been vaccinated, the public would have an idea of the risk involved in visiting.

    Paddy Shillington

    Louth, Lincolnshire

    SIR – Like Sandra Shallcross (Letters, November 11), I was prescribed AstraZeneca as I have allergies, but when I went for a booster jab none was available. I rang 119 for information, but was told to try my surgery. After queuing for some time, I was told that the concerns about Pfizer no longer apply and I could have it – which I did, with no ill effects.

    There seems have been a breakdown in communication.

    Sandra Jones

    Old Cleeve, Somerset

    SIR – You report (November 10) that French citizens aged over 65 will be required to have had a Covid booster jab if they wish to take a train or go to a restaurant, café or cultural venue, and that it is expected that this will also apply to tourists and expats.

    As British booster jabs are not recorded on the NHS app, how are British visitors supposed to prove that they have had it?

    Patricia Jagger

    Elstow, Bedfordshire

    Freedom at university

    SIR – Eric Kaufmann (Comment, November 10) says that Britain needs a “university of dangerous ideas”, which stands up for academic freedom and free speech. We already have one.

    Buckingham has always been ranked top or in the top group for academic freedom and free speech. Contrary to Mr Kaufmann’s suggestion, we have most certainly attracted a “glittering roster of academics and journalists”, including – space is limited – Sir Roger Scruton, Simon Heffer, David Starkey, Jane Ridley, John Adamson, Luca Turin, David Cannadine and Peter Hennessy.

    Indeed, I am continually being approached by leading academics, “refugees” from a system bogged down in woke ideology, who wish to be associated with us. I hope to announce another new name very soon.

    Professor James Tooley

    Vice-Chancellor, University of Buckingham

    MPs’ real jobs

    SIR – There is nothing wrong with MPs having second jobs (Leading Article, November 11). Indeed, far too many have worked all their lives in the political bubble and lack experience of the real world. As a result, as ministers they don’t have the skills required.

    While being a minister is a job, being an MP is not. It is a calling. Many MPs have chosen to convert themselves into glorified social workers to display their local commitment, but MPs who have not should feel under no obligation to do so. The sole function of an MP is to represent their constituents in Parliament as they think best. How each chooses to do that is entirely up to them. Of course, they won’t last long if they don’t satisfy their voters.

    In a democracy, save for grave transgressions, only the voters should decide whether MPs are behaving appropriately. If voters choose an MP like Claudia Webbe, recently convicted of criminal offences, they will soon repent, but that Sir Geoffrey Cox or David Lammy earn money outside Parliament is normal – desirable, even.

    Gregory Shenkman

    London W8

    SIR – MPs cannot win. They are expected to make laws and run the country, and are not paid handsomely for this. They control a business far greater financially than any other, yet the paid rewards are minuscule. Can you imagine any chief executive or finance director working for what Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, is paid?

    We need intelligent, personable, articulate, common-sense individuals to take the country forward. I’m afraid we either pay them significantly more or allow them to earn additional rewards outside of Parliament. Equally, no one should enter Parliament without having work experience and none should stay more than 10 years. Lifetime politicians are a hindrance.

    Mike Metcalfe

    Butleigh, Somerset

  8. Morning again

    A green Cop-out

    SIR – While the great and the good have jetted to Glasgow to lecture us on saving the planet, I’m on the roof fitting replacement covers and air vents to my 25-year-old solar panels.

    Of all the companies contacted to do this work only one gave me a quote – £5,000 to replace the entire system, and send perfectly good copper pipes, tank, pump and controls to land fill.

    It is extraordinary that, in this day and age, support and maintenance for this and household appliances does not exist. What is the point of consumers going green in a throwaway society?

    David Ward

    Gosport, Hampshire

    SIR – Each week, the noise of my neighbours’ gardener’s leaf blower makes me want to vacate my house.

    I recently discovered that a two-stroke petrol-powered blower emits more carbon monoxide, nitrogen and carcinogenic hydrocarbons than a Ford pick-up truck. Up to a third of the fuel is spilled into the air, which means that half an hour of leaf blowing is equivalent to driving hundreds of miles, while the noise of 100 decibels is the same as a plane taking off.

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    They are banned in many American cities, and in the whole state of California. It is time to ban them here.

    Holly Holman

    Boldre, Hampshire

    1. And where is Ms Holman obtaining these ‘facts’ from? They strike me as made up!

      Edit: Manners – ‘Morning, Epi.

  9. SIR – As a medical examiner, I have scrutinised hospital deaths since the start of the pandemic. It was evident early on that significant numbers of patients who came into hospital without Covid-19 were acquiring it there (report, November 9).

    However, it was not until later that medical examiners were asked to categorise these patients according to the likelihood of infection being contracted in hospital, and to report probable and definite cases for further investigation. Thus, the true number of patients who caught Covid in hospital and later died must be more than the 11,600 recorded by the NHS.

    Like Jeremy Hunt, I am appalled by this, and by how long it took the NHS to admit it. Mr Hunt implied that transmission from staff to patients was the main source of infection, but it was clear to me that it was mutual.

    Initially, hospitals had no rapid testing. Reliance on clinical diagnosis meant that Covid patients were placed on non-Covid wards, and vice-versa. Wards were overcrowded and staff overworked and in short supply as they too became ill. Distancing was often impossible due to inadequate facilities, and infection control teams were fighting a losing battle.

    Most importantly, the NHS totally failed to prepare for such a pandemic. Hospitals had insufficient PPE, too few isolation beds and a paucity of staff to use them effectively.

    We are in a better position now, thanks to vaccination, but the problem of poor facilities to control infection remains. This must be the priority, as well as staff numbers. Honesty and transparency from the NHS are also vital if lessons are to be learnt.

    Dr David Niblett
    Turvey, Bedfordshire

    ‘Morning, Peeps. Let’s face it, there is nothing new in the failure of the NHS to plan effectively, or at all. Add to that their tendency to mislead – or in the case of whistleblowers to lie and smear – and what happened with Covid will not come as a surprise. Will they be ready next time, and open and honest about any failures? Somehow I doubt it. The system is collapsing and requires wholesale reform before yet more money is poured into it.

    1. Covid is running its course and nothing else. A 1% world death rate is nothing to worry about. The greatest con of all time.

      1. It hasn’t even killed 0.1% of the world population and that’s using the spurious 28 day rule and similar frauds.
        The world population has increased by far more than have died of Covid in the same period. More people are added net per month than have died in total of Covid since the start of the so-called pandemic.

    2. I would suggest replace rather than reform. giving organisations money without results has to stop.

    3. I can’t believe he referenced Hunt! The guy who ignored the result of operation Cygnus, sat on his hands and is now ‘appalled’! What a muppet!

      1. While I agree with your assessment of Hunt, SM, operation Cygnus or any other plan to combat a genuine pandemic would not have been activated to deal with covid. Dealing with covid by sensible medical planning was never on the cards as those measures would most likely have been effective and the government’s narrative destroyed.

    4. Maybe some of the staff dealing with covid patients on those wards would have been better employed in the instant isolation (Nightingale) hospitals.

  10. Clarks accuses striking factory staff of hurling homophobic abuse. 12 November 2021.

    Striking workers at Clarks have been accused of shouting homophobic abuse at staff and attempting to damage cars as Britain lurches into a winter of discontent.

    Picketers scattered nails across the road to be run over by traffic outside Clarks’ factory in Somerset and a striker shouted “take that, gay boy” at a member of staff heading into the building, the 196-year-old shoemaker claimed amid an increasingly bitter dispute over pay.

    The British Working Class utterly unmoved by twenty tears of indoctrination. Lol!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/11/11/clarks-accuses-striking-factory-staff-hurling-homophobic-abuse/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

  11. ‘HSBC managers jailed for siphoning £900k from customers’ accounts’

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/hsbc-managers-jailed-900k-fraud-customers-accounts-b965646.html?itm_source=Internal&itm_channel=homepage_trending_article_component&itm_campaign=trending_section&itm_content=1

    Gerald Sarpong and Mohammed Uddin involved. Amazing they thought no-one would notice.

    Usual derisory sentences – 5 years 11 months and 6 years 8 months respectively. Out in half that time, of course.

    1. The Shropshire Sarpongs and the Herfordshire Uddins?

      Haven’t those names cropped up elsewhere?

      “Suspended peer Baroness Uddin will return to the House of Lords in May after repaying more than £125,000 she wrongly claimed in expenses.
      The politician follows fellow peer Lord Hanningfield, who has returned to Parliament after he repaid £30,000.
      He spent time in prison after being convicted over his expenses but was released on licence last September.
      Baroness Uddin, who was suspended in October 2010, repaid the debt “in one lump sum”, a Lords spokesman said.
      She remains suspended until the end of this Westminster session and will return after the Queen’s speech, scheduled for 9 May.”

      “BBC chiefs are forced to defend their Diversity Tsar June Sarpong being paid £267,000-a-year for a three-day week”

  12. SIR – The British Royal Legion says there is no correct side on which to wear a poppy (Letters, November 11), but that it should be worn with pride.

    Some say it should be worn over the heart, but the more prosaic reason for wearing it on the left is that most people are right-handed, and it is far easier to pin it on the left side.

    Linda Connor
    Alderley Edge, Cheshire

    Quite frankly, who cares? As a former poppy ‘seller’ of nearly 30 years I was never once asked about the right or wrong way to wear it. What is important is that people donate to this excellent cause, and remember why they are doing so. Everything else is irrelevant. Get out and assist instead of writing pointless letters to the DT!

  13. SIR – While the great and the good have jetted to Glasgow to lecture us on saving the planet, I’m on the roof fitting replacement covers and air vents to my 25-year-old solar panels.

    Of all the companies contacted to do this work only one gave me a quote – £5,000 to replace the entire system, and send perfectly good copper pipes, tank, pump and controls to land fill.

    It is extraordinary that, in this day and age, support and maintenance for this and household appliances does not exist. What is the point of consumers going green in a throwaway society?

    David Ward
    Gosport, Hampshire

    “Covers and air vents” for solar panels? Mine worked perfectly well without both. I’m at a loss to understand what he was trying to do….

        1. All finished now. They widened the road of that new roundabout. All four roads go back to single lane after 100 yards. Slow slow quick quick slow….and stop.

    4. Water heating panels.
      Something we ought to have been fitting to new build housing for the almost past 5 decades, since the fuel scare of the Yom Kippur War in fact.

        1. I’m not so sure. He seems to have a healthy relationship with his Mum who has allowed him to grow up.

          It always irritated me that my parents and siblings continued to treat me as the youngest child…age 50 !

          1. We do share the same sense of humour and love of history.
            I don’t share his love of skiing.

  15. SIR – At a local recycling centre, there’s a sign showing the percentage of waste recycled. If hospitals displayed the percentage of staff who have been vaccinated, the public would have an idea of the risk involved in visiting.

    Paddy Shillington
    Louth, Lincolnshire

    That’s assuming that the figures published by the NHS can be believed – even if this suggestion was a sensible one…which it obviously isn’t!

    2. It never fails to surprise me that there exists a large group of people that do not believe Johnson when he speaks the truth for the first time since he became PM i.e. the “vaccine” does not prevent a person from catching the infection nor from transmitting it. Perhaps this particular incidence of truth telling by Johnson is a ploy to cover his back when he has to defend his actions in the future.

    3. I didn’t know hospitals allowed visitors.
      Do they mean the poor saps wandering endless corridors trying to find departments with obscure names?

  16. SIR – At a local recycling centre, there’s a sign showing the percentage of waste recycled. If hospitals displayed the percentage of staff who have been vaccinated, the public would have an idea of the risk involved in visiting.

    Paddy Shillington
    Louth, Lincolnshire

    That’s assuming that the figures published by the NHS can be believed – even if this suggestion was a sensible one…which it obviously isn’t!

    1. To be fair I have never felt the need to contact my MP so have no way of knowing if the are representing me.

      1. Mine sorted out my missing licence by rattling a cage or two, and in no time at all I had my own identifiable complaint handler with a name, a direct line and her own email address. The licence followed swiftly thereafter. Some years ago another put a stop to threatening letters from HMRC when they managed to lose, twice, my VAT payments and said that the next stage was would close down my business if not received immediately. A lot of people don’t realise that government departments have special arrangements for dealing with complaints from MPs. Additionally, by involving them they might begin to understand what is going on (or isn’t!) in the real world.

        ‘Morning, B3.

      2. Good morning B3 (weather excluded), I did contact my MP on a couple of occasions but although I regarded her cookie cutter replies to my emails as ‘just following orders’ from the Shortbread Senate’s TV personality, further prodding had me passed off to one of her minions.

        Sadly, the nationalists don’t do ‘world view’ only their insistence on a neverendum. Ironically, independence of thought is verbotten.

    2. I cannot see what possible skill Lammy has outside of office. He’s a nasty, ignorant racist.

      Ah. Perhaps that’s the industry he’s in.

    1. Morning Grizz I fail to see the point of leaf blowers, the big leaf blower in the sky (wind) blows them back

        1. ‘Morning, Hugh.

