Friday 14 February: At least we might see the end to the rumbling turf war between the Treasury and No 10

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/02/14/lettersat-least-might-see-end-rumbling-turf-war-treasury-no/

574 thoughts on “Friday 14 February: At least we might see the end to the rumbling turf war between the Treasury and No 10”

  1. Vladimir Putin says ‘marriage is a union of a man and woman’ as he declares support for ‘traditional family values’. Mail. 14 February 2020.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin today stressed that marriage should be solely a heterosexual union.

    ‘A marriage is a union of a man and woman,’ he said at a meeting with a Kremlin-appointed committee discussing new amendments to the Russian constitution.

    Morning everyone. Would it be inappropriate to point out on this Happy Valentine’s Day that we have come to such a pass that NO Political Leader or Public Figure in the West would dare to utter this simple truth even if they actually believed it!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8000777/Vladimir-Putin-says-marriage-union-man-woman.html

      1. It is not that he is good Hugh but that the West and its leaders are so corrupt and decadent!

  2. Good Morning Folks,

    Lovely sunrise out there.
    I think I have a VD card, I’m in trouble for forgetting.

    1. Blimey, if I produced one of those it would be instant hospitalization for me…😳

      Fortunately, Mrs HJ was born on the 14th of February, and consequently we called a truce over VD cards many years ago.

      ‘Morning, HK.

      1. I’m touchingly grateful for my Valentine Day treat: an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon.
        I’m one of the mugs that the ex-Chancellor’s SPADs wanted to tax because we had the temerity to save up for our own treatment.

        1. Morning, Anne.
          That got his sorry ass fired. Excellent! Maybe these people will think twice about making stupid suggestions in the future.

    2. I noticed that the T company was selling a dozen red roses for a fiver. Given some of the inflated prices, that wasn’t bad.

      1. Tutto è follia, follia nel mondo
        ciò che non è piacer.
        Godiam, fugace e rapido
        è il gaudio dell’amore;
        è un fior che nasce e muore,
        ne più si può goder.

        In life everything is folly
        which does not bring pleasure.
        Let us be happy, fleeting and rapid
        is the delight of love;
        it is a flower which blooms and dies,
        which can no longer be enjoyed.

    2. A rosy fingered dawn as eos opened the gates of heaven,
      to please Classicists amongst us, Mr Viking .

  5. Good morning and happy Valentine’s day from a Saxon Queen
    If you haven’t a Eros little arrow then you can borrow my
    dark ages longbow .

  6. Morning all. Happy Valentine’s Day.

    SIR – It’s high time that the Treasury and No 10 shared the same set of advisers in order to avoid the sort of rumbling conflict seen for years at the highest levels of government, not least under Theresa May. It creates damaging uncertainty.

    One hopes that Rishi Sunak, the new Chancellor, will do what Sajid Javid failed to do, and waste no time in ruling out wealth taxes – the sort of nonsense that the Labour leadership contenders are falling over themselves to promote.

    Tim Coles

    Carlton, Bedfordshire

    SIR – It’s a pity to lose Sajid Javid, but, since the days of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the Treasury and successive Chancellors have taken far too much upon themselves. There is room for only one Prime Minister.

    Boris Johnson has done what Mr Blair should have done with Mr Brown and saved us all a load of grief.

    Bill Winckworth

    Louth, Lincolnshire

    SIR – Perhaps a repeat of the Barber-Heath boom-and-bust scenario has been avoided.

    Richard Portham

    Marshland St James, Norfolk

    1. SIR – Is it now time to abolish the House of Lords and replace it with Dominic Cummings?

      Andrew Dyke

      London N21

    2. Yes, Brown should have been fired.

      As soon as his first budget set about destroying private sector pension schemes and robbing savers the opposition should have fired about 500 rounds each and put an end to the misery of 10 years of Labour oppression.

      Stuff democracy. Those who voted for Blair were fools. Labour voters always are.

  7. The important thing is always the “by the way”

    SIR – Allison Pearson (February 12) is right. It is pointless for a GP to attempt to make an accurate diagnosis without listening to all the patient’s symptoms.

    For example, an 85-year-old relative became constipated, confused, thirsty and had several falls. She had hypertension and had previously had surgery for breast cancer. Blood tests showed an elevated level of calcium.

    She was eventually found to have a benign parathyroid nodule. When this was removed all her symptoms went and she was her normal, active self.

    The doctor had to be a detective to find the correct diagnosis and needed to listen to all her symptoms. I wish all patients could be assessed accurately and not given a knee-jerk prescription based on one symptom.

    Dr Rhoda Pippen

    Cardiff

    SIR – To allow a patient to mention only one ailment or symptom is asking for trouble. I had 30 years as a GP. Very early in practice I saw a patient with a minor ailment. On leaving, she said: “By the way, doctor”, and it was this that she had really come about.

    After further consultation and examination, she was found to have a serious growth and was operated on. She was still alive when I retired. The important point was the “by the way”.

    Dr Michael Gough

    Hampton-in-Arden, Warwickshire

    1. I have over the years discovered that one can only trust the professionals to tell you what you know already. Anything you don’t know they won’t tell you, since it might undermine how they can continue getting paid over the odds. This is true in the legal profession and with garages, and I don’t why it doesn’t also apply to the medics.

      Therefore go to the doctor only with something I know all too well what it is, and how it can be treated, and all will go away happy. If it’s something I don’t know about though, there is a problem, since I will go away still not knowing, and the chances are the doctor won’t tell me. The “by the way” is a way of registering inexplicable symptoms without either losing face.

  8. ‘Morning All
    I haven’t looked at the reshuffle in detail yet but the incoherent screaming and weeping,wailing and gnashing of teeth from the usual suspects (Gina Miller,Gawke etc) suggests I should be feeling more upbeat this morning

  9. SIR – I enjoyed 1917 (Letters, February 13), with its spectacular front-line sequences and moving conclusion, but I share historians’ disappointment at its 21st-century obscenities, above all when uttered by officers to men.

    My grandfather, Howard Wicksteed, served with the 1/6th Devons (a regiment in the film). He was badly wounded in 1916. It is inconceivable that he or his brother officers would have used such squalid language.

    At Sandhurst in 1954, we were taught that in no circumstances do officers swear at other ranks. Sergeants used colourful language, but never the tedious “f” word. It is a lasting shame that so well-intended a film was marred in this pointless way.

    Nikolai Tolstoy

    Southmoor, Berkshire

  11. RBS changes its name as profits jump

    Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group has reported a near doubling of annual profits and says it plans to change its name later this year.
    The bank reported profits of £3.1bn for 2019, nearly double the £1.6bn seen the year before.
    The Edinburgh-based bank also announced it would be renaming itself as NatWest Group.
    New RBS chief executive Alison Rose called the results the “start of a new era” for the bank.
    Ms Rose told the BBC’s Today programme that the name change would not result in any change in services for RBS or NatWest customers.
    About 80% of the bank’s customers are thought to use NatWest.

  12. When you’re over 60, who gives a damn.

    This asshole Girl looked at my beer belly last night and sarcastically said, “Is that Corona or Bud?”
    I said, “There’s a tap underneath. Taste it and find out.”
    ***********
    I was talking to a girl in the bar last night. She said, “If you lost a few pounds, had a shave and got your hair cut, you’d look all right.”
    I said, “If I did that, I’d be talking to your friends over there instead of you.”
    ***********
    I was telling a girl in the pub about my ability to guess what day a woman was born just by feeling her boobs.
    “Really” she said, “Go on then – try.”
    After about thirty seconds of fondling her nipples she began to lose patience and said.
    “Come on, what day was I born”?
    I said, “Yesterday.”
    ***********
    I got caught taking a pee in the local swimming pool today.
    The lifeguard shouted at me so loud, I nearly fell in.
    *************
    I went to the pub last night and saw a fat chick dancing on a table.
    I said, “Nice legs.”
    The girl giggled and said with a smile, “Do you really think so.”
    I said “Definitely! Most tables would have f*****g collapsed by now.”

  13. Newspapers fear new social media rules will lead to wider censorship. 13 Feb 2020.

    The Daily Mail is among the outlets that have warned about the government’s proposals to ask Ofcom to ensure British websites do their best to reduce online content that is legal but harmful to society.

    That would be anyone who doesn’t believe in, Gay Marriage, Lesbian Rights, Transgender lessons for schools and Climate Change. Wait a minute! That’s us!

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/13/newspapers-fear-ofcom-regulation-could-lead-to-censorship

      1. I have three Swedish male friends who think the same way as I do.

        They lament the fact that their fellow countrymen are pussies with no backbone for a fight and take everything dished out to them by government. This is a direct result, of course, of over four decades of nanny-statism.

        When someone (from another country) recently remarked that Swedes ought to break out the yellow gilets and take to the streets, I replied, “You don’t know the Swedes.”

        1. Morning G

          If these bods are causing mayhem, why doesn’t the government deport them .. Are Swedish males a chromosome short of the XY factor?

          2. Morning, Maggie.

            My friends and I agree. Most Swedes have become so accustomed to being spoon-fed by the state that they have buried their heads in the sand and hope it will all go away. The only light at the end of the tunnel is the fact that Sweden Democrats, the Nationalist Party, is, for the first time, ahead in the polls. Their leader, Jimmy Åkesson, wants to rid the country of these immigrants and support for him and his policies is rising.

      1. If as a result of peeing on the hosts I wonder if another Anders will wreak havoc in Sweden?

    1. Morning Rik,
      I am hoping for a glider force for felons to be firmly established.
      If these Isles once created a glider force in WW2 to help fight for democracy / decency then they can
      reestablish it to protect the meager
      remains of what is left of
      democracy / decency.
      A ( tic) post, but the subject the felons
      deportation should be on a daily basis.
      Reserve some seating for do gooders
      to fight the felons case from the final
      destination.

    2. I’ll give you numb and wounded. Sod off you drug dealing crook.

      Tell the bloody truth, BBC. Stop pushing that these scum are anything but criminals.

    2. Morning B,
      Example,
      316000 approx up ✔ Jan 10, plus the daily count is mine
      Submission to R soles is Not an option, small issues such as uptick tampering can lead to major issues with tampering.

      1. Strange how only true Brexiteers are losing votes whilst the subversives are accruing more and more.

        1. Manipulation, peoples seem to accept it, to me it could quite easily lead to other more serious issues.

  20. Consumer contract changes ‘could save customers money’

    Broadband, TV and phone customers will be given the chance to avoid hefty price hikes when their contracts end under rules taking effect on Saturday.
    UK watchdog Ofcom says users could save £150 a year on broadband alone once they are informed of alternative deals.
    Around 20 million customers are out of contract with their suppliers, leaving many paying more than they need to.
    The regulator says people can earn big monthly savings if they are told in advance of discounts on new deals.
    Matt Powell, editor at comparison site Broadband Genie, said the requirement for companies to warn when contracts are about to expire would help loyal customers remain on the best plans.

