Friday 14 January: There’s time for a new, sterner prime minister to take the helm before the next election

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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784 thoughts on “Friday 14 January: There’s time for a new, sterner prime minister to take the helm before the next election”

  3. Did No. 10 break Covid rules (again)? 13 January2022.

    But that is what the Daily Telegraph is alleging happened. It says that there were two parties there that evening which, when combined, involved around 30 people. This was back when there was no indoor socialising and the rule of six outside – it claims that a staff member was sent to a supermarket on the Strand with a suitcase to buy wine for one of the events. Whoops!

    Drip. Drip. Drip!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/did-no-10-break-lockdown-rules-again-

    1. Cripes. It’s a longish trek from the Strand to Downing Street with a suitcase full of wine bottles.
      Presumably some fit young spad.

      1. My first thought was ‘why not get it delivered?’ and then because that’s obvious: they knew it was wrong and wanted to hide it.

        Therefore, they all knew it was wrong, none of them cared and they carried on regardless.

  5. There’s time for a new, sterner prime minister to take the helm before the next election

    Sterner, as in a covid nazi?

  7. Parliament is going to debate the petition you signed – “Prohibit employers from requiring staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19”.
    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/599841

    The debate is scheduled for 24 January 2022.
    Once the debate has happened, we’ll email you a video and transcript.
    Thanks,
    The Petitions team
    UK Government and Parliament

    Hold your breath, No seriously hold your breath
    UK Government.

    1. The transcript will end with “Conclusion: This matter was debated as promised and arguments for and against were debated”. Then nothing will be done about the petition.

        1. Absolutely. That’s why I no longer bother to sign petitions. (I made an exception when Blair was awarded a knighthood.)

    2. A pétition that simply asks for the Nuremberg code to be followed? How far have we fallen into captivity?

    3. Nothing will change. After the NHS will be sacking some of their staff in spring. If the6 can do it …

  9. MI5 warning over ‘Chinese agent’ in Parliament. 14 january 2022.

    MI5 has issued a rare warning that an alleged Chinese agent has infiltrated Parliament to interfere in UK politics.

    An alert from the security service said Christine Ching Kui Lee “established links” for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with current and aspiring MPs.

    She then gave donations to politicians, with funding coming from foreign nationals in China and Hong Kong.,

    This woman’s presence and her activities have been known for at least four years. It has only been dredged up to distract the Hoi-Polloi’s attention from Boris.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59984380

    2. That is what is known in the trade as ‘The Anthony Blunt Ploy’ – thrown to the media wolves to take press attention away from the disastrous unemployment figures not long after the Government had won the General Election with the slogan “Labour isn’t Working…” A sort of Blunt force instrument….

    3. Good morning Minty, and other Nottlers.

      It´s like a magic show for children; try to look for the distraction, and the garden gathering is one. Now look for what is being hidden.

  11. ‘Morning All

    Blimey it’s all a confusopoly now………..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/63b8282bf192ca7dd7ebdb715f7a90162117cd50be2f7108b02d67459e811ce3.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a36993086059639fc9b4e0f5866bc326994116632f1df312c5a8f645e0435f9a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/df4508c1b13c87c74c455ac30f1d8f189da7f574b9fd4bdfb36c535c61350c3d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/94b3d24fce18b1fde3a748c0b2afb21ae65d642bde6b7c23a60a0638c1e5a0ba.jpg

    https://twitter.com/FireUpElQuattro/status/1481589220296859648
    Just need an Andrew meme for a Full House…………

    3. I don’t hold them in contempt. Contempt would mean I cared. I despise them. I actually think the whole lot should be taken out and shot. Start with the cabinets of both sides, that’s where the rot’s worst.

    4. One of the few plus points in this sorry saga was discovering Zuby – he’d be a much better PM than Fataturk [but then, so would our neighbour’s dog].

    5. Good morning Rix.
      Prof Moriarty, well said. Yet they still force masks on us. My 4 year old grandchild will still be expected to wear a muzzle in kindergarten class when Ontario schools return to in-person schooling on Monday. In her 16 months of maskless daycare between May 2020 and early September 2021, there were no outbreaks of Convid. Yes, masks make so much sense. (Though her brainwashed parents fully support the muzzle rule in school)

  13. Morning all

    There is time for a new, sterner prime minister to prove their worth before the next election

    SIR – Having voted for Boris Johnson all along, I think he now has to go, and sooner rather than later.

    He has been the most unlucky prime minister – with Covid to deal with – but there have been too many mishaps, and he will never win another election.