          I have a large rake that does the job more efficiently, gives me more exercise, is not noisy, and doesn’t puther out copious amounts of noxious fumes.

        2. Morning Hugh – true but I gather the electric ones are quieter and can be used for sucking them up

          1. I had one of those, a 2kw jobbie that would struggle, even when the leaves were dry. Nothing much happened when they were wet. Oh, and it was very heavy, despite the harness for carrying it!

        1. Letting leaves mulch down where they fall is a good thing. It helps the soil. Why blow them around at all?

          I trim the hedgerow as otherwise you can’t see around the bend. I leave the cruft where it falls. Wildlife will use it for bedding.

          1. I have a small copse made up of a Norway spruce, maple, and a few lilacs. I sweep all the leaves into it to break down in their own time (and provide a shelter for hedgehogs).

  22. The fact that he lived to 101 is nothing short of a miracle. He and his kind were a rare breed…

    Ted Oates, soldier who escaped from Dunkirk after helping to evacuate the wounded and went on to serve in the North Africa campaign – obituary

    In chaotic conditions during Operation Dynamo he travelled to Dunkirk guided by the glow in the sky from burning oil tanks

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    11 November 2021 • 6:08am

    Ted Oates, who has died aged 101, served with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and took part in the evacuation from Dunkirk in May 1940.

    German forces had bypassed the Maginot Line to the west, encircled the Dutch and Belgian Armies and pinned the BEF and the First French Army Group against the Channel.

    Oates was serving with 9th Army Field Workshop, Royal Army Ordnance Corps (9 AFW RAOC). The unit’s HQ was at the Château de Bryas (now Brias) near Saint Pol-sur-Ternoise, north-west of Arras. They subsequently moved to Armentières.

    There were air raids throughout the day; two Hurricanes were shot down and burst into flames. Most of the civilian population had left, and abandoned dogs, made ferocious by hunger, roamed the streets. On the way by convoy to Oostvleteren, Belgium, the roads were teeming with refugees. The fifth column was busy among them, giving credence to the latest rumours about the speed of the German advance and spreading alarm and defeatism.

    On arrival at Oostvleteren, 9 AFW’s CO wrote in the war diary: “We timed our dinner to finish at 21.00, in time for the King’s speech on the radio. We heard this perfectly, and by the time the National Anthem was played, we had our port ready for the loyal toast, stood and drank, ‘The King.’ ”

    On May 23, Field Marshal Lord Gort, commander of the BEF, ordered his forces to pull back to Dunkirk. Three days later, the British Government authorised him to withdraw the BEF to Britain. The evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo, began the day after that, May 27.

    Oates’s unit was near Bergues, south of Dunkirk, on May 27 when orders were received to destroy all stores, equipment and vehicles that could not be moved. Engines and radiators were smashed with sledgehammers and tyres were burst with a shot through the walls. Villages nearby were being bombed by successive flights of enemy aircraft. The CO decided that the town was a death-trap and moved his men to farm buildings a few miles away.

    He gave the order to split up into eight groups of 60 men, each led by an officer. The first party left at 21.00. They had 14 miles to cover on foot in darkness and on roads where the conditions were chaotic. Oates’s group was the last to leave. At midnight, they set off, guided by the glow in the sky from burning oil tanks at Dunkirk. At Bergues, the only bridge over the canal was destroyed and they had to clamber over submerged lorries to get across. After taking a wrong road, they eventually arrived at Bray-Dunes, east of the town.

    On May 29, most of the men of 9 AFW were taken off the beach by dinghy and loaded on to the minesweepers Sutton and Salamander. But Oates’s party arrived at the wrong beach; they were not logged for evacuation from there, they had no food and were under constant artillery shelling and strafing from the air.

    After two days, he and a few comrades decided to try to reach Dunkirk. As they approached the moles which protected the outer harbour, there was an open area of beach which was being relentlessly shelled, but it had to be crossed. A traffic officer shouted to them to wait until the shells started coming towards them and then make a dash for it, taking cover behind charred and derelict vehicles until the shells were landing behind them.

    The beaches were teeming with men. Some were lining the piers waiting for the rescue ships. Others had waded out from the shore with the water up to their necks.

    Close to one of the moles, casualties were laid out in rows and there were calls for volunteers to help to evacuate the wounded. Oates and a comrade took a stretcher and carried wounded soldiers to a hospital ship. It was a precarious journey; they were under constant fire as they negotiated shell holes in the mole’s planking.

    He and six others then made their way along the mole to a destroyer. They went aboard, crossed the deck and scrambled down to a small ship which had arrived with a cargo of rations. Huddled together in the hold, they crossed the Channel. When they were attacked by a German fighter, the ship’s gunner called out that he was almost out of ammunition for his Lewis gun. Oates remembered that he had two clips in the pockets of his greatcoat and handed these over. They disembarked at Folkestone.

    The Royal Navy evacuated most of the troops. Despite cover from the RAF, which flew more than 2,700 sorties, it came under sustained attack from fighter-bombers and shore batteries. With the help of an extraordinary flotilla of motor boats, fishing boats, sloops, barges, ferries and every type of craft that set off from creeks and inlets, river moorings and coastal havens all over the south of England, almost 340,000 stranded troops (including 110,000 Frenchmen) were rescued to fight another day.

    Edward John Oates, always known as Ted, was born at Hampstead, London, on April 15 1920. His father had served in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War. Young Ted was educated at Royds Hall Grammar School, Huddersfield.

    In 1939 he was a clerk at Joseph Hopkinson & Co, a Huddersfield engineering company, when he joined the TA. He trained at the drill hall every Sunday morning and, when he was called up, he was promoted to lance-corporal and posted to 9 AFW. He was issued with a tin basin for soup and tea and a tin plate. At meals, the top of the plate was used for the main course and it was turned over for the dessert.

    In January 1940, Oates and his comrades embarked at Southampton, bound for Le Havre. His unit was attached to the 51st Highland Division, part of the BEF. In mid-May, as German forces advanced through Belgium and the Netherlands, the Division moved up to the Maginot Line and 9 AFW became a workshop for 2 Corps.

    After his evacuation from Dunkirk, Oates rejoined 9 AFW at Nottingham. He subsequently served in the North Africa campaign and was involved in repairing and maintaining tanks. He moved to Cairo after the defeat of the Axis forces and was demobilised in 1946.

    He joined the Inland Revenue at Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, and retired as the collector of taxes for Hitchin. In retirement he enjoyed woodworking and repairing clocks and watches. He was a keen astronomer, a member of the Royal Astronomical Society, and built several fair-sized telescopes.

    As a member of the Henley-on-Thames Dunkirk Veterans he supported the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships and regularly took part in Dunkirk commemorations. He also gave many interviews for television documentaries on the BEF and Dunkirk. He and his wife Nora were guests at the Queen and Prince Philip’s golden wedding anniversary celebrations in 1997.

    Ted Oates married, in 1947, Nora Brown. She predeceased him, and he is survived by their son and daughter.

    Ted Oates, born April 15 1920, died September 5 2021

    1. There seems to be a lot of these old soldiers dying now. At least they had long lives. I wonder what they thought of modern life.

      1. ‘Mornin, N. My father said more than once before he died “I no longer recognise the country I fought for.” How sad is that?

      2. From experience of working in that field, once the nights drew in and the cold and damp prevailed, there was always an uptick in deaths amongst those who had hung on during the summer.
        February/March was also a bad time, as those that had enjoyed Christmas and New Year, simply found the winter went on that bit too long.

        And this was all before the “because of Covid” scam.

      1. Much depends on how you use them. It is bothersome that to stop it pouring our all sorts of tracking information you basically have to break it, and that you cannot turn off location tracking to turn on bluetooth – that’s just abusive.

        Then there’s ‘phone services’ so an app can make phone calls to read if a wireless connection is open.

        Phone banking I do rely on – it’s too convenient. However I have told one of my banks that as they haven’t hired sufficient staff and make me wait for 10+ minutes when they don’t take my payments when I expect them to I won’t let them take them at another time. I’ve done enough chasing after them.

        They said ‘Well, you will be fined.’. Try it, I replied.

    2. I have one and I’m using it now but I never use it for making payments, nor do I use any QR codes or other apps. I don’t make or reply to phone calls either and I leave it behind when I go out.

  24. Good morning all from a dull, overcast but at least dry Derbyshire with an almost warm 6½° in the yard.

  25. Good morning all. This is an interesting summary of the progress of ‘vaccine passports’ across the rest of the UK and Europe:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/rise-unvaxxed-second-class-citizen/

    To be honest, it sickens me to see how readily people will give up their freedom, their bodily autonomy, potentially their-long term health for what? A pizza? The right to go to the pub? Did our grandfathers really fight and die for this?

    Our freedom to go about our business in our own country is no longer ours by birth-right, but a ‘privilege’ to be granted by the government. Only two years ago, the idea of compulsory vaccination and medical ID would have been the stuff of dystopian science-fiction.

    How quickly freedom dies, not with a bang but with a whimper.

    1. They are about to implement lockdown for the unvaccinated in Austria. Not sure but this sounds as though it will mean No Jab, No Job for anyone who can’t work at home.

  26. Prepare for Russian invasion of Ukraine, US warns European allies. 12 November 2021.

    The United States has warned European allies that Russia could be plotting to invade Ukraine in a repeat of the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

    US officials have privately briefed their EU counterparts on a possible military operation as tens of thousands of Russian troops amass near the border.

    Minty’s First Law of Aggression. Before acting first accuse others of what you are preparing to do yourself!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/11/11/prepare-russian-invasion-ukraine-us-warns-european-allies/

          1. Which demonstrates that Communism can only succeed by totally perverting human nature.
            It is a natural urge to help and protect your family. True, most of us don’t present our mothers with an entire country, but the principle is the same.

  27. 341480 + up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    The main thrust of the United Kingdoms political overseers is via DOVER
    the intake has been stepped up, the COP sh!te is orchestrated, 400 planes heading for Glasgow was meant to, and did, deflect.

    You get yesterdays illegal intake spread countrywide then you are giving succour to a REAL plague of trouble.

    Welfare is the magnet used by the governance in their pursuit of reset
    fear is another of their major tools, plus a segment of gullible consenters.

    There are still to many willing to burn books and NOT party membership cards.

  29. If Americans (and Canadians) spell and pronounce ALUMINIUM as “Aluminum”; why don’t they spell and pronounce CHROMIUM as “Chromum”?

    Same logic.

      1. In 1812, British scientist Thomas Young wrote an anonymous review of Davy’s book, in which he proposed the name aluminium instead of aluminum, which he felt had a “less classical sound”. This name did catch on: while the -um spelling was occasionally used in Britain, the American scientific language used -ium from the start. Most scientists used -ium throughout the world in the 19th century, and it was entrenched in many other European languages, such as French, German or Dutch.

        In 1828, American lexicographer Noah Webster used exclusively the aluminum spelling in his American Dictionary of the English Language. In the 1830s, the -um spelling started to gain usage in the United States; by the 1860s, it had become the more common spelling there outside science. In 1892, Hall used the -um spelling in his advertising handbill for his new electrolytic method of producing the metal, despite his constant use of the -ium spelling in all the patents he filed between 1886 and 1903.

        It remains unknown whether this spelling was introduced by mistake or intentionally; however, Hall preferred aluminum since its introduction because it resembled platinum, the name of a prestigious metal. By 1890, both spellings had been common in the U.S. overall, the -ium spelling being slightly more common; by 1895, the situation had reversed; by 1900, aluminum had become twice as common as aluminium; during the following decade, the -um spelling dominated American usage. In 1925, the American Chemical Society adopted this spelling.

        The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) adopted aluminium as the standard international name for the element in 1990. In 1993, they recognized aluminum as an acceptable variant; the most recent 2005 edition of the IUPAC nomenclature of inorganic chemistry acknowledges this spelling as well. IUPAC official publications use the -ium spelling as primary but list both where appropriate.

        1. Good morning, Grizzly. After your explanation I am now as confused as Alice in Wonderland was when she met Tweedledum and Tweedledee-um.

          :-))

    2. Apparently it was originally pronounced the short way in Britain. Our forebears added the extra syllable for reasons unknown.

      1. Arguably we added the minium to aluminium.

        There’s lots of argument about it being an old Dutch as to american pronounciation especially around router (rowduh) and battle (baydull). It’s not complicated. they’re lazy. Same reason they drop the French ae – it’s phonic laziness.

  30. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ccef21d7764336557e7000b64708ddd539a1f61d29786f72bad7cac191adbc56.png Let me get this right (a concept that is becoming more and more difficult on a more and more stupid planet).

    Those oysters were brought in as a foodstuff. Moreover an extremely delicious, nutritious, and (allegedly) aphrodisiac foodstuff. The fact that they are now “running out of control” (a hard concept to believe since each one takes a minimum of six years to achieve maturity), is testament to the increasing stupidity of those who manage them.