          1. Easy mistake for anyone in Scotland to make : Glen, Gary Baldy = Garybaldy biscuits produced in the Highlands

      2. Not King Gary as in the recent toe curling comedy series on TV. Not sure if the apostrophe is missing before the K.
        It has so many local coincidences that I think I know him.

    4. Go for it Bill, you’ll become a national hero like a certain TV presenter.
      As opposed to the brave people who operate 24/7/365 life boat duties. Who never seem to get the recognition they deserve for going out.

  23. “One of the UK’s nine confirmed coronavirus patients attended a

    conference in central London last week alongside 250 people before they

    were diagnosed, it emerged last night.

    Organisers of the UK Bus Summit, which took place on Tuesday Feb 6,

    wrote to attendees yesterday under the instruction of Public Health

    England to inform them they may have come into contact with a person

    confirmed to have the virus.

    Among the speakers slated to attend the Transport Time event were MPs and industry leaders.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/13/two-medics-isolated-amid-dramatic-scenes-coronavirus-reaches/
    Good,at least some MP’s might pay the price for the pathetic lack of action to prevent infection spreading

      1. Morning all.
        Too much money involved TB.
        In most factors, Coporate greed is now the leading factor in the ruinination of the planet. But no body has the willpower to bring a halt to the most obvious cause, the demise of thinking rationally, aka commonsense. As long as someone somewhere is raking the money in……..
        So it goes on.

        1. ‘Morning, Eddy, I’ve said it before and it’s worth saying again – it should be called good sense ‘cos it ain’t that common.

    2. Rik, do you think that the news of a coronavirus infected MP would be released? IMHO, knowing how lax the government’s precautions have been, that news would be buried.

    3. There were no health checks of any kind when we entered the UK last week. When we got to Canadian immigration last night there were no health checks, just a question added to the checklist on the self service machines “have you been to China recently”.

      Now there might be some hidden technology checking everyone’s temperatures and alerting officials if anyone had a temperature, but basically both borders appeared to be completely open with no pretence at stopping an infected person coming into the country.

  24. Will Sunak open the spending taps?

    The UK and much of the world has dangerously high levels of debt. We have record levels of government debt, business debt and Consumer debt. The deficit has com down but that all and much of that reduction down to reduced interest rates. There is little scope to take interest rates low so going forward the only real way they can go is up and that will be a big shock to the economy when it happens and many will not be able to afford the debt they have. Another problem with low interest rates is it also means lo inflation and the downside of that is low inflation does not devalue the debt

    In my view it would be very dangerous to open the spending tap wide. The signs are not good with Boris spending over a £100B on HS2. . We need to that priorities right and a lot of things need increased spending which are far more importent than HS2

    “The really big debate going into this Budget is are the Tories going to be true to form and make sure the book balances? Or are they going to open the spending taps, as they suggested in the manifesto?
    “Part of the alleged tension between Number 10 and Number 11 until yesterday was Sajid Javid wasn’t keen to open those spending taps. Now that Number 10’s got their man in Rishi Sunak will he do what he wants them to do, and what does that mean for the sustainability of the UK Budget?”

    1. I’d like the government to let me spend the majority of my salary on myself and my family thank you very much! We didn’t elect a so-called conservative government to ‘turn on the spending taps.’

      1. Especially as it means turning on the borrowing taps. Mind you, we haven’t had a conservative in the HoC since Maggie got the push.

    1. “Chair of the college board is Alison Munro, chief executive of HS2 Ltd from January 2009 to September 2014, and subsequently managing director of HS2 Phase 2 until her retirement in August 2017, when she was awarded a CBE.” Now there’s a girl who likes her gravy ( or jus probably)

          1. I used to enjoy travelling , MM, but the getting there bit and the subsequent drain of looking over one’s shoulder , and other changing cultural challenges plus lots of other things confirmed that home is best !

      2. The changed their name for some reason a few years ago. I remember when they used to be called ‘Cape hunting dogs’ and they were classed amongst the most dangerous animals in Africa. Wildlife documentaries such as those produced by the excellent Des and Jane Bartlett would show them pursuing and bringing down prey such as zebras in displays of pack co-ordination.

        I don’t watch our over-sanitised wildlife so-called documentaries these days, since they turned them into Disneyfied soap operas, but I bet those that have come to watching them in recent years will never be shown Cape hunting dogs living their lives in the wild and I’d place a double on most of them never having heard of the species. They are too busy cooing over bloody meerkats.

        1. I do remember that name. Wiki even gives a list of other names.
          “The English language has several names for Lycaon pictus, including: African wild dog, African hunting dog, Cape hunting dog, painted hunting dog, painted dog, painted wolf[, and painted lycaon.”

      2. What better way to treat a despicable piece of vermin (the rabbit)?

        Rabbits, illegal immigrants and Pinkoes should all be transported to Chad, Mali, Somalia and many other places on that continent that are “developing” and only have a population of a few people per square mile.

    4. Didn’t they know that a pack of African wild dogs is the most formidable hunting machine in the wild??

      Quite unsuitable to keep in a zoo.

  27. Morning all. A shocker to see Sajid Javid out on his ear, before even being able to deliver a budget! I suppose it’s good if Johnson is bringing the Treasury to heel. The last thing the country needs is an alternative government squatting in No.11 trying to block everything the PM is trying to achieve (a la Blair/Brown or May/Hammond).

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/14/brexit-news-latest-boris-johnson-cabinet-reshuffle-sajid-javid/

    But running a tight ship is no good if the Captain is steering it in the wrong direction. So far, all we have seen from Johnson is policies straight out of the Miliband or even Corbyn playbook. Where is the red-meat conservatism that the country is crying out for?

      1. On a news channel last night some bimbo reporter referred to the “return of the far right” in Germany. Oblivious of the fact that NASDAP were left wing. The clue is the word “socialist”.

      2. Morning KP,
        316000 + up ✔s,
        We had better believe it, as in a prior post you join the dots of
        islamic ideology followers in power up & down these Isles & it begins to resemble a giant mosque nearing completion.

    3. O2O,
      316000 + up ✔s,
      If my memory serves me right was not the police protecting an anti
      Tommy Robinson mob on their way
      to a Tommy Robinson london speech.

    1. Many moons past I had a brief encounter with the then Ms Davies. She came through the front door of where I was working in St Albans.
      She’s was a big lady, capable of looking after her self I’d say.
      Very attractive as well.
      Sadly she didn’t ask for my phone number 😆

    2. Most if us saw that the logical end of this nonsense would be the end of women’s sport. We also saw that there would be problems for genuinely female prisoners and little girls in schools having grubby ‘girls with willies’ in their Girls’ Lavatories.

      My flabber was completely ghasted when that mental defective, Nikky Morgan, announced that biology was irrelevant and that a person could identify as whichever sex he, she or it chose.

    4. Until Ms Davies is listened to rather than mocked by the Left this blatant cheating will never end.

  31. SIR—Let us please have a British Rights and Responsibilities Act.

    Every right to which we are entitled has the balance of a duty which gives us a responsibility. If we fail in that duty, surely we cease to be entitled to the right. Too often our population has been judged only by its “rights”.

    His Honour Ian Morris
    Sunbury-on-thames, Middlesex

    Thank you, your Honour, for the most intelligent letter this century.

    I’ve been banging on about a Human Responsibilities Act for decades. It beyond time we had one to repeal the idiotic Human Rights legislation that hinders our progress in clearing out all the human detritus, which is bringing civilisation down.

    1. “Thank you, Your Honour, for the most intelligent letter this century.”

      May I second that, Grizz?
      It’s a question I’ve always wanted to ask at job interviews but the HR wallahs say I cant – ‘Which do you think are more important, your rights or your responsibilities?”

    2. Human Rights was devised on a wet Tuesday in New York by some UN delegates who got bored with playing poker and decided to dream up the biggest spoof that they could imagine. Aghast at, and frightened by, the serious and enthusiastic reception of their amoral joke, they laid low and said nothin’.

  32. HG Wells: nightmares of a better world. Spiked. 14 February 2020.

    Cole does not see the other side of Wells’ ambition, which is hubris. His utopianism leads him to dismiss all that humanity has built, from its smallest communities to its nations. ‘Nations’, Cole writes, ‘are the source of untold evil in the modern world; this became and remained his mantra. A cosmopolitan to the core, Wells wanted to eradicate nations, replacing patriotism with loyalty to the whole human race.’ It is a vaunting, potentially totalitarian vision. Wells’ desire for a pacified unified polity, in order to avoid fratricidal genocide, would have required subjugation of the entire human race in an absolutist system. It would have erased cultures, languages, traditions, nationalities, the principle of democracy and the possibility of personal or group dissent. It would have required a pervasive monitoring and correction of all citizens under a technologically unassailable elite class. Wells admitted as much.

    Hmmm. One of the best technical arguments I have read against the EU! All Utopias require the suppression of normal human ambitions and desires. This is why Socialism always ends in oceans of blood.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/02/13/hg-wells-nightmares-of-a-better-world/

  34. The power of the situation can lead people to conform, or go along with the group, even in the face of inaccurate information. Conformity to group norms is driven by two motivations, the desire to fit in and be liked and the desire to be accurate and gain information from the group. Authority figures also have influence over our behaviors, and many people become obedient and follow orders even if the orders are contrary to their personal values. Conformity to group pressures can also result in group think, or the faulty decision making process that results from cohesive group members trying to maintain group harmony. Group situations can improve human behavior through facilitating performance on easy tasks, but inhibiting performance on difficult tasks.

    Oh look…. it’s NTTL !

    1. Part of your thesis Polly?

      You don’t have to stay here if you don’t like us, but you have gone to extraordinary lengths to post here.

  35. Bonjour au monde nottleur.

    On QT last night, speaker after speaker kept blaming a rise in mental ill health and suicides in Scotland on poverty and drug addiction resulting from Conservative policy.

    I have a school photo of my father’s class circa 1930 where the feet of the boys in the front row are cut off. My father explained this was to hide the fact they didnt have any shoes. He also recollected other boys asking if they could have the core of his apple.

    THAT was poverty. Where were the mental illnesses and heroin addicts then? Indeed, the same could be observed of parts of C21 India and sub Saharan Africa.

    1. My first two years at primary school were in slippers. 1969. No fat kids. No mental health issues either.

    2. The boys were still asking for the core of our apples in the 1940s when I was at primary school. There was very little of the apple left when we handed it over.

    3. Cutting their feet off because they were poor seems unnecessarily harsh, Stormyknees. Or was that so the families didn’t eat the whole child at once?

    4. It’s an example of the ‘someone else must be to blame for my own deficiencies’ culture we have nowadays.

    5. Morning Bsk,
      316000 + up ✔s,
      Save us the core was a regular request, along with got any gum chum.
      Our gang scrumped to help survive, the “gang” them days had a
      different connotation.