    The Tories must get back to their basic values with a true statesman (male or female) at the helm to prove their worth before going to the country again, and that person will have to rule with an iron fist.

    Andrew Barr

    Lenham, Kent

    SIR – A number of Conservative MPs are calling for the Prime Minister to step down.

    First, Mr Johnson’s attendance at the No 10 party was an unfortunate error of judgment, but no more than that. This is not a resignation matter.

    Secondly, Tory MPs need to pause amid the media-inspired hysteria, take a breath and reflect that many of them won their seat at the last election because of Boris Johnson’s popularity. He has been the most popular and charismatic Conservative leader since Margaret Thatcher at her peak.

    It is time to get behind him, not dump him.

    Dr Alistair A Donald

    Watlington, Oxfordshire

    SIR – “Technically it wasn’t a party” reminds me of: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”

    Rob Dorrell

    Bath, Somerset

    SIR – On May 8 2020, when restrictions were severer than they would be on May 20, the date of the Downing Street gathering, I was walking down a residential side street in Amersham, about a mile from where I live.

    The street was lined with tables in front of the houses, on which the residents had set bottles and glasses, and groups of up to about 10 were gathered round the tables drinking and talking, and moving about from table to table – just as they would at any party. Some seemed careful to stay six feet apart, but most didn’t seem to try.

    It would be another week before I was allowed to meet my girlfriend, and even then we weren’t allowed to touch.

    At the time, though, I regarded that informal (and illegal) party as a sign of hope that the lockdown was coming to an end, even though I could not benefit from it yet.

    Perhaps, now, I ought to be angry with those people – to report them to the police, indeed report myself, since I was physically present while the party was going on and did not stop it.

    Or perhaps I ought to remember what it was like at the time of the first lockdown, when we knew much less about this disease and had no vaccine against it – and be glad, as I was then, that people were still determined to be human in the face of greater danger than that which now confronts us.

    Simon Jones

    Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – One misjudgment may be pardonable, but the Prime Minister acknowledged that he regretted a number of them. A leader is chosen for having good judgment, which the Prime Minister admits he lacks.

    The Conservatives are likely to lose the next election, but keeping the current leader may bring a far worse outcome than even some pessimists fear. There is still time to act.

    Alexander Hopkinson-Woolley

    Bembridge, Isle of Wight

    SIR – Should I ever be invited to vote for a world king, I would certainly vote for Boris Johnson.

    Roger Stevens

    Yelverton, Devon

    SIR – As Enoch Powell said: “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure.”

    David Vaudrey

    Doynton, Gloucestershire

    SIR – If Boris goes, how long will it be before he is offered a knighthood?

    Mark Solon

    London E1

    1. Mr Barr, I disagree. The next Conservative PM needs to do the exact opposite and to set us free. The only control he will need to exert is absolute control over the state machine. Radical cuts over 10 years, 5% per year. Cut, cut and cut again.

  14. The car that was swallowed at Cleethorpes

    SIR – In the late 1960s, I bought my first car, a used Triumph Mayflower (Letters, January 13), for £20. The next day, I took a young lady for a drive on Cleethorpes sands. Predictably, we got stuck and had to walk half mile to the shore for help. When we returned, the tide had come in and the Mayflower had vanished, never to be seen again.

    I went back to the dealer and bought a Hillman Californian, also for £20. It lasted two weeks before blowing a piston rod through the engine. Sadly, there were no other £20 cars in stock.

    Peter Davies

    Lyndhurst, Hampshire

    SIR – I, too, am the fortunate owner of a Triumph Herald, pale blue and much loved. One of its great features came to my aid on Blackfriars Bridge in the mid-1980s.

    Having run out of petrol, I simply switched to the reserve tank, which is in the boot of the car. In these times, we could all do with a reserve tank.

    Sarah Kidd

    Chiddingfold, Surrey

    SIR – The Isetta bubble car’s reverse gear (Letters, January 11) was blocked off when the car was to be driven on a motorbike licence, from the age of 16. Reverse could be reinstated when you passed your car test aged 17.

    I know this because my girlfriend would have to get out to push me backwards if we needed to reverse. She obviously didn’t object to this as we were married and still are. My car now does have a reverse gear.

    Stephen Woodbridge-Smith

    Tavistock, Devon

    SIR – I also had a red bubble car in the 1960s. I could squeeze three on the front bench seat and a small one on the rear parcel shelf. It even had a sun roof.