    It seems to me that this is a most bountiful harvest of wonderful seafood. Instead of getting volunteers to “cull” them (an idiotic word if ever there were one), why not simply gather them for sale.

    1. Similar to the Signal Crayfish. Introduced and destroying river banks with their burrowing. Eating anything and everything in our rivers and guess what?…..we are not allowed to catch/net or trap them.

      1. Or rabbits and cane toads to Oz. Only humans possess the kind of stupidity required to remove a life form from its natural habitat and transfer it to an unnatural one.

    3. They have very sharp shells, apparently. Cut yer foot open, so they do, if you stand on them. So, bathers have to wear beach shoes. We have the bugers in the Oslofjord – and they displace the local mussels and other shellfish.

    4. Good morning, Grizzly

      We live near Cancale which is a very important town in France for the cultivation of oysters (l’ostréiculture) and there is a working museum there where you can see the various processes necessary to cultivate, clean and bring the oysters to market. You are given a lecture about the history of the industry and there is also a permanent exhibition of beautiful sea shells. If you are in Eastern Brittany a visit to it is well worth a detour. Ça mérite le détour as they say in the Michelin Guide

      Many years ago there was very virulent ‘oyster flu’ which almost wiped out the native Concale oysters but the industry was revived by importing a different species of oyster from Japan. Gourmets will tell you that the indigenous ones are better!

      St Vaast, on the Cherborg Peninsular, a small harbour to which I used to sail on Raua , is another important French centre of l’ostréiculture. There are scares from time to time about whether or not it is a good idea to eat oysters. My lovely Caroline is especially fond of them.

    5. Going by my sampling of Pacific Oysters in Taiwan and Singapore/Malaysia, they are very nasty elastic-like things with little or no taste.

      I’ll stick without native (Whitstable Type) oysters, thank you.

      1. The Pacific rock oysters I sampled in Sydney were, without a shadow of a doubt, the tastiest and most pleasurable thing I’ve ever put in my mouth. Delicate, sweet, succulent and devastatingly moreish (everyone there agreed).

        1. Maybe mine that I tasted, George, didn’t have any rocks and the elasticity came from their Lycra knickers. Who knows?

  31. 341480+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    Poll put labour ahead,
    “the common denominator in these lab/lib/con party’s is the awareness of the importance of quality of the political treacherous sh!te they produce
    and serve up in vows, promises & pledges for the electorate to swallow, & swallow they do.

  32. On the plus side, we need no longer worry about farting cows. There is a far worse enemy pumping out plant food.
    A snippet from Richard Littlejohn. (For high-minded non Daily Mail readers, Gary is RL’s cartoonist.)

    “A cornucopia of creepy-crawly stuff for Gary to get his teeth into today.

    At Cop26 they’ve been banging on about cutting down on meat because of the methane created by cows.

    Turns out they’re well wide of the mark. It’s caterpillars, not cattle, pumping out the poisonous gases.

    Scientists at Cambridge University say that gypsy moths and forest tent caterpillar moths are responsible for creating more nitrogen-rich CO2 emissions than cows.

    I like the sound of forest tent caterpillars — right up there with our old faves the depressed river mussel and the oak processionary moths.

    Apparently, they munch through so many leaves that they produce vast amounts of excrement, causing ‘defoliator outbreaks’ to be released from lakes. We’re talking ‘dissolved carbon’ here. As Eric Morecambe used to say: There’s no answer to that!

    And I haven’t even mentioned the spurdog and starry-smooth-hound sharks which have just turned up in the River Thames.

    Fill yer boots, Gary!”

    1. Now spurdogs will attack people, but only if you hold them by the tail. My friend Colin has a close call.
      Edit; Seems the video doesn’t work, deleted. Shame, it was funny.

          1. I get

            Now spurdogs will attack people, but only if you hold them by the tail. My friend Colin has a close call.
            https://www.facebook.com/10…[0]=AZWn8BYDLn-4ahPRvt6Wj45OMBuMGUkM91YhkwCcUNGnWUiyxigrOcuch9g9tuBO29Jb-ZeWZtBGG7Tsnu8vpNGpFSTqPjvOxg1mit6Sp3rdyps3pK5RfE6yTZrCFuJJt4M&__tn__=*bH-R

            in your post.

        1. Thanks, it’s a video of my friend lifting a spurdog for a photo before release. It bites him in the knackers, which were well protected with wet weather gear, fortunately for him.I shall delete it.

  33. On the plus side, we need no longer worry about farting cows. There is a far worse enemy pumping out plant food.
    A snippet from Richard Littlejohn. (For high-minded non Daily Mail readers, Gary is RL’s cartoonist.)

    “A cornucopia of creepy-crawly stuff for Gary to get his teeth into today.

    At Cop26 they’ve been banging on about cutting down on meat because of the methane created by cows.

    Turns out they’re well wide of the mark. It’s caterpillars, not cattle, pumping out the poisonous gases.

    Scientists at Cambridge University say that gypsy moths and forest tent caterpillar moths are responsible for creating more nitrogen-rich CO2 emissions than cows.

    I like the sound of forest tent caterpillars — right up there with our old faves the depressed river mussel and the oak processionary moths.

    Apparently, they munch through so many leaves that they produce vast amounts of excrement, causing ‘defoliator outbreaks’ to be released from lakes. We’re talking ‘dissolved carbon’ here. As Eric Morecambe used to say: There’s no answer to that!

    And I haven’t even mentioned the spurdog and starry-smooth-hound sharks which have just turned up in the River Thames.

    Fill yer boots, Gary!”

    5. How truthful were we when we were children ourselves? How truthful are we now?

      Our two lovely sons were not entirely truthful when they were children – we often could tell that one of them was lying but it was not always easy to know which one. They are pretty truthful now (as far as we can tell).

      What we tried to instil into our boys was that if you habitually lie then nobody will believe you when you actually tell the truth. This is, of course, something that most politicians have never learnt and neither has the Duchess of Sussex. Piers Morgan was effectively sacked from his job as a TV presenter for telling the truth – he said he did not believe a word she said. Does anyone on this forum disagree with him?

    6. She’s a narcissist. She sees no problems with lies whatsoever because as far as she’s concerned, they’re reality that reinforces her delusion of the world.

    1. BBC probably reporting it as good news. Or else “F you plebs, you can’t do anything about it so suck it up”

      1. 341480+ up ticks,
        Morning BB2,
        Many doing the “racist” shout for the good of “their ” party could repent via fire & burn their membership card, ashes to be posted to “their ” MP.

        1. The more the merrier!

          Just as the Monty Python team told us that ‘every sperm is sacred’ the same must be said for every immigrant. We can’t afford to lose a single one of them so we must stop them drowning if we can.

      1. Ogga. What is Gerard Batten doing now a days, do you know? He looks like he has been quite ill in the video. I wouldn’t have known it was him but for his voice.

        1. 341480+ up ticks,
          Afternoon JR,
          I honestly don’t know, he seems the Batten of old giving an honest slant on
          issues as he sees them, no sh!te.

          He was taken down by the party
          nec / nige running a protection racket to safeguard johnson & the ersatz tory party.

          He was / is shadow banned on many platforms as I believe Waters to be currently.
          His & our undoing as party members then, via the nec/ nige & and lab/lib/con party members was his success as the party leader, he & we had to go for the fear campaign to continue.

          Now ex long term UKIP member

          1. That I saw, ogga and wrote it down. But, like you I quite UKIP when Gerard was kicked out as leader of UKIP and lost interest in following any specific party. Since he was stabbed in the back he seems not to be politically active which I think is a pity.

    3. Ah, but there’s no mention that this is illegal migration, nor that these creatures cost vast amounts of money. It’s all very positive without any consideration of the problem.

      1. 341480+ up ticks,
        Afternoon W,
        I take the real UKIP view not to be confused with the current uKiP.

        They had always called for controlled immigration as & when needed.

  36. OT – I recorded a documentary on, of all things, BBC Scotland about a chap who has lived on his own for 40 years in the wilds of the Highlands. It was a most unusual programme. We enjoyed it very much. There were a few unanswered questions…but nothing about Brexit or Climate Change or any of the things which usually pop up in any beeboid output. I commend it.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0011hp3/the-hermit-of-treig

      1. Not many people know that. Does the brother have any gen about why the chap has hidden himself away all these years?

    1. 873 members of the House of Lords need thinning out and their current individual activities carefully investigated.

      1. I know I’m wasting my breath on this one. But bring back the traditional House of Lords. Ironically it was more representative of the people than all the transformed reformed efforts of the House since then, put together.

        1. I completely agree, and this has always been my opinion. I’ve had comments saying this hugely upvoted on the Daily Mail too. Will never happen though.

  40. AstraZeneca eyes Covid-19 vaccine profit as quarterly sales top $1bn
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/11/12/ftse-100-markets-live-news-share-prices-astrazeneca-inflation/

    Why do they call it a vaccine when it is not a vaccine but gene therapy?

    We are all used to having vaccines – there is a certain familiarity to the term. But could it be that the PTB would find it more difficult to impose draconian measures on everybody by calling it what it is: GENE THERAPY ?

    Could some enterprising litigant take the manufacturers of these gene therapies to court to insist that calling their products vaccines does not comply with the trade descriptions act?

    1. It was called a ‘vaccine’ to get it past the Regulators. Ivermectin was banned in the UK and across the western world in order to do this. The only way the Regulators would accept the injection for public use in an emergency was if there was no other treatment available. I expect they were guided by ‘the science’. India has now got its covid problem under control thanks to Ivermectin. It did not have a problem until it started using the ‘vaccine’ end January 2020, India had been using Ivermectin up to that point. After a few months of the ‘vaccine’ India returned to its use of Ivermectin, and it is where it is today – covid-free. I find this all totally shocking. It is just one of the reasons why I wouldn’t touch the ‘vaccine’ with the proverbial barge-pole.

      1. If you can avoid the vaccine gene therapy it should be your right to do so – but in many cases they have you by the short and curlies and your life will be seriously curtailed if you do not comply with the despots.

        My doctor has advised me not to have the vaccine gene therapy for medical reasons – but my elder son is getting married next year after a postponement of a year so that family living overseas could be there.

        If only there was an easy way – such as having a Brazilian shave – to give the PTB nothing to get you by!

      2. If you can avoid the vaccine gene therapy it should be your right to do so – but in many cases they have you by the short and curlies and your life will be seriously curtailed if you do not comply with the despots.

        My doctor has advised me not to have the vaccine gene therapy for medical reasons – but my elder son is getting married next year after a postponement of a year so that family living overseas could be there.

        If only there was an easy way – such as having a Brazilian shave – to give the PTB nothing to get you by!

    2. Gene therapy? It is a weapon of bioterrorism that is already killing and it will go on doing so. It is one of hte many crimes of Gates, Fauci and his chums. We needs to call it for what it is and stop messing about debating their BS narrative.

  41. Wee McKrankie is at it again

    Scotland will ban single-use plastic from next summer

    Polystyrene cutlery, drink stirrers and food containers all face the chop but exemptions will remain on medical grounds

    Lorna Slater, the circular economy minister, said: “We are turning promise into action and banning some of the most problematic single-use
    plastic items in Scotland.

    “I will be writing to the UK Government to ask that it takes the necessary steps to ensure the integrity of this ban.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/11/11/scotland-will-ban-single-use-plastic-next-summer/

      1. Just realised she’s the lunatic joint leader of the Greens, who entered into the unholy pact with the Nasties, entirely unelected! A jobs-for-the-boys appointment with a ludicrous title!
        Gawd help us!

        1. Actually, a version of the “Enabling Act”. Scotland now has a totalitarian government. The First Minister has absolute power. This is what the voting arrangements of direct and list elections were intended to prevent.

          2. Apparently there is to be a new youth organisation starting next year, “Young Leaders Purity League” .

    3. Good morning OLT

      Just wondering , are the internal bits and pieces of trains and cars and planes made of plastic, and if they are , well they are single use plastic, aren’t they?

      1. Good Morning Belle. You really must learn not to ask such questions, they upset the important people.

      2. Yo T_B

        Water bottles, bin liners, Tyres, bleach bottles, cludgie cleaner bottles, sauce bottles, the wrapping on a 6 pack of bottles
        anything shrunk wrapped, any polystyrene inside cardboarboxes, bags for storing stuff in your freexer, bags to collect ‘loose veg’ in shops

        The hardest part, will be in defining what they mean and then there will be a myriad of evasions

        1. Look at all the surgical equipment that uses plastics !

          https://www.piedmontplastics.com/markets/medical-equipment.

          I do however believe that a new re think is required urgently for food and domestic detergent packaging etc .

          When I try to remember back to dustbin day when we first got married , it was the clinker from coal fires , cardboard Omo containers , maybe a few bones , tins , newspapers were used to clean the fire out , and start the fire, toothpaste tubes , and bits and pieces . The metal dustbin was never topped up .