    6. I’ve always eaten all of an apple, I like them and don’t like wasting any. Except the round bit at the top where pollution and spray residue sit. I’m even fond of the almond taste of the pips, caused I understand by their cyanic content. They don’t call me Dobbin for nothing.

  37. RBS to change its name to Natwest.[ BBC Radio 4 News] I wonder if it will relocate its Headquarters.

        1. It looks like it.
          I was going to write “joke” but it ranks surprisingly highly in UK and World terms.

      2. “Professor Patricia MacCormack:- Professor of Continental Philosophy. Areas of Expertise: Film, media and communication studies. Patricia is a researcher who has published in the areas of continental philosophy, feminism, queer theory, posthuman theory, horror film, body modification, animal rights/abolitionism, cinesexuality and ethics.

        PhD at Monash University, 2000. Thesis Title: Pleasure, Perversion and Death: Three Lines of Flight for the Viewing Body.”

        The fact that you can now call yourself “Professor” after such a meaningless Thesis is an indication of how far the education system has become a farce. We can all call ourselves Professors now by writing anything we wish on one of our hobbies. Or we could write our opinions on the TV series Poirot and award ourselves the same title.

        She is clearly is a student who has never grown up. The idea of working for a living scares the hell out of her. As a result, when her degree course finished she desperately flailed around to find something to do that avoided the world of work, and jumped into the fantasy factory of “Social Sciences.”

        Those people who take her seriously, and do not laugh her out of the room, are also guilty of trying to make the world a darker place. This female is no Professor in any realistic way, and ought to be doing something useful such as sweeping the streets. Although I am sure that this precious darling thinks that any work where you might perspire is beneath her.

        1. The thesis generally allows one the honorific Dr.

          The Professor title comes from the university.

          I’m reading Murray’s “The Madness of Crowds”, I wonder what he might think of her work.

          1. I had assumed that there was an educational ladder at the highest level of academia and only the “intellectual giants” who had passed beyond the Dr level, and had years of specialising in a “worthwhile” field, were allowed the honorific of “Professor” to be awarded. But having looked into it you are quite correct, it is just a title applied by an institution to anyone with a Masters degree, even if the field is a mickey mouse one. Such as the one this woman has chosen to specialise in.

            “Community colleges and career training centres may hire a professor with a master’s degree.”
            https://work.chron.com/minimum-qualifications-become-professor-1416.html

            I would maintain that the fantasy subject that she has studied has less relevance to the real world than a Poirot episode, where at least you can learn how to comport yourself in polite society, if you did not know how to. As well as how to avoid being caught in a complex murder plot. Which is a skill that you hope you never need.

          2. That’s an American site. I do recall an American being appointed to a professor’s post in a Russell group university before the committee realised he wasn’t what we would call a professor. He did naughty things on a train eventually which enabled his removal…

          3. Wherever that site is based, the idea that someone such as her should be allowed to call herself “Professor” does not sit well. If you are one of those people who thinks that a title should mean something anyway.

            Obviously our Honours system is exempt from that definition, as they hand out awards to any corrupt lackey who has been useful.

          4. It’s an arcane business.
            It used to be that the title went with “A Chair”, which was often funded by endowments and in the case of collegiate universities, such as Oxford, the Chair was attached to a specific college even though the subject could be studied by students across the university. On retirement one became an “Emeritus Professor” and in some cases, where a senior fellow had served a long and distinguished academic career, they could be given the honorific Professor Emeritus, even though they had never held a chair.
            The “reforms” of the Major and Blair years have diminshed the title in my view.

    2. “In her new book The Ahuman Manifesto, Professor Patricia MacCormack argues that the only way to prevent ecological disaster is to begin “gradually phasing out reproduction.””
      I her case I’d say why bother to do it gradually.

    3. “In her new book The Ahuman Manifesto, Professor Patricia MacCormack argues that the only way to prevent ecological disaster is to begin “gradually phasing out reproduction.”

      I see she is practising what she is preaching. After all, no man would want to f*ck that.

        1. The actress who played her in the 1960s TV series (Carolyn Jones) was a lot better looking than that hideous ‘Professor’.

  39. Has anyone else been listening to “How to argue with a racist” by Adam Rutherford? No shortage of straw men, non sequiturs and self-contradiction, but no sign of Ockham’s razor.

    2. It’s a guide dog. Heck, it’s a dog. They love going in cars.

      Is the driver against dogs because of his fancy car or against dogs because of his beard?

      If it’s because of his car, what a prat. Mongo regularly sits in the footwell of the Aston, even when he was poorly, that’s where he goes. It’s the footwell because he’s a big heffer and blocks line of sight even sat down, which he can’t do.

    1. Reminds me of the naval toast: “To our wives and sweethearts – and may the two never meet.”

    1. Head and shoulders the most necessary watch on this forum today, Ready Eddy.

      Why NoTTLers are ignoring it is beyond me. This man is not just speaking about the Demotwats in the US of A; he is talking about the intrinsic danger presented by the Left, worldwide!

      GET IT LISTENED TO AND UPVOTED!

      1. I showed it to my sister who has just retuned from Spain to live in the UK. It’s too hot for her!
        She couldn’t be bothered to watch it all. I think it’s part of the problem Grizzly. People think it’s imposing on the will.
        If you get this reply post it today you will probably have more luck than an apparent ‘new commer’.
        I’ve got two more in a similar vien to post later.
        One regarding the police in the UK.

        1. I shall certainly repost it, Ready Eddy, but there should be no reason why a sensible newcomer, such as yourself, shouldn’t be treated in the same way as an old hand. I will also make reference to the fact that it was you who brought it to my attention.

          1. I am flattered that you have not noticed Grizz. TB did when I told her not to take her dogs walking in the woods in the high winds and bad weather. I said hi to HL using the initial of her first name she picked it up immediately
            Perhaps i should have confessed straight away Grizz. I’m the old ECD. and previously Omargourd. I packed it in for a bit because I was avoiding all the Brexit nonsense and was being slightly and I thought unfairly harassed by certain members due to my punctuation and sometimes spelling errors. I had a TIA and it’s left me with a form of word blindness. It’s quite common when part of the brain dies because of a clot. But unlike many people who have had strokes, I was very lucky.
            Love this site. Apart from driving through a university town or city it’s closest thing I have had to an education.
            Cheers.

  46. Are Judges to Political

    We had a few days ago judges blocking the perfectly legal deportation of foreign migrants who had committed serious criminal offences

    The excuse the judges came up with for blocking the deportation of some was because they had a mobile phone with an O2 SIM and that the local O2 mast had been down for a few days. The judges made no mention that they had free access to landlines and the internet and could request to see a lawyer by approaching a member of staff

    1. Perhaps better than the other candidate. But not smart enough to make any dent in the SNP at Holyrood.

    1. The wisdom of the Squires of the hyped News is equal to the sons of the squires with or without their rides

          3. I was thinking more of the episode when he was playing in the Bath and ejaculated:
            ‘Eureka!”

      3. Jbf,
        316000 + up ✔s,
        Act 1 scene 1,
        Don’t tell me johnson is claiming that as his words, me thinking he was more Churchillian.

    2. This is Not The Telegraph Letters, it isn’t Not The Guardian Drivel:

      Police compared to Stasi and Gestapo by judge as he rules they interfered in freedom of speech by investigating ‘non crime’ trans tweet

      Judge says that the effect of police turning up at Mr Miller’s workplace “because of his political opinions must not be underestimated”.

      Humberside Police unlawfully interfered with a man’s right to freedom of expression by turning up at his place of work over his allegedly “transphobic” tweets, the High Court has ruled.

      Former police officer Harry Miller, 54, who founded the campaign group Fair Cop, said the police’s actions had a “substantial chilling effect” on his right to free speech.

      Mr Miller, who is from Lincolnshire, claims an officer told him that he had not committed a crime, but that his tweeting was being recorded as a “hate incident”. The College of Policing’s guidance defines a hate incident as “any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender”. In a ruling on Friday, the High Court in London found Humberside Police’s actions were a “disproportionate interference” with Mr Miller’s right to freedom of expression.

      But Mr Justice Julian Knowles rejected a wider challenge to the lawfulness of the College of Police guidance, ruling that it “serves legitimate purposes and is not disproportionate”. The judge said: “The claimants’ tweets were lawful and there was not the slightest risk that he would commit a criminal offence by continuing to tweet. “I find the combination of the police visiting the claimant’s place of work, and their subsequent statements in relation to the possibility of prosecution, were a disproportionate interference with the claimant’s right to freedom of expression because of their potential chilling effect.”

      At a hearing in November, Mr Miller’s barrister Ian Wise QC said his client was “deeply concerned” about proposed reforms to the law on gender recognition and had used Twitter to “engage in debate about transgender issues”.

      He argued that Humberside Police, following the College of Policing’s guidance, had sought to “dissuade him (Mr Miller) from expressing himself on such issues in the future”, which he said was “contrary to his fundamental right to freedom of expression”.

      The judge said Mr Miller strongly denies being prejudiced against transgender people, and regards himself as taking part in the “ongoing debate” about reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, which the Government consulted on in 2018.

      The judge added that the effect of the police turning up at Mr Miller’s place of work “because of his political opinions must not be underestimated”.

      He continued: “To do so would be to undervalue a cardinal democratic freedom. In this country we have never had a Cheka, a Gestapo or a Stasi. We have never lived in an Orwellian society.” In his judgment, Mr Justice Julian Knowles stated: “I conclude that the police left the claimant with the clear belief that he was being warned by them to desist from posting further tweets on transgender matters even if they did not directly warn him in terms. “In other words, I conclude that the police’s actions led him, reasonably, to believe that he was being warned not to exercise his right to freedom of expression about transgender issues on pain of potential criminal prosecution.”

      Rejecting Mr Miller’s challenge to the College of Police guidance itself, the judge said he was “satisfied that the aims and objectives of (the guidance) justify the limitation it imposes on freedom of speech”. Mr Justice Knowles said the guidance pursued “extremely important” aims, including “preventing, or taking steps to counter, hate crime and hate incidents” and preventing “the escalation of hate-based hostility from low-level non-criminal activity to criminal activity”.

      The judge has granted Mr Miller permission to appeal against his ruling on the lawfulness of the College of Police’s guidance. Ian Wise QC, representing Mr Miller, asked the court to grant a “leapfrog” certificate to allow the case to go straight to the Supreme Court. Jonathan Auburn, for the College of Police, agreed that the case was suitable to go directly to the UK’s highest court. Mr Justice Knowles granted permission for the case to “leapfrog” to the Supreme Court, subject to that court’s permission.

      In a statement, Mr Miller’s solicitor Paul Conrathe from Sinclairslaw said: “We welcome today’s judgment, which is a vindication of Mr Miller’s actions in posting tweets that were critical of transgender ideology and practice.

      “It is a strong warning to local police forces not to interfere with people’s free speech rights on matters of significant controversy.