    Lionel Harris

    Bristol

  15. Novak Djokovic’s visa cancelled by Australia’s immigration minister. 51m ago.

    Novak Djokovic’s visa has been cancelled by Australia’s immigration minister, casting further doubt over his participation in the first grand slam of the year.

    What a pantomime!

    Novak Djokovic’s visa cancelled by Australia’s immigration minister (msn.com)

    1. “Oh, what a bitch” (I choose not to follow theses episodes and hope they all drown together)

    3. I would suggest that Wimbledon puts a ban on all Australians competing this year. Mind you it would not make any difference as the only player of note is that very badly behaved Nick Kyrios who is not even in the top 100 at the moment.

      The last Australian to win the Australian Open was Mark Edmondson in 1976 and the last Australian to win Wimbledon was Pat Cash in 1987. I remember being disgusted by Cash’s lack of sportsmanship. He did not go to the net to shake hands with his rival Ivan Lendl but went straight to the stands to clamber up them to see his family. What a yob!

      1. Last Aussie man to win Wimbledon was actually Lleyton “C’mawnnnnnnnnn !!!!!” Hewitt in 2002. Lord, how I hated watching him.

  16. America’s BBC – VOA describes Bulgarians sick and tired of covid restrictions as ‘Far Right’.

    Are all statist fraud ‘news’ organisations utterly corrupt and fantically Left wing?

          1. I am not a fan of commercial tennis, and the Serbs committed many atrocities during the civil war, but I admire the World No 1’s chutzpah and gamesmanship. If Djokovic is not allowed to play, the winner will also be a loser. A number 2.

          3. Yep. I’m no fan of the guy but he’s right on this. Foolish to lie on his visa form though.

          4. Have you been following ‘The Apprentice’ over the last couple of weeks? It seems that the No.2 team specialises in, well, No.2s. I can’t wait to see next week’s floating brown cocktail stick when they are ordered by the Noble Spoonful to produce a non-alcoholic drink fit for a party at No.10.

          5. The reportage of the Bosnian war was so anti-Serb that I wondered what was going on and I thought that all sides were probably equally horrible. But we must remember that the Serbs were especially hated by the PTB because they were Christian orthodox rather than Muslim.

          6. Ethnic Albanians stole a piece of Serbia, by moving into the area until they were a majority, and then declaring “independence”.

    2. This picture of Squalid Jawdrip is too flattering – he looks far worse in real life.

    1. Good morning Citroen.

      One thing that really made me very angry despite everything else , was the FACT the garden was left strewn with rubbish after their party events.

      3. Ill-bred yobs are yobs no matter what their social, economic or political origins are.

        1. Just remembering the rah rah Tory money making spivs of the eighties , before financial regulations came into being !!

          And of course Tory conferences… mind you the Labour lot were pretty ghastly as well. as I can remember a Labour conference that took part in B’mouth when Blair was in power, and many of us Tories stood open mouthed aghast at their scruffy presence !

          Yobs are yobs where political and financial power is concerned .

  22. Good morning all!
    Another bright but cold & frosty start us here, -3°C in the yard.

  23. Good morning, all. Fog and frost Chilly.

    The new Vogue magazine looks just the ticket……

  24. Even without war, Russia has defeated Europe already. 14 January 2022

    Whether or not Vladimir Putin moves his troops into Ukraine, he has once again confronted Europe with a most painful reality: while being too weak to defend itself, it can no longer rely on the United States to come to its rescue.

    We are facing a reality in which Russia, despite its economy only having the size of Portugal’s, can bully and intimidate a continent thanks to its energy reserves and its readiness to project vast military power.

    Sure, any Russian invasion of Ukraine would cost Russia a fortune and likely degrade into a grinding war of attrition. Invasion is unlikely to be president Putin’s preferred option. Yet, this game of brinkmanship has another part of the equation. If Russia invades Ukraine, the costs for Europe will be equally devastating.

    It will force gas-addicted European countries to find expensive alternatives and to severe billions in infrastructure, from pipelines, over pumping stations, to dedicated storages.

    Russia also remains a key export destination and a supplier of other resources than oil and gas. Think of titanium. While the Kremlin has long prepared a gradual decoupling from Europe, the opposite remains unthinkable for most Europeans.

    While a sizeable part of the Russian population would support an intervention in the eastern part of Ukraine, citizens in many European countries will find it hard to accept soldiers to die for what they consider a strange, peripheral country: Ukraine.

    Countless times, I have heard very senior European business leaders sympathise with the leadership of Putin, to the point that one got the impression that they were more attracted to Russian strong leadership than Western liberalism.