          2. newspapers were used to clean the fire out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

            Youse were Posh

            Newspapers were used (up) in the (outside) Cludge

    4. That doesn’t bother me that much. We can always chop down more trees to be environmentally friendly. See my remarks above about Drax Power Station. What really tees me off and should be stopped, is the wrapping of everything in sight with plastic. Especially in the vegetable/fruit food section of markets. What was wrong with the old paper bags we used to use? Now a days easily recyclable and not killers of turtles and other fauna if they end up in the ocean.

    5. A good idea. After all, such things were forced on us out of cleanliness idiocy from the EU. Make such utensils out of bamboo.

  43. The old trick of MPs renting out their properties and then renting out a property to live in still seems to be a scam. The rent the MP pays can then be clamed on expenses. In earlier years it was one MP exchanging property with another MP’s property. This should have been stopped years ago

    1. The grubby swine will demand more pay as soon as you insist that their expenses are properly regulated. And if they lose their entitlement to secondary sources of income they will want even more.

      How many people earn £80,000 + pa with the most generous pension scheme in the country and the most lavish of all expense accounts?

      2. Simple answer, Richard, reduce the number of troughers in both houses.

        Max 400 in the Commons
        Lords – Hereditaries and Law Lords only.

        The displaced Life Peers may go and bump their gums in a village hall in Yorkshire

        2. Bishops and top military. One life peer to be created per year, with the rule that they must never have been a member of the House of Commons. Oh what fun we would have if only they would give us the source code!

          1. I’m suspicious of today’s Bishops, they are following ABC Wimpey too much, in despoiling the C of E while radically expanding their local Empire Building.

            Even some top military are suspect and have gone woke – possibly a WWI mentality.

          2. Absolutely but if we were rulers of the Universe and could re-design the House of Lords, we’d banish them all and bring in decent people instead.

    1. Bright and breezy at the moment – but by the time my washing is ready to go out, it will probably be raining.

    2. “I am the heat of your hearth” because I have been chopped down and turned into pellets to fed the Drax Power Station! All to save you from global warming on the principle of: “To save the environment we must destroy it.” Please see the production of “sustainable” Palm Oil and laying waste to to the environment and destruction of species all in the name of environmentalism for further insight into the twisted world of the Green hypocrites.

  46. 341480+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    The Tories are taking back control of their party – and Boris Johnson
    The Prime Minister is losing absolute power over the Conservatives, and his Government is better for it

    Gettaway, you say it enough times ………….

    1. Hi ogga and everyone else on this, yet again, gloomy morning. Here in West Sussex it is really dark, hard to see without the lights on and it is drizzling outside. All in all the weather that would suit Cranky in Scotland and her sidekick in Parliament, the permanent sneer, Ian Blackford.

      Good thing that Johnson is losing power in the Tory Party. Perhaps we can now look to the possibility of him being kicked out for someone less mendacious and who will actually do something realistic, like take action against the hordes illegally crossing the channel. I hope she gets the number one spot because she is a Conservative, I mean, Liz Truss. My esteem for her went up a few notches yesterday when I learn that she was the only government minister to vote against the budget that this government has now inflicted on the country.

      1. The loons will probably go for the Vaccinator, aka Javid. Under duress from the globalists, of course. Then watch the fur fly.

      2. Isn’t that just the phase where aspiring leaders do a few right wing things in order to fool the Conservative Party membership?
        I would be delighted if she turned out to be Thatcher II, but I’m not holding my breath after so many disappointments.

      3. Good for her. However that will have marked her card and I would not be surprised of she were to be shuffled off somewhere else or even just sacked.

  48. What Deep Thinkers Men Are…

    I mowed the lawn today, and after doing so I sat down and had a cold beer. The day was really quite beautiful, and the drink facilitated some deep thinking on various topics.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/205638a09709c5f8eac5f1250ad5f7d38c1873d040ee1cf5673126277e79659c.jpg

    Finally I thought about an age old question:

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

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

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

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

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

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

    I rest my case. Time for another beer

    1. Childbirth is very painful – but most women move past the pain when they have the joy of holding the resultant child.

    1. Not just corporate media, but also the entire state machine. I’m not sure the image is relevant, to be honest. The people who will get hurt is the public by a torrent of lies, deceit and fraud.

      The pharmaceutical companies don’t care. They get paid because government is using paranoia and fear to achieve a political goal.

          4. She still had that funny little triangular tail that kittens have and had to be fed twice in the night! My old man had to take her to work with him if I was working, as she needed a bottle!

          1. My daughter calls them ‘norty torties’ but I don’t agree! They have farmyard instincts and character!

          2. My tortie, a female called Rocky (don’t ask!) was the gentlest, smallest and most friendly cat I’ve ever known.

          3. Talking of “norty”, I fed Oscar this evening and he never even looked at my feet! Fingers crossed we (and RAF News) have cracked it!

    2. I had a motorbike like that. A 1972 Triumph* T100 Daytona just before Meriden. None of the nuts, bolts etc were duplicated, and the exhaust pipes were from a different model.

      * The only motorbike company mentioned in the Bible.

      1. Bleeding heart Lefties sat around a table in Islington are happy – they don’t care.

        Don’t hang him. Flog him. Then drop the remains in the sea.

      1. Agree 100% with your comment. It’s not until they are made accountable that anything will change.

    2. A truly haunting song!

      The majority of the students who come to us are seventeen or eighteen years old. The Beatles had a less reflexive view of the age. (I append an interesting version by Paul Mc Cartney and Billy Joel).

      And that song, A Bachelor Gay, (sung by Peter Dawson) is particularly apt for me!

      At seventeen he falls in love quite madly
      With eyes of tender blue
      At twenty-four he gets it rather badly
      With eyes of a different hue
      At thirty-five
      You’ll find him flirting sadly
      With two or three or more
      When he fancies he is past love
      It is then he meets his last love
      And he loves her
      As he’s never loved before.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeB9v0xfC3Y

        2. I took a very long time to grow up it was not until I was in my early 30’s that I really grew up – by which time my ‘boyish charm’ was wearing pretty thin!

          1. Same here, without the boyish charm.
            The world belongs to people who know what they want when they are 21 and go all out to get it…

          2. True – both my sons knew what they wanted to do before they were 20 years old. They are now 26 and 27 respectively, they both have well paid jobs in fields in which they were always interested; both have bought their own homes; both have found their fiancées. Indeed, our second son, Henry, met his when he was 17 years old and in his first week at his father’s alma mater, UEA.

            By contrast I flitted between jobs until I was 27 when I went back to university at Southampton to do a PGCE and become a schoolmaster. And I flitted between girlfriends until I met Caroline when I was 40.

    3. That was me, kind of. Strange how feelings, thoughts and emotions are similar for men and women, even though they are polar opposites.

  54. In 1973, just as Ted Heath guaranteed that joining the Common Market would not lead to UK’s loss of sovereignty, a model of the earth’s population growth and its effect on global resources was modelled in a computer program.
    A group of forecasters concluded that unless there was move for countries to abandon their ideas for independence then humankind would be extinct by 2050.

    The planet would have saved itself!

    https://youtu.be/cCxPOqwCr1I

      1. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10193565/New-Zealand-schools-urged-call-COPS-unvaccinated-teachers-up.html

        Schools are urged to call the COPS if unvaccinated teachers show up to work as ‘no jab, no job’ policy kicks in next week

        NZ educators have until Monday, November 15 to get their first dose of Pfizer

        If they go to work unvaccinated on Monday, they could face considerable fines

        The NZ Ministry of Education has advised school to call the police if this happens

        Unvaxxed teachers need a valid medical exemption if they want to work on-site

        The January 1 2022 vax date is set for teachers to receive their second Covid jab

        Unvaccinated teachers will have to teach remotely without a medical exemption

  56. Out of sheer boredom I recently watched BBC ‘Money for Nothing’.
    Brought up with a ‘make do and mend’ philosophy I tuned in.
    A piece of junk found on a tip was transformed into another piece of junk to return to the tip!

    1. RHS are asking for just such papers to attend their Remembrance Service.
      Sonny Boy has already had a ding dong with them over it.
      I’m in two minds about Sunday, but I don’t want to disappoint the grandchildren, especially granddaughter who is in the choir.
      I will use that meme when I write to the school next week.

    1. Fab.

      I’m growing my hair out for the Barry Gibb look. Trouble is I will probably look more like Farrah Fawcett ! :@(

          1. Don’t you dare diss my fave historian! Our younger daughter read history at Stirling University and he was a brilliant teacher! And he lives quite near here! And he talks sense about independence and was cancelled by Scottish national trust, or whatever they call themselves! I cancelled them!

          2. I would never diss him. He is very definitely one of the good guys. Have you heard some of his monologues on GBNews?

    2. It’s the same mentality of a person smoking through a tracheostomy while hooked up to an oxygen cylinder.

      You really do want to say… could we seriously stop wasting the money?

  64. ‘Macron is giving in to people smugglers’: Fury at France as number of migrants crossing the Channel soars – with more than ONE THOUSAND making the perilous trip to Britain yesterday and three feared dead after falling from kayaks
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10192937/France-accused-ceding-territory-people-smugglers-700-migrants-cross-Channel.html#newcomment

    I do not much like Mr Macron but it is unfair to blame him for immigrants wanting to go to Britain rather than staying in France.

    The only politician who has spoken any common sense is the Mayor of Calais. She has said that she is fed up with her town being littered with and vandalised by immigrants whose only interest in being in Calais is to wait for a boat to take them to England. England, she says, must make life very difficult for immigrants and deport them as soon as they arrive if they can’t stop them landing in the first place.

    It is not Macron’s fault – it is the fault of a weak, cowardly and pathetic British government led by a buffoon called Boris Johnson which is afraid to address the problem and take any effective measures.

    1. ….and it’s the French, taking every opportunity to be a proverbial pain in the arse.

      Next time leave the F*ckers to the Nasties……their perfect bed partners..

    2. It is initially the fault of the Greeks, Italians and Spanish – who, instead of taking on their international obligations to deal with illegal arrivals, simply pass them on as fast as possible to the next country – which is often France – who fail to take on THEIR international obligations and encourage them to go to the UK.

      2. Indeed, the Mayor of Calais says the British should control their own borders more effectively and make life unpleasant for any migrant who does get in. By the same token, France should control all of its borders more effectively – but Angela Merkin needs a good wigging for opening the floodgates.

        1. Angela Merkin needs a good wigging shagging with a barbed wire pole for opening the floodgates.

          1. I used the word wigging rather naughtily. Look up the meaning of the word ‘merkin’ if you don’t already know it. I always refer to the former German chancellor by this name which people probably take as being a typo.

    3. “... and deport them as soon as they arrive…”

      Of course France will accept them back, Mrs Mayor?

      1. Send them to a remote island for processing, as the Australians do. St Helena perhaps?

        1. That’s a thought, AA, but I’d prefer somewhere nearer like St Kilda of Gruiniard, where they might yet contract Anthrax still.

          Barbed wire all around the Island and a large oven to frighten the shits out of them.

  67. This feckless Tory Government has charted a course to absolute failure

    Time is running out to end the drift, and prove to Conservatives there is a point to this administration

    ALLISTER HEATH

    What is wrong with Conservative governments? Why do they always end up disappointing their most ardent supporters? First David Cameron, then Theresa May and now, after such a strong start and so much promise, Boris Johnson: why has it all gone downhill so quickly?

    Dispiriting doesn’t even begin to describe the current Government’s performance. It is increasingly defined by a palpable, debilitating sense of drift. It exhibits a shocking inability to control events, a lack of interest in gripping and remodelling the machinery of state, and an unhealthy obsession with polling.

    Its policy failures are multiplying, not least its lazy adoption of a centre-Left agenda on tax, spending, economics, the environment and regulation, its striking feebleness on wokery and motorway protests, its lack of bite on crime and illegal Channel crossings, the almost complete lack of interest in monetary policy and now its dire mismanagement of a sleaze row that started with one MP and has exploded into a dispute over the outside interests of all politicians. What an underwhelming administration this is turning out to be.

    Its twin pathologies, a No 10 operation that doesn’t have the bandwidth, executive experience or strategic nous to push through change, combined with an all-consuming, short-termist, neo-Blairite political calculus, mean that a once-in-a-generation realignment in British politics – crystallised by Brexit, the smashing of the Red Wall and the rise of the boho-Left – is being squandered. For real Tories, whose disillusionment is now at an advanced stage, this represents a calamitous wasted opportunity to wrest the country away from decline, to permanently alter its direction.

    Instead, there is no discipline, no focus, no ability to prioritise, to think several steps ahead, let alone to deliver real reform. The blob is in charge almost everywhere, with mainstream, establishment candidates appointed to run the NHS, regulatory agencies, the Bank of England, quangos and of course cultural institutions. There have been a handful of exceptions, driven by Liz Truss, with the brilliant Baroness Falkner now in situ at the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the great Katharine Birbalsingh at the Social Mobility Commission. But why only them? And why are public sector unions being allowed to flex their muscles unchallenged in schools and hospitals? It’s heartbreaking.