      “Today, the judge held that it is entirely acceptable to hold the view and communicate that a trans woman is not a woman. That view is not hateful, transphobic or unlawful.” Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice after the ruling, Mr Miller said: “Mr Justice Knowles was very clear – we have never had a Gestapo or a Stasi in Great Britain.

      “Well, the actions of Humberside Police came way too close for comfort. This is a watershed moment for liberty: the police were wrong to visit my workplace, wrong to ‘check my thinking’.”

      Holding a copy of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, he added: “I’m going to continue tweeting, I’m going to continue campaigning and I’m going to continue standing with women in order to secure their sex-based rights.

      “This judgment today has told us that we can do that and, if the police come knocking, say: ‘Miller v Humberside Police, bugger off!”’

      In a statement, Deputy Chief Constable Bernie O’Reilly, executive director at the College of Policing, said: “It is pleasing that today’s judgment found that the College of Policing’s guidance on the recording of non-crime hate incidents is both lawful and extremely important in protecting people. “Policing’s position is clear – we want everyone to feel able to express opinions as passionately as they wish without breaking the law.” He added: “Our guidance is about protecting people because of who they are and we know this is an area where people may be reluctant to report things to us because of the very personal nature of what they experience or perceive. “In policing we don’t always get things right and there will of course be some learning following today’s judgment.”

      1. 316ooo + up ✔s,
        Are you disagreeing with Gerard Battens take on the
        issue then ?
        The guardian is just another odious media outlet among them all.

    1. I do wonder why yer ferriner women persist in wearing national dress while the males have clearly given up and gone down the cultural appropriation route.

      1. ‘God rest ye merry Gentlemen.
        Let nothing ye dismay……..’

        Grizzly, I have no idea why, when reading your post,
        this should spring to mind!!……but it did!

        1. You’re not alone, Garlands.

          I often notice some weird association in things I see and that sets me off in song. :•)

    4. Closer to home, the Skye Bridge, best to drive quickly, with eyes closed, and not listen to screaming from passengershttps://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F07%2F30%2F97%2F073097a80ba32c26061960c9dabfe6ac.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F256071928783052799%2F&tbnid=2xUUmIR33UOXuM&vet=12ahUKEwjYw4LvrtHnAhWQ_IUKHfLpB6UQMygXegQIARBP..i&docid=YhXe5ldSFtv8eM&w=346&h=146&q=skye%20bridge&client=safari&ved=2ahUKEwjYw4LvrtHnAhWQ_IUKHfLpB6UQMygXegQIARBP

  52. Transparency Fears As UK Holds Secret Trade Talks With Unnamed Countries

    Not really the sort of thing you can put in the public domain during the early stages

    Negotiators have held trade talks with at least one unknown country in total secrecy, it has been claimed.

    The news emerged during a tribunal in central London, where campaign group Global Justice Now is challenging the information watchdog to order ministers to publish data about government trade operations.

    During the hearing, government lawyers disclosed that some preliminary trade talks have not been made public as they were deemed too sensitive for public consumption, director Nick Dearden and Global Justice Now’s legal team have said.

    It comes amid widespread concern that public services, such as the NHS and the BBC, and consumer standards could be on the table.

    1. Global Justice Now obviously don’t work for a living -at least in the private sector, where secret negotiations are the norm.

    1. David Banks: “The judge says a course of action open to the police would have been to take no further action in relation to the tweets and simply advise Mrs B not to read any more of them.”

      Back in my time this is precisely what would have happened. Moreover, the complainant would have heard some straight (unambiguous) talking from the officer.

    2. Thank goodness there is a Judge with some common sense. About time.

      Afternoon all. Hope all are well.

    3. Rik,
      I just finished reading a fantastic book. If you like military space opera it’s one for you. It’s ‘On Basilisk Station by David Weber.

      you can get it on Amazon.

          2. Thanks but i have 45 of his books stacked on my kindle. I’ll read those then go and steal the rest. :o)

  54. RBS to stop lending to coal firms without a ‘credible’ climate plan
    RBS has confirmed that it will stop lending and underwriting to companies that have more than 15% of their activities related to coal “unless they have a credible transition plan in line with the Paris Agreement in place by end of 2021”.

    2. Good job they aren’t burning any coal in China or India.

      The world would be a brighter, cleaner place if only we in Britain closed down the tiny remnants of our coal industry and the rest of the world carried on as they always do. They won’t be happy until they’ve bankrupted us.

      1. The only coal workings in the UK are a few small open cast mines but the ER types would be keen to close them down and we then import the coal from China .Madness but thats the ER types all over

        2. There are still some small drift mines in South Wales – they mine anthracite, a smokeless fuel, which commands higher prices than the normal household coal.

          2. Lots of coal still burned in Scotland – vast tracts of Scotland have no gas supply because of remoteness & mountains. Mains electricity only made it to many parts in the 50 & 60s.
            Oil, bottle gas & coal are the options.
            Coal is easy to stock up in the late summer for the whole winter – unlike bottle gas & oil.

          3. That’s exactly what I do; I buy my winter fuel supply at summer prices and because I buy in bulk, I get a good discount.

  55. I don’t know whether Sajid Javid’s storming out of No. 11 is a good or a bad thing.

    Is it worse to have him inside the tent pissing out, or outside the tent pissing in?

    [Paraphrasing Lyndon B Johnson’s assessment of J. Edgar Hoover, when he installed him as Director-for-Life of the FBI]

  56. Will it be Sunak the spendaholic? I rather doubt it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/02/14/will-sunak-spendaholic-rather-doubt/

    Sunak, well-regarded in the Treasury, is not obviously about to embark on some kind of unconstrained, Trump-like tax cutting, spending spree.
    There is little evidence to suggest that Sunak will be any less fiscally hawkish than his predecessor

    Manifesto commitments are there to be broken, but to see them questioned just two months into Boris Johnson’s new Government takes some beating.

    Almost as unprecedented, it might be said, as making your chancellor an offer he couldn’t accept just a month before his first Budget, and only weeks after saying he was the only member of the Cabinet who was entirely safe in his job. This at least confirms the old joke about football managers. You know they are about to be fired when the chairman expresses complete confidence in their continued stewardship.

    1. Confirming Jeremy Warner’s ignorant remainer status as a total prat. That article is a disgrace. I assume he’s lost the sources who used to give him his stories.

      1. ‘I’m going to give you an absolutely categorical assurance that I will keep Sajid Javid as my chancellor. How about that?

        ‘I think he’s a great guy and I think he is doing a fantastic job and I’m proud to count him as a colleague.’

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7697671/Boris-Johnson-vows-Sajid-Javid-Chancellor-wins-December-12.html

        ‘I’m going to give you an absolute categorical assurance that Brexit means Brexit’ (or something like that)

        You can count on Boris Johnson!

        1. An article from November 2019. Things have moved on a lot since then, much to the annoyance of the old MSM people.

  57. George Soros strongly supports internet censorship so the British online harms bill should come as no surprise.

    After all, George self admittedly “leverages” the government and enters “strong relationships with politicians and officials” via his “leveraging” operation Open Society on Millbank, London SW1.

    The draconion fines for not complying with draconian government censorship policy probably means no more social media as we know it in the UK.

    This means no more criticism of George Soros and his link up with government, and no more fear of exposure for politicians.

    What’s not to like ?

    1. I had thought when you came back, that you’d started to talk rationally about things of current interest but I see that you’re back to parroting the snot-rag platitudes over and over again, ad nauseum. Well it makes me sick so you’re back to being blocked.

      1. If you think there’s an error in my post, please point it out.

        Open Society admits to “leveraging” policy and “forming strong relationships with politicians and officials”.

        It’s all there on the website !

      1. The online harms legislation might well mean some social media companies withdrawing from Britain because the fines are too colossal to risk. So maybe no more NTTL.

  58. Blocking..

    One of the worst features on Disqus.

    It enables people to live in ignorance.

    See below !

    1. If I block you, all I’m blocking out is your pathetic and terminally irritating ignorance.

      This leaves me free to read the posts of those with intelligence unencumbered by dross.

  59. The Queen has held an audience with the new Russian ambassador to the UK. 14 February 2020

    Charlie Rowley and his partner Dawn Sturgess fell ill in nearby Amesbury months after the Skripal incident, and Ms. Sturgess later died.

    She had come into contact with a perfume bottle believed to have been used in the attack on the Skripals and then discarded.

    The appointment of a new Russian Ambassador is not all that important to the UK in itself, we do little business with them and contrary to the assertions of the British Government they pose no direct threat to the UK’s security.

    There is no mention of this presentation of credentials in the MSM. It has been restricted to the likes of the Richmond and Twickenham Times and the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald, a snub of a peculiarly British nature though they have seen fit to include the ludicrous assertions about the death of Dawn Sturgess in both accounts.

    https://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/national/18233578.queen-holds-audience-russian-ambassador/

      1. Quite good, although there are a few errors. For example, he claims that if wind turbines were 100% efficient they would capture all the kinetic energy of the wind, so they would stop working. However, he ignores the fact that the air that is stopped by the turbines is replaced by more wind.

        1. If I recall, wind turbines extract max 5% of the energy in the wind. So, if the turbines are in ranks, the effectiveness reduces as you get further downwind.

          1. Which is why they have to put them about 500m apart, so the downwind turbines don’t suffer too much from the ‘dirty’ turbulent flow from the upwind ones.

    2. Would our government take any notice of science based truths, only when if it suits their agenda, and this certainly does not.

    3. Albus Dumbledore created a brilliant energy policy. It worked perfectly in Harry Potter, so Boris must have copied it.

        1. Who? Good afternoon to you anyway, sosraboc. Delighted to meet you on this superb online forum.

  61. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/13/uk-brexit-needs-chancellor-unafraid-challenge-economic-orthodoxies/

    Post-Brexit Chancellor needs to be unafraid to challenge the Treasury by Annunziata Rees-Mogg

    Has Annunziata Rees Mogg changed her name to Delilah or Jezebel? She should never be forgiven for her treachery to TBP and her betrayal of Nigel Farage.

    Boris Johnson is too irresponsible, arrogant, erratic and vain to wield such a large majority.

    It was a tragedy that Nigel Farage agreed to TBP standing down in Conservative held seats – he should have held out for a pact which gave him the chance of winning enough seats in Parliament to make sure Johnson did not renege on Brexit as I fear the unfettered prime minister is going to do.

    1. A first-time Conservative voter but long-term EU-realist northener I know well came out with the usual “Vote for Nigel, get Jeremy”. I’d have taken the chance of a few more Labour MPs if it also meant a phalanx of true Brexiteers in the HoC.