    Let’s also be fair. If, at this stage, European countries would have to stand up to a large Russian land invasion, many soldiers would end up as cannon fodder.

    Western European land forces have decayed into a bulky peace corps, their wheeled armoured vehicles hardly suitable for combat in the muddy battlefields in eastern Europe, their fire power no match for Russia’s, and their command and communication infrastructure highly-vulnerable to Russia’s immense electronic war-fighting capabilities.

    Chasing poorly-equipped terrorists is one thing; facing a formidable conventional army, ready for sacrifice yet another.

    Many European land forces struggle with a predator complex from the ‘Global War on Terror’. They are used to being superior, at least in terms of technology and fire-power, and have huge difficulties imagining that the hunter of the last decade might become the hunted in a large-scale conflict.

    The whole strategic mindset in that regard has become skewed towards defense; tactics towards limited surgical offense, often even from a distance.

    Stand-off, it is called. Land powers like Russia have also trained in precision and long-range strikes, yet always combined with blunt power: wearing volleys of missiles and artillery and big division-size units moving in.

    If everything in Europe is about efficiency; armed forces like Russia still factor in sacrifice, redundancy, and attrition. Clean wars do not exist in the Russian strategic lexicon.

    Europe has a lack of everything. Even if it tries to steer clear of frontline involvement, supporting from behind will not be much in evidence either. Many countries lack stand-off missiles or their ammunition stockpiles are dangerously low. Advanced fighter jets, capable of penetrating Russia’s air defence, are still rare. Special forces that would, a crucial asset, are stuck in Africa and struggle to enlist enough quality recruits.

    The US is slowly restocking their arsenals, with new long-range precise ammunitions, but will prefer to send them to the Pacific. It preserves a sizeable conventional deterrence in Europe, including 70,000 troops, hundreds of prepositioned armoured vehicles and dozens of fighter jets.

    Yet, this is not sufficient to counter a Russian invasion in a country like Ukraine – and Washington just cannot afford a war with Russia now that China has become so powerful.

    We can endlessly reflect on what drives Russia in amassing its vast military presence on Ukraine’s border, on how we came to this point, the misgivings and frustrations on both sides.

    What is clear, however, is that we enter a new tournament of great power politics and that Europe arrives at the start not as a strong, unified team, but as a throng of plump puerile pygmies.

    Wow! Even I’m not certain that this is a true reflection of the actual situation since it doesn’t factor in Nuclear Weapons. The real background to the author’s pessimism is that Europe is a decadent and dying continent, its politicians corrupt and cowardly. History tells us that no weaponry can overcome this hurdle.

    https://euobserver.com/opinion/154050

    2. That ‘decadent and dying’ perception reminds me of how the Japanese elite regarded the USA right up until December 1941.
      Went well for the population of Nippon.

    3. …throng of plump puerile pygmies.

      Currently, the above appear more interested in destroying their own countries and dividing their societies over a flu virus rather than governing for the good of all their people. I suppose that’s another effect of having, “plump puerile pygmies,” allegedly in charge. Putin must be laughing at the ‘small’ people who claim to be leaders within the EU etc.

      Morning, Araminta.

    4. If I recall, the defence strategy reviews concluded many times that a land war in Europe with the Soviet was not realistic, and so they scaled the military for fast reactions on the anti-terrorist mould, scaling back major equipment and manpower and preparing to be able to rush a platoon here and a platoon there.
      Now the spectre of possible land engagement with the Soviets has arisen, just as it was in the days of the cold war. Only this time, Europe has even less capabilities, except possibly in cyber warfare, something the Soviet will find less troubling than the west since they are less advanced into technology.
      Oops… 🙁 Guessed that one wrong, didn’t you, guys. Many did try to tell you, but…

    5. The fundamental problem is militaries tend to be staffed by nationalists, those so hated by the EU young men and women who fight for their country.

      They don’t fight for the EU.

      Now, sending Spanish troops to defend Ukraine is nice, but it might not suit Spain.

    6. A quote:-

      I have heard very senior European business leaders sympathise with the leadership of Putin, to the point that one got the impression that they were more attracted to Russian strong leadership than Western liberalism.

      Not just Business Leaders either.

  25. Even without war, Russia has defeated Europe already. 14 January 2022

    Whether or not Vladimir Putin moves his troops into Ukraine, he has once again confronted Europe with a most painful reality: while being too weak to defend itself, it can no longer rely on the United States to come to its rescue.

    We are facing a reality in which Russia, despite its economy only having the size of Portugal’s, can bully and intimidate a continent thanks to its energy reserves and its readiness to project vast military power.