    Reforming or downsizing the state is apparently too complicated: far easier, it seems, to shower it with cash. The appallingly mismanaged NHS and social care systems are being rewarded with billions more but, staggeringly, aren’t being asked to improve their productivity in return. Given that their current structures aren’t fit for purpose, billions will be wasted and another crisis guaranteed by 2024-5 at the latest. Regardless of what focus groups may say, Tory voters, who care about thrift and value for money, won’t thank the Government for such cowardice.

    Cop26, Johnson’s attempt at reconnecting with the Remainer middle classes, could have been a demonstration of how technology can help to deliver a low-carbon future. Instead, it has turned into an obscene love fest for those who despise the consumer society.

    If politics is downstream of culture, then the prognosis is grim. The private sector is embracing a woke agenda that is entirely opposed to conservative values, as are our cultural institutions, museums and universities, all of which are obsessed with the tenets of a deeply anti-enlightenment ideology. Cancel culture is rampant. Thanks to Munira Mirza in No 10, there have been some anti-woke victories in the public sector, such as the BBC’s abandonment of the Stonewall diversity scheme, but a genuine reversal of the tide would require the full-hearted support of the Prime Minister and entire Government.

    If, by contrast, politics is ultimately determined by living standards then here too the outlook is bleak. Real take-home pay will fall for millions, with the establishment in denial about the ongoing inflationary shock, and the medium-term growth outlook is extraordinarily weak. To add insult to injury, the housing crisis is worsening for younger people, with the proposed planning reforms neutered.

    The Government’s great victory remains Brexit, but even here I worry. It is right to tackle the Northern Irish protocol, an unfair Treaty if ever there were one, now that it is clear that the EU has no interest in interpreting it in a pragmatic fashion. Lord Frost has turned out to be one of this Government’ shining lights. But where is his backup? Why haven’t we already taken steps to reduce our dependence on Calais-Dover trade? How will the UK mitigate the negative impact of any further European protectionism? Inanely, our “strategy” is to reduce our competitiveness, to make the UK less attractive for business by increasing taxes on labour and capital and rejecting free-market economics.

    A Government that acted bravely and cleverly in 2019-20 during the Brexit negotiations, and which managed to deliver a world-beating vaccines programme, in both cases by thinking outside of the box, has lost its mojo.

    Instead of listening to its voters, who turned to Boris because they felt so alienated by the elitist politics of the past 20 years, the Government has reverted to the preachy, know-it-all tone that became the norm in the post-Iraq Blair years. This is why the row over MPs’ outside earnings could become toxic for the Tory party.

    The tragedy is that many ministers are committed to changing Britain for the better. Why isn’t Priti Patel better supported by No 10 in her war against crime? Where are Rishi Sunak’s proper freeports? Why does Kwasi Kwarteng have to fight civil servants opposed to the hydrogen revolution?

    It isn’t too late for Boris Johnson to turn things around, but for now the outlook is dismal. When I ask Tories what is going on, they shrug, point to the fact that they are still, usually, ahead in the polls, and thank God for the lacklustre Keir Starmer. When I then ask them what they think the purpose of the Government is, they look at me with incomprehension, chant their “levelling up” mantra or assure me that things would be even worse under Labour. The latter is right, of course, but hardly a ringing endorsement.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/10/feckless-tory-government-has-charted-course-absolute-failure/

    2. “The tragedy is that many ministers are committed to changing Britain for the better. Why isn’t Priti Patel better supported by No 10 in her war against crime? Where are Rishi Sunak’s proper freeports? Why does Kwasi Kwarteng have to fight civil servants opposed to the hydrogen revolution?” Probably because many Ministers are only paying lip service to changing Britain for the better; it makes a nice sound bite, but requires too much effort.

    3. “The tragedy is that many ministers are committed to changing Britain for the better. Why isn’t Priti Patel better supported by No 10 in her war against crime? Where are Rishi Sunak’s proper freeports? Why does Kwasi Kwarteng have to fight civil servants opposed to the hydrogen revolution?” Probably because many Ministers are only paying lip service to changing Britain for the better; it makes a nice sound bite, but requires too much effort.

    3. He’s a Tory. They will grumble and immigration, the EU or whatever til the cows come home, safe in the knowledge that nothing will ever change because they are the nearest the electorate have to an opposition.
      UKIP upset that temporarily, but the system is still in place.

  69. Jeremy Hunt’s words are slightly confusing:

    “The former foreign secretary said that the country was “an absolutely despicable regime that sponsors terrorism across the Middle East”, but that the UK should pay the debt, which dates back to the Seventies.”

    As for refugees nipping home for holidays and business after obtaining residency in the UK, let’s ask the MP for Southend for a comment.

  70. Have some of thr comments become scrambled? See thr post about the cat of many colours/parts. some responses have become dislocated?

  72. The myth of St Meghan. Spiked. 12 November 2021.

    Even as it became clear that Megxit was not in fact all about the Sussexes protecting their privacy, even as they cut multimillion-dollar deals with Spotify and Netflix, even as they built a brand empire and pretended this was all part of some vague humanitarian mission, few of their cheerleaders stopped to ask themselves if they were in fact indulging a couple of smug chancers.

    We can only hope that the myth of St Meghan is finally starting to unravel. But there’s no escaping the fact that much of the liberal left, in Britain and America, went to the barricades for a duke and a duchess who just don’t like being criticised. All because they – rather unconvincingly – played the victim.
    Wokeness really does rot the brain. And that’s the truth.

    Lol!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/11/12/the-myth-of-st-meghan/

    1. Did any one of us Nottlers look at that woman in 2016 and think ‘Hmmm, she looks nice! Isn’t Harry lucky?’ No? Thought not!

      1. I disagree, Sue. Some NoTTLers – male and female – thought she was just the biz. When I (among others) thought she was death in spades – and that Brash and Trash (as I called them) were doomed to be a nightmare – I was roundly set upon (in the nicest possible way)..

        1. I expressed my doubts at the time to my husband and daughters, and got pretty much the same response! When I said I thought she looked like a painted tart, I was roundly chastised! ‘Trollop’ I replied!
          Good to know we are vindicated!

      2. I reserved judgement until that pantomime of a celeb wedding.
        I was looking forward to seeing an ordinary American family sitting across the aisle from the Windsors (apart from the druggy nephew). Instead we got Oprah and the Clooneys. What a let-down!

      3. My immediate reaction was: have we got ‘Wallis Simpson Mk II’ ?

        An American socialite, divorced, older than the Duke …

        But I had no idea that it could turn out so badly.

  74. Just had a thought about trans folk who wish to join the army. Does the MIddlesex Regiment still exist?

    1. Which is why I prefer Redwood or, better yet, if he could be persuaded to return, Owen Paterson.

    4. Would it be a good idea for an adulterer to be replaced by an adulteress?

      O tempora, O mores

      What other choices are there? Nobody’s Perfect – but some like it hot. Steve Baker perhaps?

      1. AT least and at last Farage has managed to get them to sit up and notice by his broadcasts on GBNews.

  81. Raining here , temperature has dropped , windy, but delighted to say we have just had our bin emptied .. and I went out and clapped them, and they returned my joy with a thumbs up ! (Waited a month , and we had to take some of the recycling to the tip 2 weeks ago )

    2. Light rain here and still quite warmish.
      Had to drop the van down to the garage in Cromford earlier as the INJECTION FAULT message has come up again. More DPF problems one presumes.

      Took the DT with me and, after she went to the post office and I did a small amount of shopping, we walked back up the old water leet rather than beside the road.

      Will be up for a bath soon and then off to the Derby Royal to see Step-son who is still in the Radbourne Mental Health Unit.

  82. Earlier today somebody posted a rather moving video by Fascinating Aida about Remembrance Day. This was not at all like their usual output which is often rather too near the bone even for me.

    This led me to look on the Internet to see what else they had recorded and I came across this version of a Gilbert and Sullivan song. This song might be of interest to anyone who has ever been involved in the world of education:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d13gX-1HJg4

    2. That is SO true about OFSTED and the changing of the goalposts; we would just have all the paperwork in place for the OFSTED review and then the Minister would shuffle everything about and we’d have to redo the whole thing 🙁

    2. Boris is proving to be a yellow bellied coward ..

      He is ducking and diving every issue . The only certainty about that man is the direction of his sperm.

        1. Sounds like the perfect motto for his coat of arms when he is elevated: ‘I come to a sticky end’…..!

          “Ego veni ad tenacem finem”

          4. Somehow I can’t imagine him chewing the cud or tossing his caber with all the other tossers present.

    3. 341480+ up ticks,

      Afternoon LD,
      Lest we forget, this nige chap aided in putting decent peoples DOWN while building others up, splitting votes and marching to a tory (ino) tune up & down bloody hills.

      1. Good afternoon, ogga

        I don’t always agree with Nigel Farage but I don’t always feel the need to slag him off on every occasion!

        He has been drawing the MSM’s attention to this problem very forcefully in the last week and at last they are beginning to sit up and notice. Surely you have to agree that this is a good thing?

          2. 341480+ up ticks,
            R,
            In the nicest possibly way NO, to forgive his odious actions is to encourage much more of the same, live & learn, NOT live & forget.

          3. Please move on ogga. Nigel Farage isn’t, and never has been the problem.
            He achieved a referendum!

          4. He did indeed and the grass roots workers in UKIP won it. It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth to hear Nigel saying that those self-same boots on the ground that worked for him were nasty racists. I used to respect him, but that destroyed any credibility he had as far as I was concerned. It was uncalled for (and definitely untrue) and showed a complete lack of appreciation for the hard work which the plebs in the party put in.

          5. 341480+ up ticks,
            O2O,
            This chap did a great deal on ongoing damage and the innocent are once again paying for it.

    5. The most recent invaders are sleeping on the floor in the reception area. Some official was concerned and was working on improving the situation for them. BBC News.

  84. 341480+ up ticks,

    They don’t have to worry, a powerful power base is here already the widow spider politico overseers lab/lib/con have used & abused their mates in the electorate, it is now meal time, halal on course.

    Westminster can’t ignore the Channel migrant crisis forever
    Sooner or later, the consequences of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Dover will catch up with us them.

  85. A thought from Twatter:

    “Good luck convincing unvaccinated to get it because it works, while convincing vaccinated to get booster because it doesn’t!”

    1. Message for the unvaccinated:

      “Remember, you must vaccinate yourselves to protect the vaccinated!”

  86. British troops helping Poland to fortify border with Belarus. 12 November 2021.

    British troops are helping the Polish army strengthen its border with Belarus in a show of support as Minsk sends waves of migrants towards the country.

    Poland’s defence minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, said British personnel have started a “reconnaissance” mission with their Polish peers on the tense frontier. A source confirmed to the Telegraph that they were from the Royal Engineers.

    You couldn’t make it up!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/11/12/russias-troop-build-near-ukraine-border-not-routine-drill-say/

      2. So that if some unfortunate Paki migrant gets shot in the back, a squaddie be prosecuted forty years later.

  90. Friday afternoon fun…

    Steerpike
    Now Jolyon faces legal action
    12 November 2021, 11:30am
    https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltf04078f3cf7a9c30/blt5d2ffe347002eec7/618e54ae07b8b248deabee15/GettyImages-1179590171.jpg?format=jpg&width=1920&height=1080&fit=crop

    Like Rembrandt or Michelangelo, Mariah or Britney, Jolyon Maugham is a performance artist simply known by his first name. The journey of this Rumpole of remainers from obscurity to Twitter fame was slow but steady. He first hit the headlines during the Ed Miliband years when, as Labour’s non-dom adviser, he was revealed to have represented multiple so-called ‘celebrity tax dodge film schemes.’

    Then came Brexit and his reinvention as the High Priest of remainier. In 2017 he announced plans for his own party – ‘Spring’ – and his intention to hold a 28-day festival at a Maidenhead football stadium, with each day dedicated to the national dress and cuisine of a different EU member state. Christmas 2019 saw Maugham’s magnum opus: splashing the front page of the Financial Times after bragging on social media about battering a fox to death on Boxing Day with a baseball bat while wearing his wife’s satin green kimono.

    And now, during the Covid years, the Babe Ruth of the bar has regenerated yet again, this time as the truth-seeking crowd-funder chasing dodgy Covid contracts. Only now the vermin-hunting legal eagle has hit a small stumbling block: in his efforts to expose Tory corruption, he has now been accused of libelling a small Stroud company which provided equipment to the NHS during the pandemic.

    Platform 14 (P14), based in Gloucestershire, was awarded a £120m contract to supply high-quality face shields. Maugham’s Good Law Project has claimed P14 benefitted from political connections and supplied substandard equipment, citing emails released via a Freedom of Information request which showed Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie forwarding details of a local company to the Cabinet Office.