    2. Morning R,
      316000 + up ✔s,
      The “nige” is well versed in treachery
      there are 30000 + who would bear witness to that FACT.
      Why did he stand down half the supposedly opposition force, IMB it was orchestrated that way.
      Stood the group down has he not ?
      Where are the foot grippers, where is the fire ? all I can see is a bloody great motionless train, heading for a
      bridge with a golden trough running alongside the whole route.
      On the horizon a mountain of burning cash.
      Surely we have a PM showing as a beacon for the urgent need to help those with mental health issues.
      Keep in mind we are a nuclear nation.

      1. Good morning Ogga

        Unlike you I am far more interested in a proper Brexit than in any political party.

        Your hatred and resentment of Nigel Farage are clearly far greater than your desire for Britain to have a Brexit which sets the country free from the EU yoke. Dare I suggest that I think you are focusing on the wrong thing?

        1. R,
          316000 + up ✔s,
          You still have freedom of speech so use it while you can.
          I have no hatred of anyone, intense dislike yes, hatred no.
          You refuse as with many to explain the “nige” rant.
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc7iuUHk3Yk
          You do tend at times to go into straw clutching mode instead of facing facts.
          The “nige” condemned himself.
          I repeat where is “nige” currently ?
          where is the brexit group ?
          who is holding the tory tootsies to the fire ?
          who has extinguished the fire ?

          PS,
          I was / am a supporter / member of UKIP long term,all the while the lab/lib/con supporter / members were trying their best to hand these Isles over to an alien odious criminal cartel, please keep that in mind.

          2. R,
            316000 + up ✔s,
            I recognise theses issues for what they are and not for what peoples wish they were.
            This ain’t no bloody game of rugger this is deceiving & misleading the peoples time & again.
            Please explain the “nige”rant, did you listen to it ,or did you kick the ships cat out of straw clutching frustration ?
            Please answer as to,
            Where is “nige ?
            Where is the brexit group ?
            Where are the tory foot grippers ?
            Where has the bloody fire gone ?

          3. Your constant inane posting of this video—day in, day out—is the mark of an imbecile. You need treatment.

            If I get banned from this forum for speaking the truth, then ç’est la vie!

          5. As with your constant lab/lib/con voting pattern condoning mass treachery.
            🎵So you met someone who set you back on your heels, goody,goody🎵

    1. Never has been recognized in UK law. I guess this case was to try to get the law to recognize a Sharia marraiage

        1. No religious marriages are recognized in English & Welsh law

          Basic requirement below but a number of other things also need to be complied with

          The person marrying the couple must be registered by the Registrar General. That is, they must be a superintendent registrar. Otherwise if someone else conducts the ceremony then the registrar must be available to sign the register.

          There are certain people that must be present to sign the marriage register. These include both partners, two witnesses (who must be over the age of 16), the person who is registering the marriage and – if different – the person who conducted the ceremony.

          1. Not quite right Bill. A C of E marriage is recognised in law because, as you point out, the vicar is a qualified registrar. If that’s not the case are you going write to The Queen and Prince Philip that they aren’t married after all. 🙂

          2. Yes because they are legally recognized as a Registrar and it i the signing of the civil register that makes the marriage legal

    3. Another common myth is the concept of a Common Law Wife. There is no such thing in law as a Common Law Wife

      1. They may be sensing a certain dénouement is in the air… a hint of an early change of direction. Who would have thought Javid would return so early to the back benches, whatever the circumstances?

  64. More amusement from the world of politics.
    Sex scandal forces Emmanuel Macron’s closest lieutenant to scrap bid to become Paris mayor

    Hip, hip… hypocrisy

    Benjamin Griveaux withdrew his candidacy after an obscene video emerged showing the married father-of-two pleasuring himself while ‘sexting’ a young woman.
    Explicit messages between the two have also been published and contrasted with Griveaux’s speeches about family values.

    Macron certainly chooses well.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8003535/Emmanuel-Macrons-candidate-Paris-mayor-quits-sex-scandal.html

    2. What IS it with these people?
      I always remember Rod Liddle’s article on the Brooks Newmark incident.
      His vision of cyber private parts whizzing around in the atmosphere had me in stitches.

  65. Amsterdam could ban tourists from buying cannabis

    Amsterdam could ban tourists from buying cannabis under strict new rules aimed at cleaning up the Dutch city’s overcrowded red light district.
    Femke Halsema, the mayor of Amsterdam, is understood to be investigating measures to deter tourists from overcrowding the canal-side streets of the city’s historic heart, which includes the red light district.

    The city’s government has also announced a ban on guided tours of the red light district in a bid to tackle over-tourism and to clean up and protect workers in the red light district, which is a magnet for rowdy visitors.
    Sex workers are regularly abused and photographed without their consent by members of tour groups, the city said.

    Victor Everhardt, Amsterdam deputy mayor, said in a statement: “It is disrespectful to treat sex workers as a tourist attraction.”

    Well perhaps if they did not sit in a window half naked it would not happen

    1. Unfortunately, they’ll probabky allow it again as soon as the lost tourism revenue is noticed.

    2. MB was most impressed by the ‘window displays’.
      Because they used the same lighting as he uses to keep his lizards warm. 🙂

    1. Afternoon Rik,
      316000 +up ✔s,
      Was it not covered up successfully for 16 plus years until along came the Jay report.

        1. Afternoon Bsk,
          My uptick count Jan 10 approx, as I posted submitting to some twisted twat is not an option, do that & it encourages them ,it,whatever, to tamper with other parts of a post / comment IMO.

        2. Cos someone else is busily removing everyone’s upvotes.
          I’ve lost 4-5 thousand since last week, just as the counts were starting to increase again. Meanwhile, Disqus ” is looking into it. It’s a known issue.”

    1. Fracking here has opened up huge reserves of natural gas. Old coal power stations are either being converted, or replaced with gas fired units; running heavy trucks and buses on LNG/LPG is also pretty common here. And of course it’s a much cleaner fuel than any of the petroleum products.

    2. But….but…but….Orange Man Bad!!

      Democrats wake up every morning just knowing Trump did something terrible….and they spend the rest of the day trying to find out what it was.

    2. I’m sorry Conners, I dont think Valentine’s Day is a general theme day, like Christmas or New Year. I think it is a wish to be directed at a specific person.
      It’s much like saying Happy Mothering Sunday or Happy Stormy’s Birthday to everyone on a certain date in January.

      Sorry to be a party pooper.

      1. It’s a saint’s day. I could say Happy St David’s Day, Happy St Patrick’s Day, Happy St Andrew’s Day – although I’d be lynched if I said Happy St George’s Day 🙂

        1. I shall say HAPPY ST GEORGE’S DAY Long and LOUD! [But not until April 23].🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

        1. But that’s my point PT. Its not the day that should be celebrated, but the actions of one’s beloved.

        2. But that’s my point PT. Its not the day per se that should be celebrated, but the actions of one’s beloved.

          Incidentally, I had a bunch of beautiful roses from Mr Knees, TVM.

      4. The sad thing is that he used to be very funny until he failed to understand that an effective satirist cannot allow his own opinions to corrupt his satire or its objectivity will be lost. Hislop is now incapable of not being partisan.

        Bercow and Hislop have a lot in common. As well as their exceptionally small stature they are incapable of remaining neutral when they should do so.

    1. It’s the translator, Geremie R. Barmé who has the superb command of English – but an interesting read nonetheless. You don’t often hear what people really think in such a totalitarian state.

    2. This quote is so appropriate to so many countries besides China: “Only thieves nurtured at home can truly despoil a homeland.”

    1. It was the Late Humphrey Littleton who pointed out the Northern women mindful of the historical rapes by the Vikings had a local expression about ‘handy’ men that they”should be bloody well hung like a Norse”

      1. Reminds me of the first time I went to the Jorvik Centre with my mother. Mum read the explanation above the first exhibit and said, “Ooo rape and pillage, I’ll ‘ave some of that”, to which the gallery attendant responded “I’m sorry Madam, we’re out of rape and pillage today”.

      1. Thank you sweetie they smell divine……xx

        roses are red
        violets are blue
        I’m off to tennis
        Luv you too….

  75. “The Met Office has predicted 1,200-mile wide Storm Dennis will bring a month of rainfall in just 24 hours when it hits the UK tomorrow.”

    In my locality as at 13th February , we’ve already received 210% of our average monthly rainfall for the whole of February…. 🙁

    1. Oh joy. 😕

      And we’ve just had our roof repaired after some times were blown off by last weekend’s storm

      1. Don’t wish to be a harbinger of bad news but the depression heading our way, at a forecast 921 Mb, is even lower than the one that hit last week 🙁

        1. I already have a leak in the bay window of my dining room. There seems little point in having it fixed in case Dennis takes the entire roof covering off.

          1. We had a large ornamental tree blown down – as in uprooted, plus about three trees in tubs overturned.
            The tree surgeon is coming next week to slice and dice and also trim some other trees that are getting leggy. The trees in tubs we’ve left lying down as they will only blow over again. We turn them every so often so they don’t develop ‘bedsores’.

        2. At least it wasn’t too expensive to fix, the falling tiles didn’t damage anything, and the roofer fixed it the morning after we’d called him. And we still have his number.
          But we’ll move the cars well away from the roof….just in case.

    2. Meanwhile, we are having another very mild winter – warmest winters here on record have been the last four years. What’s weirder is that our last few summers have also been milder (i.e. cooler) than usual. No 100°F days, which we used to regularly get back to back in midsummer – and no 0°F winter weather either. So far this winter, only a couple of below freezing days, though it gets a bit colder at night.

      It’s yer global warmin’, innit?

      1. Yes and as a result I’m using much less gas to heat the house and all the extra CO2 is great for food crops. I call that a Win Win!

      2. Warm winter was yesterday and tomorrow (literally). I between we have a nice minus 20C day.

        It actually doesn’t feel much worse than the bitterly damp and windy conditions in England this past week.

    1. Fact corner:

      This song was written in the 1960s by Reg Presley, lead vocalist of The Troggs, whose band had a hit with it. The Troggs disbanded years later and its former members took up other jobs.

      After the song was chosen to be used in the film Four Weddings And A Funeral in 1994, using this version recorded by Wet Wet Wet, Reg Presley became a millionaire overnight when royalty cheques started dropping through his letter box.

      He made more money as a result of this than he ever did with The Troggs.

      I still prefer The Troggs’ original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roLTXcTYxds

      2. Splendid!!!!…..love that very much. Strangely, I also loved Bill Nighy’s take on it in Love Actually. I howled with laughter. But love this, thanks Grizz….xx

      3. So do I, but that Reg is a bit of a strange one, if I recall correctly.

        Didn’t he use the money to research crop circles to find out what the aliens who made them were up to and if it wasn’t aliens, which supernatural force could be behind them? It never seemed to occur to him that the answer just might be a bunch of students with a string and a plank.

      4. Grizz my dear friend…hubby just finished making our special meal so I will come back and read it all in a bit…..thank you!!

    1. As they are doing precious little about it except paying lip service, there is one only conclusion to be drawn: they do not care if we all catch this virus and possibly that is what they want.