    Unfortunately the name of the company was redacted, with Baillie maintaining the company she recommended for a contract was actually called Care and Wear Ltd, which, er, did not get a contract. Yet despite this the Good Law Project last week published a blog which mentioned P14 alongside allegations that Baillie ‘channelled’ them down ‘the VIP lane’. Now, Ben Fear, chief executive officer of P14, has revealed he intends to take legal action.He told BBC Gloucestershire:

    In the article they [the Good Law Project] named Platform 14 and the founder of the company as being given preferential treatment and also supplying poor-quality goods to the NHS during the Covid crisis. All of that is completely unchecked and libellous and unfortunately because of this continued behaviour by the Good Law Project I’ve been forced to instruct my solicitors to begin proceedings against them.

    Maugham’s company for their worth are standing firm, declaring: ‘People who don’t like what we do threaten to sue us all the time. We stand by every word in that blog.’ Punchy stuff. Mr S did enjoy the concluding line of the local BBC story which notes drily:

    “The BBC has asked for evidence The Good Law Project has of any wrongdoing by Platform 14, but has not had a response.
    Looks like it’s Jolyon’s time to experience the boot on the other foot – or the bat in the other hand.

    *********************************************************************

    Hammerklavier • 3 hours ago • edited
    Maugham is an utter clown and an embarrassment to the Bar.

    I hope Platform 14 sue Maugham personally rather than just his pathetic “Good Law Project”. That should put the wind up the little t*rd.

    Dragnonwell Hammerklavier • 3 hours ago
    The ‘Good Law Project’ is just a £100 company set up last September with Maugham as sole director and shareholder. According to the Bar Standards Board Register, Maugham is no longer a member of Devereux Chambers, nor indeed any other set of chambers. I wonder why. P14 would be well advised to sue both (assuming it can establish it has suffered substantial loss, which may be why Maugham apparently feels confident).

  91. So far so good….

    I awoke this morning 6.45 am. wondering WTF god had in store for me today.
    Tuned into BBC News…. big mistake! Gloom and Doom as per usual…tuned
    to Classic FM and went back to sleep for an hour….BLISS.

    Off shopping…found all my comestibles (love that word) in local shops. Returned home to
    prepare lunch after a large sherry or was it two? Cheesy salmon/broccoli and rice bake. Delicious..I’m not a great cook but I enjoy food which is simple and nourishing.. When I met my future hubby in the late 60’s he asked….”Can you cook?”
    Thankfully I could…otherwise Hasta la vista baby!

    Enjoying a cuppa with a choccy biscuit listening to Best of the 70’s …Crossword/Codeword to look forward to later. Can life get any better…?

    I’m a Happy bunny…….just waiting for some b*stard to FK it up big time…..!

      1. ..it’s French FFS!

        I don’t mind cooking…there’s f*ck all else to do until I get back to tennis.
        Simple dishes are fine…no longer slave over a hot stove!

    2. If you wish to stay happy – DON’T have anything to do with ANY beeboid radio or tv channel.

      1. You point succinctly made by the latest news from Beebweb:

        “Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is set to declare Western Europe’s first partial Covid lockdown of the winter, with three weeks of restrictions for shops, sport and catering.
        His caretaker government is responding to record infections and rising intensive care cases in hospitals.”

        2. Newsflash

          Those who have not had the gene therapy jabs are less likely to become infertile, sterile or impotent than those who have had it.*

          (* This maybe true but, there again like most of the things we are told about Covid, it may not be)

          2. Achshally, at my advanced age none of those things bother me. I have two already and have lived with them for six years. The other one ceased to be a problem when I had the “snip” in 1969 after the birth of my second son.

  92. Right! That’s me bathed & ready for the trek to the Radbourne Unit the Derby Royal Hospital where my mentally ill stepson currently resides. The visiting hours are a VERY convenient 18:30 to 20:30!
    With the van in the garage I’ll be walking to Cromford station then getting the bus from the former DRI site and plan paying a visit to the Brunswick or/and the Alex on the way back.
    See you later.

      1. Bob Hope? Are we having a White Christmas? Oh no, wait I’ve seen the Xmas adverts… Oh Well, tomorrow is another day, Toto.

    3. Well done B o B for talking about it

      When I had Bowel Cancer, everyone whispered when the spoke to me

          3. Me neither when i had mine done. The camera wasn’t a problem but the crew were a tight fit. :@)

      2. Ironically, with my Stepson, that is a distinct possibility.
        Very low blood pressure and black stools, he should have had a colonoscopy on Wednesday, but the procedure was cancelled because of his low blood pressure!
        He is now due a scan sometime in the future.

        I will say one thing, his mental condition is MUCH better than it was a few weeks ago!

        1. Yo B o B

          Good to hear

          Back in, early 2000’s I had a bit of my exhaust ducting removed and fittedwith a colostomy bag for a year
          Plumbing reconnected then frequent colonoscopies slowly increasing to one every 5 years.

          I am an advocate of “the job is not finished ’til the paperwork is done’
          I noticed there was *red blood in my ‘stools, went to see doctor and within 3 weeks was in hossypital, for ‘the chop’
          * Dark/Black’ blood means something else

          So, folks, always check what leaves you, when you use the cludge, it may save your life, it did mine

          1. You were very very lucky , OLT .

            Younger son had the same problem , had 18inches removed!

            In fact during my training , we were all taught to examine bedpan contents .. long glance , quick glance .

            Always had to ask, “Have you been “… and when one owns dogs , the daily inspection and clear up can be interesting

  93. Meghan’s text messages revealed: The Royal family are ‘constantly berating’ Prince Harry over row with my father
    Duchess of Sussex said they ‘fundamentally don’t understand’ the situation with Thomas Markle
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2021/11/12/meghans-text-messages-revealed-royal-family-constantly-berating/

    You cannot believe a word she says. If she admitted that she was a thoroughly foul, manipulative slut I would not know whether she was telling the truth or not! When he wakes from is dream Harry will find he is still in a nightmare.

          1. CRT was taught at graduate level in the US in the 80’s. It did not attract much attention as it was clothed in the pseudo science of academia.

            In recent times it has come to the fore and its subversive aims adopted by many public bodies. This is where the idea of diversity and systemic racism come together and spawn grievance culture.

          1. I genuinely think she is a narcissist. A broken childhood, manipulative, conceited, self obsessed, hypocritical, lives a twisted view where she is the victim rather than the aggressor, domineering – I’d imagine Harry is rather an enabler.

            She’s broken at a fundamental level. The best thing that could happen to her is starvation – being ignored.

      1. Wish I had gone in the 60’s……

        Hippies… flower children, were an eclectic group. Many were suspicious of the government, rejected consumerist values, and generally opposed the Vietnam War. A few were interested in politics; others were concerned more with art (music, painting, poetry in particular) or spiritual and meditative practices.

        1. And drugs. Far out, man.

          I tried LSD. Just sat staring at the wallpaper which then sprouted roses.

        2. Oh yes, HMV Oxford Street, been in there a few times. First time there I bought Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells just after it came out in 1973. I had the first copy of it in Chesterfield.

          1. That’s just brought it all back to me – I bought Tubular Bells in an upstairs room that you reached by walking through Shelley’s shoe shop on Oxford Street. Virgin Records, it was.

    6. No, by the time I got to SF (in the 80’s) it was with children, so I don’t think it counts! But I would not want to go there now.

    8. Yes, me. And I stayed there for 40 years over the Bay Bridge in Berkeley. Had a great time in the 70s.

        1. I think you would have been terribly disappointed because if you were just visiting most part things went on in the normal way day to day. Ostensibly people dressed rather flamboyantly but that was about it. There was plenty of drug taking, specifically LSD but that tended to be in private, although at concerts people would trip en masse. Taking LSD made people incredibly creative so artistic endeavours flourished as well as ideas that we now take for granted. Ideas were not confined to the arts however, that was just more obvious. But scientists , new thinkers, novelists, psychologists, monks, nuns and priests which I had a great deal of involvement with on “God Hill” in Berkeley, where the seminaries and religious schools were, what we now call ecologists, all of them were doing it. LSD opened up people to the thinking of the East which is far more compatible with modern thought. So we got such things as: “The Tao of Physics.” a famous book. RD Laing wrote his book on schizophrenia, “The Divided Self”. And, of course, the blossoming of Buddhism in particular in California, it is now the third largest religion there. You had the Hare Krishna’s too, but they were really a flash in the pan. So basically how it worked was on a day to day basis, you went to work because you had to pay the rent regardless but on weekends you tripped, had fun, talked to people about “reality” and just poured out ideas left right and centre. The song: “If you’re coming to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.” was an idealized view of the place. The real tone of the place is, I think typified by Jefferson Airplane who would do ordinary songs to, one of my favourites: Go ask Alice.” Also optimism and I think that is reflected in the music of the Beach Boys, although they were in LA. The thing about the culture, to my mind, is that nothing was out of bounds, therefore all and any idea was entertained and that was thanks to LSD, which is transformative in ones consciousness. To realize that you don’t just live on earth but in heaven too, has a profound impact on your thinking. To look at a tree leaf and see the universe, to realize that a tree sings a song of creation, that all things are communicating and nothing, not even a stone is dead, is quite something. And no, it is not imagination and it is not hallucination. What LSD does, is open parts of your mind and its ability to perceive that are normally closed to you. Hope that gives you a sort of flavour Plum. Best thing to do, I think, is listen to the music I mentioned. It transmits the ethos of the times. And it was all good. The evil came later and it came from outside, specifically government and its hatred of freedom. But that is another topic.

          1. Hi johnathanrackham
            Disappointed…….?
            I’m sure I would have found kharma a great help during those confusing growing up years. A wandering soul lost in a desert of uncertainty….
            The Hippie era was a spiritual awakening we were all looking for.
            Jefferson Airplane ‘White Rabbit’ was particularly poignant…I loved that song. Thankfully I can immerse myself in music and forget ……remembering only the good times…

            Thank you for your beautiful soul-searching post.

          2. The post could have done with some paragraphs. But I was just hammering away remembering things and the atmosphere. Which is I probably indicated with the strange admixture of tripping scientists, priests and nuns, to entertainment, the sublime to the ridiculous, was pretty complex and a rather enjoyable slow moving roller coaster! For ridiculous look up “Angels of Light, San Francisco”. My wife at the time was their photographer. A rule was no one could participate in a show without being on LSD. It made for some hilarious performances that inevitably degenerated into chaos. I, of course, being a rather conservative Englishman with full blooded English inhibitions would sit, as it were, on the side-lines enjoying the absurdity. Angels of Light. Peking on Acid https://www.diggers.org/ic_free_carnival_1972.htm#film

  100. Channelling Jill Backson:
    “A man who wore T-shirts supporting banned Palestinian groups has admitted terror offences.
    Feras Al Jayoosi, 34, pleaded guilty to four counts of wearing an article supporting a proscribed organisation at Westminster Magistrates’
    Court on Friday.
    The charges relate to him wearing T-shirts supporting Hamas Izz al-Din al Qassem Brigades – the military wing of the Palestinian
    organisation Hamas – and Palestine Islamic Jihad. Both groups are proscribed as terrorist (sic) organisations in the UK. ”

    Che Guevara was of course simply a freedom fighter, but censoring nasty clothes is bordering on thought crime.

    2. wearing an article supporting a proscribed organisation at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

      A Magistrates Court is a very stupid place to wear a ‘nortyT shirt’

  101. Signing off. Hope to have a bonfire tomorrow (to help destroy the planet) – though they say it’ll rain in the night and then be very windy during the day. A sod, because it is a north wind – the only type that allows a bonfire.

    Have a jolly evening doing something nice.

    A demain.

  102. Breaking News, Dateline 2222:
    COP99 has just finished on the Marshall Islands.
    Unless all countries make major sacrifices, the Marshall Islands will disappear by 2252…

      2. They couldn’t choose since CRT changed the days

        Monkeyday
        Turdsday
        Unweddedsday
        Thirstday
        Friggedday
        Saturnaliaday
        Sinday

    2. Mongo does that with Bruiser. Oddly, the vicious cat beggar is rather protective of the great shaggy beast.

  104. Welcome to Britain, have a KEBAB! Home Office orders 3,000 £14.50 chicken shish meals from local takeaways and Domino’s pizzas to feed exhausted migrants at Dover processing site after record 1,185 made perilous Channel crossing yesterday

    Officials bought 3,000 chicken shish for £14.50 from four Turkish restaurants as well hundreds of Domino’s
    Staff said that they were rushed off their feet trying to prepare the huge order for morning and evening meals

    It comes as a record 1,185 people reached the UK Thursday after risking death on small boats in the Channel
    Lifeboats, Border Force and French authorities spent hours intercepting boats in the Dover Strait yesterday
    But despite their efforts three people are feared lost at sea after two kayaks were found adrift off French coast
    By JAMES GANT FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 16:09, 12 November 2021 | UPDATED: 17:12, 12 November 2021

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10195467/Welcome-Britain-KEBAB-Home-Office-orders-3-000-chicken-shish-meals-migrants.html

        1. The meals were obviously all halal. No chance of a non halal place getting an order, I should think.

          1. They should be grateful for anything to eat. After all, they are refugees fleeing persecution and terror, and are starving. Alternatively, they could always order and pay for an Uber Eats or Deliveroo on their smart phones.

    2. Give them sea water and lock them in a shipping container. Don’t like it? They can stay in feckin’ france!

          2. He is a fairly unimpressive little creep with a big ego! Not the smartest place on the map!

    1. Yes, but in the meanwhile we’re going to pay – literally – the price. Money better spent being burned – you’d get more value out of it than the state using it.

  108. I just got shut out of Disqus and had to do the Capcha things multiple times. Anyone else had trouble?

    3. I’ve had the opposite; I click on the Captcha and it gives me a green tick to log in without my having to find stairs, chimneys, fire hydrants, taxis, mountains tractors or traffic lights. Clearly I is special, I is! 🙂

      1. I very rarely have to log in – something happened which logged me out of Disqus and also all my email accounts.

          1. It does. I was reading something earlier on and a page popped up on the browser bar that Firefox said it didn’t recognse and couldn’t open. So I looked at it and deleted those cookies but nothing else. It said there were no permissions and no security. That was the start of the trouble.

    1. Apt that it’s Africa where the face rests.
      Africa is more of a problem than China or India. The Africans are breeding like there’s no tomorrow and exporting the sewage overflow to the rest of the world.

      1. Only because we pour our technology over to them. If we stopped doing that their population would resort to a manageble level. Millions of them would die, but then that’s what kicked us into the enlightenment.

  110. Ship?!

    Of course, no mention of 77 Brigade…

    The army must get its ship in order before embracing wokery

    It is easier to announce the adoption of eye-catching topical trends than to tackle the awkward systemic cultural change required

    BEN OBESE-JECTY

    There is a certain irony that it is only a month since the British Army published, with great fanfare, its official book on what makes its leadership so successful. The Habit of Excellence: Why British Army Leadership works cites glowing reviews from notable figures such as General David Petraeus, former Director of the CIA and Eddie Jones, the England Rugby Union coach, all of whom declare Lieutenant Colonel Langley Sharp’s book as essential reading. In light of recent events perhaps some of those higher up the Army’s chain-of-command should find time to read it.

    The intervention this week of the Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, summoning the Army Board for an unprecedented admonishment amid a slew of revelations, sackings and scandals has been as necessary as it is extraordinary.

    The past few months have seen a torrid period for the British Army at home, distinct from its success during the evacuation from Afghanistan: the court-martial of Major-General Nick Welch for fraud, quickly followed by the removal from post of three Brigade Commanders in as many months after separate incidents of bullying and fraud; the suicide of a female Officer Cadet at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst following what may be numerous safeguarding failings by Officers and Senior NCOs on the directing staff; the Army’s Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Defence Chiefs, WO1 Glenn Haughton, leaving his post under investigation for breaching the Army’s Values and Standards following allegations of conducting an improper relationship; and the shocking allegations that have resurfaced regarding a potential “cover-up” of the murder of Agnes Wanjiru, a 21-year-old Kenyan woman, during a post-training exercise night out in Nanyuki in 2012, is a disturbing reminder that these problems reach further than a lack of grip by the current hierarchy.

    The Army finds itself in a constant cycle of reinvention, as it adapts not only to the ever-evolving nature of the threat it exists to combat but also the endless challenge of recruitment and retention. The need to appeal to a new generation of potential recruits sees it struggle to maintain the delicate balance between the need to be progressive and its instinct to remain mired in the outdated. The adoption of woke policies sits in uneasy juxtaposition with a mindset that is, at its heart, anything but.

    The invitation this week, now hastily withdrawn, to Extinction Rebellion’s Chris Taylor [!!!!] to speak at a forthcoming conference hosted by The Centre for Army Leadership is a prime example of how it is easier to announce the adoption of eye-catching topical trends than to tackle the awkward systemic cultural change required.

    The investigation this summer by the Defence Sub-Committee led by Sarah Atherton MP into the experiences of female soldiers uncovered a litany of abuse from bullying to sexual harassment, underpinned by a grossly inadequate complaints procedure. Meanwhile, the MOD issued a new inclusive language guide telling staff to be careful using the word female less it “erases gender non-conforming people and members of the trans community”.

    On Monday evening The Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, announced that the Army would introduce a series of actions to accelerate said required cultural changes, including an independent audit of Army Culture itself. This is in jarring contrast to General Sir Nick Carter, the outgoing Chief of the Defence Staff, recently explaining to the Defence Select Committee that the Army fosters a “laddish culture” because soldiers need to be prepared to fight the enemy. Such a swift volte-face does not augur well for the Army’s impending Damascene conversion; those who have fostered such a culture in the first place, may not be the best-equipped people to resolve the issue. Less an example of poacher-turned-gamekeeper than poacher-cum-gamekeeper.

    The Army makes much of its Leadership Code, the values and standards that serve as its moral lodestar and govern the behaviour of its officers and soldiers. It is evident that it needs to focus on the deep-rooted cultural issues and the messy business of holding senior officers to account, rather than the favourable optics of skirmishing in culture wars. The onus should be upon the core value of moral courage, doing the right thing under difficult circumstances. Quietly ushering out those who fail the service test is the easy thing, rather than the right thing. The Chief of the General Staff shouldn’t need to be hand-held by the Secretary of State for Defence in order to confront awkward issues or be corralled into the release of a carefully choreographed joint statement.

    The Habit of Excellence outlines that leadership is about the habitual practice of doing what is right, difficult and necessary every single day. In reforming service culture, the Army’s Senior Leadership would do well to heed their own advice.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/10/army-must-get-ship-order-embracing-wokery/

    3. Sorry if I sound misogynist but women have no place on the front-line and should be rigourously segregated in order to stop all this sexist and ‘gender’-bashing.

      We never had that problem during the 10 years I served in the Royal Air Force in the 1960s.

      Very few WRAFs where assaulted and only a few became pregnant (generally at their decision as it meant being fired).

      I believe the Royal Navy is experiencing the same problems with WRENS serving on front-line ships.

      As they say in Norfolk, “They never oughterer went!”

      1. I agree. To my mind the army is there to fight, not to be social workers. The idea of making the front line “female friendly” is ludicrous.

      1. Nothing, I repeat, nothing surprises me any more. The world, especially this country , has gone mad. There is no news, just opinion and false information, the adverts are all propaganda and we are supposed to believe it all and constantly do what we are told by those fat, useless oiks that masquerade as MPs.
        Notice what’s going on in Holland and Austria….this country will be in lockdown again by Xmas no matter how low the “covid” figures are.

        1. What little I see about the UK I do not understand, or even recognise anymore!! My last visit was 2010.

        2. All sorts of strange things are happening , even in solid County Councils, box ticking and diversity , and people being hired from the London area to responsible well paid jobs , yes BLM , and bringing their Marxist politics with them and shouting it from the roof tops and Twitter , I say that is a very dangerous move , stuff is happening and I feel uneasy about this ..things can turn very bad , can’t they .

      2. Me , being me, is having a Ponder

        When a transgender goes into a loo, are they ‘sexually drawn’ to the gender of the people who use ‘that loo’.
        or to the ones using the loo next door

        1. “The Beautiful Bowel Movement” [by John Updike]
          Though most of them aren’t much to write about—
          mere squibs and nubs, like half-smoked pale cigars,
          the tint and stink recalling Tuesday’s meal,
          the texture loose and soon dissolved—this one,
          struck off in solitude one afternoon
          (that prairie stretch before the late light fails)
          with no distinct sensation, sweet or pained,
          of special inspiration or release,
          was yet a masterpiece: a flawless coil,
          unbroken, in the bowl, as if a potter
          who worked in this most frail, least grateful clay
          had set himself to shape a topaz vase.
          O spiral perfection, not seashell nor
          stardust, how can I keep you? With this poem.

          — John Updike

  112. Stories like this bother me, as if ‘big dogs are dangerous’.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10194971/Schoolboy-Jack-Lis-suffered-unsurvivable-injuries-head-neck-inquest-hears.html

    Mongo last weighed in at 78 odd kilos. They weighed him before he had shoulder surgery. He is no more dangerous than a sofa. This dog in the attack was not socialised, not trained, not properly controlled by his owner. The dog isn’t the problem. The wretched b[eeeep]ard owner is.

    1. It isn’t the size of the dog, it’s the temperament. Oscar is small (but powerful) and has enormous teeth. We had a falling out over his intention to bite my toes when I fed him. Today we seem to have reached an agreement and he’s leaving them alone.

          2. This seems to have developed since he had a UTI (it sends people doolally so dogs are probably no different). He would rush across the kitchen, away from his food bowl, barking aggressively but wagging his tail. It used to be that shouting at him stopped him before he made contact, but then nothing deterred him – until I got fed up and whapped him with a rolled up newspaper. That seems to have restored order. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. He WILL become civilised, whether he likes it or not! The really odd thing is, once there is no food, he is seeking cuddles. He is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

          3. What a wonderful picture you’ve created! Sparring and ducking with a rolled-up newspaper and a determined terrier! Our loopy Sphinx cat Dobby has a mad 20 minutes in the evening and will leap 6 feet in the air, or sideways and attack with teeth and claws just for the hell of it! It’s best to watch his beautiful eyes as his pupils dilate! Even poor old Hector, the Lab isn’t immune to the lunacy!

      2. Aye, Mongo’s chum, a long haired German Shepherd is an absolute lovely, but his jaws can easily bite through an arm.

        On the one time he gave Mike, his owner a ‘gentle nip’ he (Mike) needed many stitches. The dog didn’t know, certainly didn’t mean to and is very careful now.

    2. These people had only had the dog for a week – and bought it from someone who’d obviously trained it to be aggressive.

    3. Good Lord, wibbling! What sort of dog is he? A Bernese/Pyreneean?
      You are absolutely right about the owners being the problem! Some people shouldn’t be in charge of their own lives, let alone a live animal.
      Of course, if Mongo fell on you, he may be dangerous!

  113. Evening, all. The one thing we can be sure of in the Covid pandemic is that we can’t rely on any statistics.

    1. Statistics = Orange makes you drunk

      (for the 1 person, who has not read it before)
      If you drink Rum, Whisky, Vodka, Brandy & Gin, with Orange on consecutive nights and get tiddly,
      statistically, (certainly to the NHS) the only common factor is Orange

    3. Bliar and WMD come to mind

      Doctor Kelly did not believe it though: ;look what happened to him

    4. As has often been said. It is easier to fool the people than convince them they have been fooled.

  115. I haven’t copied the whole article as it’s a bit dry. The opening paragraphs and a photo are enough.

    Boris’s ugly ghost town at Nine Elms is a London colony of China’s property bubble

    New town on the south bank of the Thames feels more like one of provincial China’s obscure metropolises than a high-end London development

    BEN MARLOW, CHIEF CITY COMMENTATOR

    It was dubbed “the final piece of the jigsaw”, in typically modest style by the then-Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. And what better way to complete an unlovely area of the capital, previously home to rows of grim warehouses, distribution depots and run down council houses, than a 230-hectare riverside new town of 20,000 homes stretching from Vauxhall Cross to Battersea Power Station on the South Bank of the Thames.

    The brains behind what was sold as the biggest regeneration project Europe had ever seen came up with the most fitting of names: Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea. Where elm trees once swayed on the breeze off the river would one day stand a brand new concrete jungle. That was the plan at least. Yet seemingly like every ambitious vision that captivates our Prime Minister, the reality is so far falling short in quite spectacular style.

    The noble goal behind regeneration projects such as Nine Elms is to inject new life into forgotten corners of cities. With the appropriate application of capital – inevitably often foreign and speculative – the arrival of new residents and businesses is meant to sow communities and real growth on even the barest of earth.

    In 2012 Boris described Nine Elms as “the greatest transformational story in the world’s greatest city”. This was his grandiose vision, eagerly backed by David Cameron in Number 10, for how London would look as it emerged miraculously from the ashes of the financial crisis. Cosmopolitan Vauxhall would be a symbol of a revived, vibrant international city. The whole shebang would be turbocharged by overseas cash, especially from our wealthy friends in China.

    Better still, by devoting large swathes of the complex to affordable housing, it would be a modern egalitarian utopia where rich and the poor lived side by side in stylish apartments. Both would be served by attractive riverside dining and bars, pop-up food markets and a wealth of other amenities, all of an aspirational yet attainable model of recovering Britain.

    It was a mirage. Instead, an ugly ghost town of half-empty tower blocks has popped up in a densely packed cluster that gives a crushing sense of claustrophobia from street level and the 40th floor. Nine Elms feels more like one of provincial China’s obscure metropolises than a high-end development within walking distance of the mother of parliaments.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1cf9424d863cb18e7bf6771cb156c6f0de1d9570db219919e1c30d63330ed8c1.jpg
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/11/11/boriss-ugly-ghost-town-nine-elms-london-colony-chinas-property/

    3. Oh my Lord. The reality is even worse that what I imagined from the text. It looks as though someone had crammed in as many flats as possible to maximise their profits without any consideration of quality of living. Are they supposed to be “pied à terre” for City workers? That’s going to work out well now that they’re all working from home.