  79. Dramatic picture shows collapsed Clacton pier

    A section of the historic Clacton pier has collapsed into the sea during structural refurbishment work. Passers-by snapped photos of the damaged pier, which dates back to 1871, after part of the structure fell into the North Sea this morning.

    A small section of the outside ride deck collapsed while concrete was being poured ahead of the installation of a new rollercoaster, at an area which was already closed off to the public.

    The pier said its aim was to ensure that the wet concrete being laid would not result in undue structural movement to the existing concrete deck.
    Pier director Billy Ball said that as this was taking place, excess vertical movement of the piles caused four bays of the existing slab to fail.
    “This was being carried out under controlled conditions at a time when the tide was up and no one was under the pier,” he said.

    “Site personnel were carefully monitoring the pouring of the concrete when the collapse happened, and everyone was evacuated from that particular area which is now fenced off.”

    Mr Ball added that similar tried and tested methods have taken place in other areas of the pier over the past 10 years that it has been in his family’s ownership.

    Nigel Brown, communications manager for Clacton Pier said: “The collapse is most likely going to impact on the timetable for opening the Looping Star but it is too early to say by how much.
    “The pier remains open now and we are still expecting a limited number of rides to open on Monday.”
    The pier was set to open its rides tomorrow, however it announced this would not be happening due to Storm Dennis which is expected to bring strong winds to the county.
    The damaged area of the pier will be entirely fenced off to the public when the rides reopen.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e73ffe7c87cde6c05dd60dd97cba0a70842f67118276414754693d3deb98d4ef.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/847220a3808b2387c2e5b1b96c0d89bca54e212cee15325da5662c725f16e89c.jpg

          5. A grid reference can contain six digits in each dimension..The two letters you describe are known as Index Letters. They divide the grid into squares 100km x 100km. However, if you look at the edge of a 1:50000 Landranger map, you will see that the you will see a further digit preceding the more familiar grid numbering system (in blod) and another three digits ‘000’ following thus a grid reference could go down to one metre accuracy.See picture.

            This effectively ‘zooms out’ the grid to 1000 km squares, however, the index letters are more convenient for normal use in order to ‘narrow it down’

            A map reference can thus contain six digits as both eastings and northings, however, in practical terms for boots-on-the-ground navigation, the maps do not yield this degree of accuracy. and such precise references can only be determined by survey equipment or satellites.

            Trying to upload picture, but Disqus in not playing.

      2. Dunno, but it should be famous for its talking pier.

        The pier said its aim was to ensure that the wet concrete being laid would not result in undue structural movement to the existing concrete deck.

  80. A former police officer’s allegedly transphobic tweets were lawful, the High Court has ruled.
    Harry Miller, from Lincolnshire, was contacted by Humberside Police in January last year after a complaint about his tweets.
    He was told he had not committed a crime, but it would be recorded as a “hate incident”.
    The court found the force’s actions were a “disproportionate interference” on his right to freedom of expression.
    Mr Miller, 54, also launched a wider challenge against the lawfulness of College of Policing guidelines on hate crimes.
    These define a hate incident as “any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender”.
    Mr Justice Julian Knowles rejected Mr Miller’s challenge against the guidelines, ruling they “serve legitimate purposes and [are] not disproportionate”.
    Mr Miller posted a number of tweets between November 2018 and January 2019 about transgender issues as part of the debate about reforming the Gender Recognition Act 2004.”

    Mr Miller is hereby awarded a Hereward the Wake Medal

    1. Hmm He wins but the guidelines are still in place to harrass anyone not as brave or aware as Harry
      Well done that man but only half a victory I fear

  81. I shall bid you farewell, gentles all. I am off to have something warm and comforting to eat on this cold and windy evening.

  83. German economy barely grows at end of 2019

    The German economy had another very weak three months at the end of last year, according to official figures.
    Gross domestic product (GDP), the total production of goods and services, was almost unchanged from the previous quarter.
    Germany is very exposed to the tensions in international trade, and the weak new figures partly reflect a fall in overseas exports.
    Compared with the same period in 2018, GDP was higher by just 0.4%.

    Although there was some expansion, growth was reported at 0.0% when rounded to one decimal place by the German statistics office.
    The sluggish performance was down partly to a decline in exports.

    Investment in machinery and equipment was also “down considerably” between October and December.

    One factor that is likely to weigh on manufacturing firms when considering whether to invest is what sort of barriers they will face which could make it more difficult to sell their goods abroad.

    Exporting really matters to German industry.
    The country is the third-largest exporter of goods after the United States and China, which are both much larger economies.

  84. Mum sobs ‘we have nothing’ as family-of-six booted out of home after 17 years

    A family-of-six say they have been split up and made homeless after they were “unlawfully evicted” from their council home of 17 years.
    Parents Bryn and Leigh Davies and their four children were living in a bungalow at a school where he once worked as a resident caretaker.
    But they claim they were thrown out by Hertfordshire County Council and given just an hour to pack a few essentials to take to a hotel where they were crammed into two rooms.

    Well no they were not illegally evicted. They were living there illegally. It has been dragging on for years and had gone as far as the supreme court. Why ? Who knows I guess lawyers have to make money. I assume the few hours notice was the time the bailiffs gave them to leave

  85. Boy sentenced for killing man in Bristol bike dispute

    Who knows why young people behave like this . I suspect No discipline in the home or School plays a part as Bristol is a place where lot of drug and alcohol abuse takes place so that may play a part. The sentence is far to low at 4 1/2 years he will probably be out i under two years as he will probably only serve half the sentence and as the charge was originally murder he would most likely have been held o remand so that time comes off as well

    A 15-year-old boy who stabbed a man to death in “cold blood” in a dispute over a bicycle has been sentenced.
    Darren Edginton, 39, died on 21 June in the St Pauls area of Bristol after suffering a single stab wound to the chest.
    The boy, who was 14 when he attacked Mr Edginton, had denied murder but was convicted of his manslaughter.
    The teenager, who cannot be named, was sentenced to four and a half years in youth detention.
    A jury at Bristol Crown Court acquitted the boy of murdering Mr Edginton during a trial last year.

  87. Quorn forced to adapt to ‘unprecedented demand’ for plant-based products after record Veganuary sales

    How anyone can eat it beats me. It is horrible. Still everyone to their own. Do they really like it or do they just make out they do. It is highly debatable it is healthy. The basic Quorn might be but all the artifical flavourings and addatives added are not

    Today, Quorn is still focused on healthy eating, but the environment might be the company’s boldest concern – as it is with so many British consumers in 2020

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/foodanddrink/foodnews/quorn-forced-to-adapt-to-unprecedented-demand-for-plant-based-products-after-record-veganuary-sales/ar-BB100D0d?ocid=spartandhp

    1. Processed foods of this kind must have a far larger carbon footprint than grass fed meat reared locally?

      1. Quorn is pretty tasteless and has a strange texture. It was developed as an animal feed but proved to be to expensive for that. It is a very artificial product he product is primarily made from an edible fungus – known as mycoprotein. The mycoprotein makes up around 92 per cent of the Quorn. many consumers claim to have experienced symptoms such as nausea and allergic reactions from mycoprotein products. The Quorn website states that “people who are known to have an adverse reaction to fungi should avoid Mycoprotein.” All sorts of other things are added in trace amounts but are not listed in the ingrediants

        Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

        Energy 393 kJ (94 kcal)

        Carbohydrates 4.5 g

        Sugars 0.6g

        Dietary fibre 6.0 g

        Fat 2 g

        Saturated 0.5 g

        Protein 14.5 g

        Tryptophan0.18 g

        Threonine 0.61 g

        Isoleucine 0.57 g

        Leucine 0.95 g

        Lysine 0.91 g

        Methionine 0.23 g

        Phenylalanine 0.54 g

        Valine 0.60 g

        Histidine 0.39 g

  88. Almond milk: quite good for you – very bad for the planet

    Almond Mil contains about 20% Almonds. The Calcium claim means nothing really. It does have slightly more Calcium than cows milk but the difference is insignificant. Almond though need huge amounts of water plus water is added to the milk. In cows milk the water is there naturally

    Almond milk has become a staple in most healthy households-and for good reason. It has more calcium that cow’s milk and is a delicious dairy-free drink. But most of us assume that because ‘almond’ is in the name, we’re also reaping the heart healthy benefits of the nut. But a new lawsuit claims there may not actually be enough almonds in the drink to actually make that difference

      1. With great difficulty

        All sorts of claims are made about none milk alternatives such as Almond Milk. They are though no healthier than cows milk

    2. But cattle would have to drink large quantities of water when their bodies are manufacturing milk, though not necessarily spring water…. I suppose rainwater from a trough is a cow’s source – still it has to come from somewhere and that which is taken from a trough does not filter through into the natural system.

    3. Almonds grow on trees. All trees need huge amounts of water. To convert carbon dioxide into wood, they need water, the excess of which is then transpired through the leaves, goes into the atmosphere and eventually comes down as rain. Water vapour from tree leaves reduce drought stress on other plants, and sweeten the air for animals.

      I am therefore confused how almonds are “very bad for the planet”.

      Milk produced from cows kept indoors in huge sheds, fed on soya grown on cleared rainforest, and the slurry gathered into pits and released into water courses is indeed very bad for the planet. Milk produced from cows free to graze in fields bordered by stockproof hedges and the manure spread around arable land nearby is not very bad for the planet.

      A byproduct of cow milk production is beef, where the same reservations over husbandry apply, I therefore boycott all beef produced in Brazil, and pay the extra for corned beef sourced in the UK and available at the moment in Tesco and Aldi.

      1. The slurry stored in tanks is not released into watercourses in the UK. There are strict controls now for how slurry is spread to avoid the slurry contaminating water courses. The same controls apply to the spreading of pig slurry.

        1. Indeed. I was referring to common practice in America, and explains why I am happy to enjoy British milk and British beef.

      2. Logging

        Logging is believed to be the second largest cause of deforestation. Timber companies cut down huge trees such as mahogany and teak and sell them to other countries to make furniture. Smaller trees are often used for the production of charcoal. Vast areas of rainforest are cut in one go (clear felling) and the most valuable trees are selected for timber, leaving the others for wood chipping. The roads that are created in order to cut and remove the timber often lead to further damage: see the effect of forest roads under “Oil Companies”.

        Unsustainable agriculture

        Much of the fruit, cereals and pulses we buy from tropical countries have been grown in areas where tropical rainforests once thrived. The forests are cut down to make way for vast plantations where products such as bananas, palm oil, pineapple, sugar cane, tea and coffee are grown. As with cattle ranching, the soil will not sustain crops for long, and after a few years the farmers have to cut down more rainforest for new plantations

        Mining

        The demand for minerals and metals such as oil, aluminium, copper, gold and diamonds mean that rainforests are destroyed to access the ground below. Developed nations relentlessly demand minerals and metals such as oil, aluminium, copper, gold and diamonds, which are often found in the ground below rainforests. The forest therefore has to be removed in order to extract them. Poisonous chemicals are sometimes used to separate the waste from the minerals, for example mercury, which is used to separate gold from the soil and debris with which it is mixed. These chemicals often end up in rivers, polluting water supplies which local people depend on, killing fish and affecting the river’s .