  116. Good night all
    King prawn sandwiches with lotsa coleslaw & bitter leaves. A coupla glasses white rioja.

  117. Just started to peep through next door neighbours window at England v Albania Wendyball match

    I saw England were not losing, and we had an all white team, shirts and players

    SWMBO said Ingerlund are in blue, with Black faces

    Come on the Whites

    1. Aw come on OLT! The Albanians cook live hedgehogs in clay over a fire! Not nice people at all!

        1. I had to save one in Greece from a fairly unpleasant bunch of them. I finally gave the bas***ds a fresh chicken and a bottle of my sisters olive oil! The next night there was a fire in the barn where they lived and we had to save them!

      4. Really, I know it is not nice, to eat hedgehogs

        Who will tell the Badgers though

        We now have a country that says, The only way to kill a badger, without prosecution, is Road Kill.

          1. Badgers are protected and so are the setts (burrows) they live in. Under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, in England and Wales (the law is different in Scotland) it is an offence to: Wilfully kill, injure or take a badger (or attempt to do so).

          3. Badgers are protected and so are the setts (burrows) they live in. Under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, in England and Wales (the law is different in Scotland) it is an offence to: Wilfully kill, injure or take a badger (or attempt to do so).

  118. An interesting perspective from Nelson but I’m not greatly persuaded. Can principle trump power and prestige?

    The Tories are taking back control of their party – and Boris Johnson

    The Prime Minister is losing absolute power over the Conservatives, and his Government is better for it

    FRASER NELSON

    When Rishi Sunak admitted that the Government had blundered over the Owen Paterson vote, he was making a bit of a gamble. This is the very apology that Boris Johnson has conspicuously refused to offer. Since becoming Chancellor, Sunak has taken care to be seen as uber-loyal to the Prime Minister, doing his best to conceal the many differences between them. But with the party in crisis – and its leader refusing to express regret – ministers are taking matters into their own hands.

    As each day passes, Tories have more cause to regret the loyalty showed last week to what they now regard as an incompetent No 10. “The whips are supposed to be the shrewdest among us,” complains one minister. “But Boris has made it a nursery for the thickos.” Backbenchers were not even asked about their opinions on the disastrous “Save Paterson” plan until the day before the vote – by which time everything had been finalised and it was too late to change direction.

    Almost all of the 247 Tories who voted to exculpate Paterson did so under duress – but they all assumed No 10 knew what it was doing. Few will make that mistake again. The vote not only failed but has exposed all Tories to this week’s accusations of sleaze. Every politician with outside interests, from legal advice to football refereeing, is now accused of being on the fiddle. They are fending off the attacks while blaming No 10 for starting the fire.

    As a point of principle, Johnson doesn’t do apologies – seeing them as part of a pointless media game. When he became Foreign Secretary he said he would not engage in a “full global itinerary of apology” as it would take too long. His parting advice to his successor as Spectator editor was to never admit error, even under pressure. “Old chums will turn up in your office, urging you to capitulate,” he wrote. “Don’t. The Spectator surrenders to no one. The Spectator is always right.” He seems to regard politics the same way: if you apologise, you’re weakened and they win.

    But ministers are not waiting for him to change his mind. In offering their own apology, they do not mean that they erred: as everyone now knows, the Paterson plan was very much his idea. They think the Prime Minister was wrong and that his error ought to be acknowledged by others. Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, has said “upon reflection” it was a mistake. Steve Barclay, the Cabinet Secretary, has apologised on behalf of the Government. The one person who was not even in parliament when this was being debated was the Prime Minister himself.

    Johnson has been back in Glasgow for the Cop26 summit, where he has been quite the hit among other national leaders. When asked in one private meeting about the detail of his Net Zero policy he shrugged and said: “Detail? Me?” Whether an act or not, his audience loved it. “Everyone laughed,” says one foreign delegate. “He didn’t say a single sentence that wasn’t funny.” But this is all wearing rather thin in Westminster. “If he’d actually read that report before he got us to vote, he’d find Owen Paterson guilty as charged,” says one government member. “For a lot of people, that will be the last time they go with this.”

    Andrew Bowie, a Scottish Tory from the 2017 intake, has resigned as a party vice-chairman in dismay at the bungling. The mood in the party is so febrile that one loyal Conservative MP has been suggesting that the Prime Minister has fallen victim to a plot from someone luring him into lunatic positions. But the ideas are all his. A poll for this newspaper shows that his raising taxes to a 71-year high has damaged Tory support even more than the latest sleaze allegations.

    It is almost impossible to find a single Tory who believes the plan to increase National Insurance is worth the political pain. The policy was rushed through with just one internal poll question, asking if people would like to pay more tax to fix social care. “If they’d asked further questions like “do you think this extra tax is likely to fix social care” – they’d have found a better answer,” says one Tory strategist. This is the fear now: that voters are angrily aware of the tax hike but doubt it will improve things.

    For his part, Sunak is starting to draw a thin blue line between his politics and Johnson’s. His curious Budget speech was divided into the parts done under No 10’s orders (the spending) and then his own priorities (cut taxes). He has come as close as he dares to saying: “thus far, but no further”. His personal promise to MPs – that he’d use any extra money to cut taxes – was a declaration of his semi-independence and a personal manifesto he must now stick to.

    Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, regularly veers from the government line (sometimes deliberately) and was ruling out a tax rise before it was forced through. Perhaps the boldest of all Cabinet members is Liz Truss, who opposed the tax rise outright when it came to Cabinet – and was shot down by Sunak for her troubles. Should the time come, there will be no shortage of people ready to champion her cause.

    The anarchy of the Theresa May years almost destroyed the Tory party as it tore itself apart over Brexit. The terror-induced discipline of the Dominic Cummings era was a necessary corrective while a deal with the EU was agreed. Lockdown suspended political life in Westminster (and beyond) and with it the ability of politicians to form groups, compare notes and think how to react. But life is returning to the Commons now, catalysed by last week. Little groups of Tory MPs are wondering how bad things are going to get – and how to stop it.

    The Prime Minister’s personal authority – and that of No 10 – will perhaps never recover from the events of the last fortnight. The result will be more independent-minded ministers, a more rebellious party and more people prepared to push back and try to stop Conservatism turning into Johnsonism. For more than two years, his personal power over his party has been almost absolute. That is changing now, and his government will be the better for it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/11/11/tories-taking-back-control-party-boris-johnson/

    1. Principle over power and prestige? You jest surely.

      I haven’t seen much evidence of any mainstream politician prepared to stick by their guns and go down in defeat.

      Maybe the green party and communist party candidates without any chance of winning an election have principles but the rest will shift and bend with the wind if it helps number one.

    2. The “Conservative Party” in this article appears to mean MPs. But there are two other Conservative Parties that matter for winning elections; card carrying members, and ex card carrying members, of whom there are rather a lot following two decades of kowtowing to Blairism and foreign billionaires.

    3. “Almost all of the 247 Tories who voted to exculpate Paterson did so under duress – but they all assumed No 10 knew what it was doing.
      That’s as far as I read. What utter crap.

  119. An interesting perspective from Nelson but I’m not greatly persuaded. Can principle trump power and prestige?

    The Tories are taking back control of their party – and Boris Johnson

    The Prime Minister is losing absolute power over the Conservatives, and his Government is better for it

    FRASER NELSON

    When Rishi Sunak admitted that the Government had blundered over the Owen Paterson vote, he was making a bit of a gamble. This is the very apology that Boris Johnson has conspicuously refused to offer. Since becoming Chancellor, Sunak has taken care to be seen as uber-loyal to the Prime Minister, doing his best to conceal the many differences between them. But with the party in crisis – and its leader refusing to express regret – ministers are taking matters into their own hands.

    As each day passes, Tories have more cause to regret the loyalty showed last week to what they now regard as an incompetent No 10. “The whips are supposed to be the shrewdest among us,” complains one minister. “But Boris has made it a nursery for the thickos.” Backbenchers were not even asked about their opinions on the disastrous “Save Paterson” plan until the day before the vote – by which time everything had been finalised and it was too late to change direction.

    Almost all of the 247 Tories who voted to exculpate Paterson did so under duress – but they all assumed No 10 knew what it was doing. Few will make that mistake again. The vote not only failed but has exposed all Tories to this week’s accusations of sleaze. Every politician with outside interests, from legal advice to football refereeing, is now accused of being on the fiddle. They are fending off the attacks while blaming No 10 for starting the fire.

    As a point of principle, Johnson doesn’t do apologies – seeing them as part of a pointless media game. When he became Foreign Secretary he said he would not engage in a “full global itinerary of apology” as it would take too long. His parting advice to his successor as Spectator editor was to never admit error, even under pressure. “Old chums will turn up in your office, urging you to capitulate,” he wrote. “Don’t. The Spectator surrenders to no one. The Spectator is always right.” He seems to regard politics the same way: if you apologise, you’re weakened and they win.

    But ministers are not waiting for him to change his mind. In offering their own apology, they do not mean that they erred: as everyone now knows, the Paterson plan was very much his idea. They think the Prime Minister was wrong and that his error ought to be acknowledged by others. Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, has said “upon reflection” it was a mistake. Steve Barclay, the Cabinet Secretary, has apologised on behalf of the Government. The one person who was not even in parliament when this was being debated was the Prime Minister himself.

    Johnson has been back in Glasgow for the Cop26 summit, where he has been quite the hit among other national leaders. When asked in one private meeting about the detail of his Net Zero policy he shrugged and said: “Detail? Me?” Whether an act or not, his audience loved it. “Everyone laughed,” says one foreign delegate. “He didn’t say a single sentence that wasn’t funny.” But this is all wearing rather thin in Westminster. “If he’d actually read that report before he got us to vote, he’d find Owen Paterson guilty as charged,” says one government member. “For a lot of people, that will be the last time they go with this.”

    Andrew Bowie, a Scottish Tory from the 2017 intake, has resigned as a party vice-chairman in dismay at the bungling. The mood in the party is so febrile that one loyal Conservative MP has been suggesting that the Prime Minister has fallen victim to a plot from someone luring him into lunatic positions. But the ideas are all his. A poll for this newspaper shows that his raising taxes to a 71-year high has damaged Tory support even more than the latest sleaze allegations.

    It is almost impossible to find a single Tory who believes the plan to increase National Insurance is worth the political pain. The policy was rushed through with just one internal poll question, asking if people would like to pay more tax to fix social care. “If they’d asked further questions like “do you think this extra tax is likely to fix social care” – they’d have found a better answer,” says one Tory strategist. This is the fear now: that voters are angrily aware of the tax hike but doubt it will improve things.

    For his part, Sunak is starting to draw a thin blue line between his politics and Johnson’s. His curious Budget speech was divided into the parts done under No 10’s orders (the spending) and then his own priorities (cut taxes). He has come as close as he dares to saying: “thus far, but no further”. His personal promise to MPs – that he’d use any extra money to cut taxes – was a declaration of his semi-independence and a personal manifesto he must now stick to.

    Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, regularly veers from the government line (sometimes deliberately) and was ruling out a tax rise before it was forced through. Perhaps the boldest of all Cabinet members is Liz Truss, who opposed the tax rise outright when it came to Cabinet – and was shot down by Sunak for her troubles. Should the time come, there will be no shortage of people ready to champion her cause.

    The anarchy of the Theresa May years almost destroyed the Tory party as it tore itself apart over Brexit. The terror-induced discipline of the Dominic Cummings era was a necessary corrective while a deal with the EU was agreed. Lockdown suspended political life in Westminster (and beyond) and with it the ability of politicians to form groups, compare notes and think how to react. But life is returning to the Commons now, catalysed by last week. Little groups of Tory MPs are wondering how bad things are going to get – and how to stop it.

    The Prime Minister’s personal authority – and that of No 10 – will perhaps never recover from the events of the last fortnight. The result will be more independent-minded ministers, a more rebellious party and more people prepared to push back and try to stop Conservatism turning into Johnsonism. For more than two years, his personal power over his party has been almost absolute. That is changing now, and his government will be the better for it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/11/11/tories-taking-back-control-party-boris-johnson/

      1. Not sure – I wasn’t listening very closely. If they were protesting I assumed they didn’t want the new restrictions.

    3. I would have expected a cardiologist to have a better understanding of the adverse reactions documented for those taking booster shots, the prevalence of heart attacks and Myocarditis.

      Either way I would not wish death on anyone.

      1. I thought most of the people who had Myocarditis after the jabs were younger thn 52. He should have known better.

        1. It is difficult to know just how many vaccinated have died as a result of the jabs. An unusually high number of sportsmen have dropped dead during games, notably in America.

          Something is very wrong and yet governments across the globe are still feverishly pushing these untested drugs. Each and every Pharma company flogging this stuff are convicted felons. We know these companies are crooks and yet they are awarded both licences and contracts to cause serious harms and deaths without any liability whatsoever.

      2. On the scientific evidence so far regarding this jab, Morgan should be sued for that stupid statement.
        It is a calculated risk.

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