        Oil companies

        Rainforests are seriously affected by oil companies searching for new oil deposits. Often large roads are built through untouched forests in order to build pipelines and extract the oil. This encourages settlers to move into previously pristine forests and start slash-and-burn farming or cutting more timber to sell or to produce charcoal. Once established, the oil pipelines which transport the oil sometimes rupture, spouting gallons of oil into the surrounding forest, killing wildlife and contaminating the water supplies of local villages.

        Dams

        The World Bank and large companies invest money in developing countries to build dams for the generation of electricity. This is often viewed as renewable ‘clean’ energy, but it can involve flooding vast areas of rainforest. Dams built in rainforest areas often have a short life because the submerged forest gradually rots, making the reservoir water acidic, which eventualy corrodes the dam turbines.


        Cattle ranching

        Many rainforests in Central and South America have been burnt down to make way for cattle farming, which supplies beef to the rest of the world. . The cleared land cannot be used for long without the forests’ nourishment. The soil soon becomes dry and the cattle farmers then have to move on to create new cattle pastures leaving a trail of destruction.

        1. When softwoods are logged in the US, they are turned into pellets, shipped halfway round the world to feed power stations which are labelled as using “sustainable fuels”. It really is utter rot.

          1. When I lived in the US, we used wood pellets as cat litter – just as good and much cheaper.

        2. I take care to buy coffee from plantations in Peru that declare they are from sustainable sources and grown organically.

          I take your point about the sourcing of almonds, especially for the ersatz milk. Are these from sustainable sources?

          Whilst Donald Trump, putting America first, will most probably get elected, I personally condemn the man on two counts – his association with Recep Erdogan, with his threats to destabilise and islamify Europe, and the betrayal of the Kurds, who did the right thing in Syria and Iraq.

          The other is over his association with Jair Bolsonaro, who is actively pursuing the very worst practices you describe, prioritising “development” over rainforest conservation. This is so serious, for all the good Trump may be doing for America (and frankly I don’t care what monkey business he gets up to with dodgy Ukrainians), it destroys his credibility anywhere else, and we should not be contemplating entering into a trade agreement with the man.

      1. Most Almond are grown in California and need to be sipped half way around the world. The data also does not take into account the tress need to be growing for about 5 years before you can get a crop from them

  89. Overdue and over budget – but still a clear case for HS2

    I do not buy this so called benefit of HS2.. Hardly anyone uses Intercity o a regular basis so how will that encourage investment in the North , So a few businessmen will be able to get to and from the North a few minutes earlier/ What difference does that make?

    For business to move to the North you need to incentive’s them. You also need a pool of skilled labour as well as companies to support that business. What help with that is good local transport and good links between the Norther cities sand currently they dont have that

    Yes HS2 might eventually reach the North but thats several decades away and most of it in the North will be using existing lines. Who knows if the Norther rail links will ever be built

    I can see no business case for HS2. THey have never even published a proper business case

    To try to get an idea of a business case for HS2 I liokked at HS1 it has been open for almost a decade and make a big loss
    Typically HS1 trains are 10% to 50% full

    Canadian pension funds sell loss-making HS1 to investor consortium

    The argument for HS2 is at least clear, and becomes more so the further from London you get.

    Speed is nice to have but more capacity is essential.

    A new line to ease capacity on intercity routes will improve the travelling experience and, more critically, help enable some of the major home building programs required to address the housing crisis. Seen from north to south the value is obvious.

  91. SUCCESS !

    I have finally taught Dolly how to wink. Admittedly that is the only thing i have taught her. I take her over the park and throw sticks for her. She looks at me and i chase after the stick. I am expecting that the next time i do it when i come back to her she will wink at me. I’ll keep you posted. :o)

      1. You’re welcome. I saw it in a film once and thought i would try it. It only works when she wants something though.

          1. When i’m preparing dinner she keeps nudging my ankle with her nose. If she doesn’t get anything she tries to trip me up. The minx.

      1. No Belle. I was always upset about leaving her but i have found a wonderful lady who is completely dog mad.

        I would never ever put her in kennels and be locked up like a prisoner. The lady has become a firm friend. I can relax. I found her on the posh paws site.

      1. I think that she has cracked that one already.

        She also likes to bonk her duck toy and lifts her back left leg for a pee.

        I think she might be a watching me too close. Must remember to close the bathroom door.

        I’m trying to get her to Limbo but she runs off with that stick. :o(

  94. Two weddings to attend this year. My neighbour who is marrying her first boyfriend after splitting as teenagers and her having three husbands since (one would think that would red flag it for him but no) and also his stepdaughter. Have bought Art Deco crystal bowls for both but as an extra for the honeymoon i have included his and hers hair removal kits. Just my sense of humour. I hope the bowls survive. :o(

  96. I think it may have been Bill Thomas (late of this Parish) who drew my attention to “Talking Pictures” [Freeview 81]. Tonight there was a British Film from 1964 – “The Bargee” starring Harry H Corbett, Ronnie Barker, Derek Nimo and Richard Briers. The storyline was B- . However, it did show the canals in their last 18 months of operation by British Waterways. The star of the film was undoubtedly The BW working boat and its butty “Bellerophon”. Over 50 years on the inland waterways are once again a prized asset.

  97. Just back from the most amazing Valentine’s supper.

    Absolutely superb and the company is still as good as she was 50+ years ago.

    I should get prizes for how beautifully I keep her. She certainly got the raw end of the deal!

    2. Good luck to you both. I know how it feels. We’ve known each other for 58 years in April and been married for 52 of them next month. Still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.

        1. After two bad marriages – 1 Irish, 1 Swedish, I’ve now found, at age, 75 that British is very much best.

          I love you my Best Beloved, Judy.

      2. Married in ’65. Still together – despite me dragging her off to live in various foreign parts.

        1. Well done both of you. We started courting in October 64 and married in March 68. Daughter married 30 years this year and son 20 years this year.
          102 years between us. Not bad eh!

  98. from guido fawkes

    The police visited Harry Miller last
    January after a complaint about his tweets. Whilst Miller has not
    committed a crime, he was told his free expression would be recorded by
    the authorities as a “non crime hate incident.” Now a landmark judgement has ruled the police’s actions disproportionate…

    In the seismic landmark ruling, the Mr Justice Julian Knowles quotes Mill’s On Liberty and Orwell’s Animal Farm. He concludes that:

    “The
    effect of the police turning up at [the Claimant’s] place of work
    because of his political opinions must not be underestimated. To do so
    would be to undervalue a cardinal democratic freedom. In this country we
    have never had a Cheka, a Gestapo or a Stasi. We have never lived in an
    Orwellian society.”

    Responding to the ruling outside court today, Miller said “This is a watershed moment for liberty – the police were wrong to visit my workplace, wrong to ‘check my thinking’.” Is the tide finally turning against the Woke Police..?

    3. This is a hugely significant (and very welcome) judgement. Perhaps he should now prosecute the police for wasting police time.

  99. Struck dumb: why love at first sight is just another kind of narcissism

    Novelist Monique Roffey interrogates the western obsession with instant attraction – and wonders whether it may not be all it’s cracked up to be

    Coup de foudre. In France, that’s how we say love at first sight. Translated literally, though, it means “thunderbolt”, or “lightening strike”. Good grief. Love doesn’t get more dramatic than that.

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/14/love-at-first-sight-narcissism

    1. “lightening strike”.

      Sorry, Belle – I know you’re quoting from the article. It’s lightning. No ‘e’.

    2. Dear Mags, I am so delighted to tell that, when I physically met Best Beloved (she 72 – me 74) we immediately identified that, “This is the one for me.”

      Mais certainement c’est un coup de foudre and I’m so happy for it.

    1. Anyone who reclines their seat when the sun is shining deserves everything, everything, they get.

    2. ‘Good evening, Mags,

      My memory of the seat recliners was on a flight home to Spain, as home was then. The berk in front reclined his seat so fast and furious that I had no chance to get my knee out of the way. That knee hit my ‘Kindle’ so hard and so fast that the screen became unreadable.

      My then (Swedish) wife pulled me back from taking out the perpetrators head and I have subsequently refused to take any flight, where I may not sit in an aisle seat in the ‘safety exit’ area.

      My God, you certainly meet all inhuman life-forms on (fairly) local flights.

      2. We always pay for extra leg room and fly Premium Economy when we visit our daughter in Dubai. 38 inch pitch rather than 29.5. Not too much more than economy.

        1. “Premium economy” is what ordinary economy used to be before everything got squeezed. I flew a lot in economy back in the 1970’s/’80’s and it was fine then. They also provided decent meals and endless free drinks transatlantic.

          1. The economy return on BA is about £4-500 and we get premium for about £600. worth every penny. On European flights Club ha same pitch as economy hence paying for exit seats.

      3. A while ago I flew back from Singapore in premium economy on a BA Airbus 380. Plenty of room you would have thought, however the person in front of me decided to recline his seat very suddenly and to its full extent. This caught my wine glass which was in the holder provided adjacent to my seat. It snapped the stem of the glass and sent the contents across the floor. I managed to grab the glass, the person in front had no idea what he’d done and the steward just assumed I was inebriated. What can you do?

    3. The real scandal about seating in aeroplanes is that there are seats placed next to the emergency exits. Since emergency evacuations are (fortunately) rather rare it becomes “an acceptable risk” to make evacuation more difficult when seats “blocking” the exits bring in extra income and therefore profits.

      1. But those seats don’t block the exit. They ALWAYS have the legroom necessary to facilitate an emergency evacuation.

      2. In most bad crashes the whereabouts of the emergency exit is the least of your worries. Being decapitated by the head of the passenger behind you is higher on the list of likelihoods.

      3. In most bad crashes the whereabouts of the emergency exit is the least of your worries. Being decapitated by the head of the passenger behind you is higher on the list of likelihoods.

      1. Not true.

        Some of the worst instances of recline and be damned that I have had, have been in business class.
        Admittedly that’s 15-20 years ago but the space available never accommodated the recline when eating.

        Oddly enough, the worst offenders were the Bercow-like small men.

        If there is one single thing that I like about Ryan Air it is that the seats don’t recline.

        1. I do so agree, Sos, however, in the winter of my years, I
          a) refuse to fly cheap-shit airlines and
          b) I want comfort over price and that is why, in travelling to France, I will insist on driving my own conveyance,

          Stuff the Ryanairs, the Easyjets and the Jet 2 craplines – I shall find my own way.

          1. From where we are, I certainly choose car over plane, when time or cost isn’t an issue, but sometimes plane is the best bet.

            (we’re only 20 minutes from the airport this end and 90 at the UK side.)

            HG was worried about my possible reaction to Ryan Air, first time around, bad tempered, intolerant bastard that I am, but I like them. Follow their rules and everything is fine.
            I’ve flown well over a million miles with various airlines and as far as I’m concerned Ryan Air is OK.

          2. I agree about Ryanair. My grief comes from Flybe (I have to fly to Southampton a lot). Flybe has all the attributes of a ‘low fares airline’ without the low fares. I will drive to the UK occasionally to facilitate shopping for essentials – decent beer, cheese, tea, gammon, decent beer, etc.

        2. The long haul players revamped Business a good few years back to give everyone a lot more space. Took the space needed from the poor people in the back of the bus seats…

          1. Long haul is a different animal.
            On my own dollar I’ll always go economy up to 4 hours.
            I find chewing raw garlic, and breathing heavily, discourages most people from reclining too far.

          2. A can of beans for breakfast always helps. For train travel I have a t-shirt that reads “ASK ME ABOUT JESUS”.

        3. On some airlines the reclining of the seat in front of you can be thwarted. Take a couple of wine corks on board with you, have a look at the mechanics of the seat in front of you (remember, it can’t be reclined until after take off). You should be able to work out the distance of travel near the hinges. Bite of the corks to suit the distance and wedge them into the space either side. Voila! Chummy in front is destined to a vertical journey.

      2. Using accumulated miles and points, we’ve done that a few times. Left for 1st, right for everyone else.

  101. Black propaganda or the truth?

    “The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus

    Botao Xiao1,2* and Lei Xiao3

    1 Joint International Research Laboratory of Synthetic Biology and Medicine, School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China

    2 School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China

    3 Tian You Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430064, China

    Corresponding author: xiaob@scut.edu.cn

    Tel / Fax: 86-20-3938-0631

    The 2019-nCoV coronavirus has caused an epidemic of 28,060 laboratory-confirmed infections in human including 564 deaths in China by February 6, 2020. Two descriptions of the virus published on Nature this week indicated that the genome sequences from patients were 96% or 89% identical to the Bat CoV ZC45 coronavirus originally found in Rhinolophus affinis 1,2. It was critical to study where the pathogen came from and how it passed onto human.

    An article published on The Lancet reported that 41 people in Wuhan were found to have the acute respiratory syndrome and 27 of them had contact with Huanan Seafood Market 3. The 2019-nCoV was found in 33 out of 585 samples collected in the market after the outbreak. The market was suspected to be the origin of the epidemic, and was shut down according to the rule of quarantine the source during an epidemic.

    The bats carrying CoV ZC45 were originally found in Yunnan or Zhejiang province, both of which were more than 900 kilometers away from the seafood market. Bats were normally found to live in caves and trees. But the seafood market is in a densely-populated district of Wuhan, a metropolitan of ~15 million people. The probability was very low for the bats to fly to the market. According to municipal reports and the testimonies of 31 residents and 28 visitors, the bat was never a food source in the city, and no bat was traded in the market. There was possible natural recombination or intermediate host of the coronavirus, yet little proof has been reported.

    Was there any other possible pathway? We screened the area around the seafood market and identified two laboratories conducting research on bat coronavirus. Within ~280 meters from the market, there was the Wuhan Center for Disease Control & Prevention (WHCDC) “

    1. We watched an old Law & Order programme this evening made in 2003. The Coronavirus was around then. They spoke of two strains one from Singapore and the other, more virulent, was from Hong Kong.
      Not as new as I thought and it was also called SARS.

    1. Sue, you are probably well aware that there are some on here who simply cannot get enough pussy….

  104. A bit of tension between the Downing Street neighbours is no bad thing

    CHARLES MOORE

    The PM and chancellor work best in the interests of the country when they are a partnership of equals

    It is 50 years since we last had a chancellor of the Exchequer who never presented a Budget. He was Iain Macleod, the most skilful Tory orator of his generation. A month after the victorious prime minister, Edward Heath, had made him chancellor in June 1970, Macleod died. He had been the only man in the Cabinet with the political stature to stand up to Heath.

    Heath replaced Macleod with Anthony Barber, a man of no political importance. As chancellor, Barber was pliant to Heath’s will. At Heath’s command, he executed the great inflationary U-turn of 1972. When Margaret Thatcher famously declared in 1980, “You turn (get the dreadful pun?) if you want to: the lady’s not for turning”, she was proclaiming she would never make the Heath/Barber mistake.

    Sajid Javid is no Iain Macleod, being competent rather than glittering. The Johnson Government is not rocked by his early departure. His replacement, Rishi Sunak, is no Tony Barber, being exceptionally articulate and well qualified. Through no fault of his own, however, having been in Parliament for only five years and still in his 30s, Mr Sunak has no independent power base. He has had to accept the terms which Mr Javid rightly refused: he can have only those advisers whom No 10 supplies.

    Since special advisers (Spads) are the only people in their departments whom ministers can appoint, if Mr Sunak cannot choose even them, he cannot guarantee a single person at his side who puts his interests first. As it happens, Dominic Cummings has handed him a couple of excellent Spads; but the fact remains that if your boss, not you, has appointed the people closest to you, they are not really your servants.

    Mr Sunak will be an exceptional man indeed if he can turn his relationship with the Prime Minister into a partnership of anything like equals.

    Yet that is what it is when it works best. The answer to the natural conflict between the Treasury, which tries to save money, and No 10, which seeks to spend it, is not to abolish any clash, but to make the disagreements as grown-up as possible. People are trotting out the fatal clashes of past prime ministers and chancellors – Thatcher and Lawson, Blair and Brown. They forget that for several years (a long time in politics) those relationships were powerful and creative. So were Thatcher and Howe, Major and Clarke, and Cameron and Osborne. In all cases, both recognised that each needed the other.

    The Thatcher and Blair administrations would never have achieved their remarkable changes without their central No 10/No 11 relationships. By the same token, when those relationships started to go wrong, so did everything else.

    In almost any organisation, the person with the money must be somewhat set apart from the leader. He has to subject the leader’s aims to the sharp test of reality. This is particularly so with prime ministers – such as Boris and Blair – who are not much interested in economics and just want to get at the honeypot.

    As such, the money man is also a politically useful foil. “I’d love to do X,” says the leader, “but I’m afraid that skinflint next door won’t let me.” Sometimes – often – a prime minister finds it tiresome to be bound by fiscal rules. But it is worse than tiresome if no such rules exist, or if there is no one around who dares enforce them.

    That is how almost all Labour governments – and many Tory ones – end. In the cautionary case of Heath, the prime minister took over the economic government of the country. The chancellor was invisible. Heath’s implementer, the Cabinet secretary, Sir William Armstrong, had a nervous breakdown under the strain. Heath lost the February 1974 general election.

    Obviously, Boris’s new Government is not remotely near such a pass. It has a big new mandate, a great task and oodles of energy and optimism. If the Prime Minister was not happy with Mr Javid, it was better, perhaps, to remove him now, rather than to wait for the relationship to sour. It should not escape notice, however, that this Government does not yet have an economic policy. By all means celebrate that the appalling negativity of Philip Hammond’s anti-Brexit sojourn at No 11 is over, but do not assume that it knows what to do next.

    Boris wants to “level up” wealth and opportunity. He is singing a political version of that hymn, ‘Hills of the North, Rejoice’. To succeed, he needs the honest truth about how much money we have got, how much we are likely to get, and how much more we think we are going to need. This is the year, for example, when all the demographic pressures of an elderly population increase even more sharply than before. What does that mean for the NHS and social care? Only a Treasury capable of telling the truth is likely to know.

    It is a question not only of figures, but also of policies. A more economically liberal form of levelling up would create free ports, take advantage of a full Brexit to reduce regulation, and remove outdated business rates from high streets. A more interventionist, statist approach would set up lots of regional development quangos and create a national industrial policy. A strong Treasury could help work out what’s best. A weak Treasury couldn’t.

    I once had a friend who had just escaped poverty and persecution in his native country in Africa. When he reached England, I took him to a restaurant and asked him what he wanted to eat. He said “Food!”

    “Yes,” I said, “but what? Meat? Fish? Vegetables? Eggs?”

    “Yes!” he exclaimed.

    I feel that Boris, just now, is a bit like my friend – so delighted to have found his way to freedom, and so plain hungry, that he wants every single thing on offer. He needs a few good people, in key departments as well as in No 10, to help him make some necessary choices.

    Otherwise, it is shockingly easy to overspend, overborrow, undersave and underinvest. In fact, that is what British governments are best at. If markets come to believe that the Prime Minister has got free run of the restaurant, they will take fright. Then our Government’s capacity to borrow cheaply could quite suddenly vanish.

    By all means, widen the sources of economic policy. Strengthen No 10, the Cabinet Office, the newish Department for International Trade. But don’t subject all these sources, including the Treasury, to a single control. Such a control will be exercised by the Spads, on whose throne sits Dominic Cummings, with his woolly hat for a crown. In my view, the man is a genius. No one understands better how to campaign and win by sticking to the British principle of war: “Select and maintain the aim.” The problem, though, is that government is only partly about campaigning. Its long-term discipline cannot be upheld by fear alone.

    There has been too much angst against advisers in modern times – Nigel Lawson’s aversion to Alan Walters, almost everyone’s aversion to Alastair Campbell, today’s obsession with Mr Cummings. Such people sometimes overplay their hands. But how much would ever have happened without their abrasive energy and fierce devotion to their principal?

    Still, advisers should advise, not spy. When Mr Cummings put out his famous job advertisement the other day, he called for “weirdos” and “misfits”, not for narks. The Javid affair should warn against going too far.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/14/bit-tension-downing-street-neighbours-no-bad-thing/

  105. Gosh, all that oil money, laced with a bit of arab accounting, and moneybags City have been banned from the Champions League in 20/21 and 21/22. How sad 🙂

  106. The last storm we had was not as bad as forecast. The strongest gust we had was 39 MPH not 60 MPH as they said. This next one tomorrow appears to be heavy rain so we will soon find out.

    2. Planned a wonderful valentines day bash for the war queen.

      Picked her up from train station in best bib and tucker at 8 with a rose and a glass of vino. Drove her home, carried her over the threshold, laid her on the bed, stroked her hair, went away to change, brought her sausage and mash for the marathon session ahead; which she devoured and…

      She fell asleep. Pulled covers over, put the plate in the dishwasher, tucked in junior and settled Mongo. Love them all.

  108. Night All

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  110. 316000+ up✔s,

    Could anyone tell me was the brexit parties funds all used up by the time it was closed down, or is there monies in trust ?
    Will any funds left go towards the proposed
    reform party ?

  111. Good night, good Nottlers, may your God bless you through this night. I love you all – we are a great family.

    1. Good night Tom

      Relax and sleep well

      Now the busy day is done, Father bless us , everyone,
      Keep us safely through the night,
      Until we see the morning light.

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