    Sure, any Russian invasion of Ukraine would cost Russia a fortune and likely degrade into a grinding war of attrition. Invasion is unlikely to be president Putin’s preferred option. Yet, this game of brinkmanship has another part of the equation. If Russia invades Ukraine, the costs for Europe will be equally devastating.

    It will force gas-addicted European countries to find expensive alternatives and to severe billions in infrastructure, from pipelines, over pumping stations, to dedicated storages.

    Russia also remains a key export destination and a supplier of other resources than oil and gas. Think of titanium. While the Kremlin has long prepared a gradual decoupling from Europe, the opposite remains unthinkable for most Europeans.

    While a sizeable part of the Russian population would support an intervention in the eastern part of Ukraine, citizens in many European countries will find it hard to accept soldiers to die for what they consider a strange, peripheral country: Ukraine.

    Countless times, I have heard very senior European business leaders sympathise with the leadership of Putin, to the point that one got the impression that they were more attracted to Russian strong leadership than Western liberalism.

    Let’s also be fair. If, at this stage, European countries would have to stand up to a large Russian land invasion, many soldiers would end up as cannon fodder.

    Western European land forces have decayed into a bulky peace corps, their wheeled armoured vehicles hardly suitable for combat in the muddy battlefields in eastern Europe, their fire power no match for Russia’s, and their command and communication infrastructure highly-vulnerable to Russia’s immense electronic war-fighting capabilities.

    Chasing poorly-equipped terrorists is one thing; facing a formidable conventional army, ready for sacrifice yet another.

    Many European land forces struggle with a predator complex from the ‘Global War on Terror’. They are used to being superior, at least in terms of technology and fire-power, and have huge difficulties imagining that the hunter of the last decade might become the hunted in a large-scale conflict.

    The whole strategic mindset in that regard has become skewed towards defense; tactics towards limited surgical offense, often even from a distance.

    Stand-off, it is called. Land powers like Russia have also trained in precision and long-range strikes, yet always combined with blunt power: wearing volleys of missiles and artillery and big division-size units moving in.

    If everything in Europe is about efficiency; armed forces like Russia still factor in sacrifice, redundancy, and attrition. Clean wars do not exist in the Russian strategic lexicon.

    Europe has a lack of everything. Even if it tries to steer clear of frontline involvement, supporting from behind will not be much in evidence either. Many countries lack stand-off missiles or their ammunition stockpiles are dangerously low. Advanced fighter jets, capable of penetrating Russia’s air defence, are still rare. Special forces that would, a crucial asset, are stuck in Africa and struggle to enlist enough quality recruits.

    The US is slowly restocking their arsenals, with new long-range precise ammunitions, but will prefer to send them to the Pacific. It preserves a sizeable conventional deterrence in Europe, including 70,000 troops, hundreds of prepositioned armoured vehicles and dozens of fighter jets.

    Yet, this is not sufficient to counter a Russian invasion in a country like Ukraine – and Washington just cannot afford a war with Russia now that China has become so powerful.

    We can endlessly reflect on what drives Russia in amassing its vast military presence on Ukraine’s border, on how we came to this point, the misgivings and frustrations on both sides.

    What is clear, however, is that we enter a new tournament of great power politics and that Europe arrives at the start not as a strong, unified team, but as a throng of plump puerile pygmies.

    Wow! Even I’m not certain that this is a true reflection of the actual situation since it doesn’t factor in Nuclear Weapons. The real background to the author’s pessimism is that Europe is a decadent and dying continent, its politicians corrupt and cowardly. History tells us that no weaponry can overcome this hurdle.

    https://euobserver.com/opinion/154050

  26. Help; this political nerd is going sea lion.
    until I read Henry Deedes in the Mail on Gina Miller’s Nuremburg rally, I’d forgotten all about these people:
    “True and Fair’s target audience presumably is not the occupants of earthy saloon bars or bingo halls but disaffected centrists: Chablis- slurping year zeroers who feel embarrassed to be aligned to the old parties. We’d been here before not all that long ago when pro-European Labour and Conservative MPs sloped off in 2019 and formed the now defunct much-maligned Change UK. Fat lot of good it did them.”

  27. Help; this political nerd is going sea lion.
    until I read Henry Deedes in the Mail on Gina Miller’s Nuremburg rally, I’d forgotten all about these people:
    “True and Fair’s target audience presumably is not the occupants of earthy saloon bars or bingo halls but disaffected centrists: Chablis- slurping year zeroers who feel embarrassed to be aligned to the old parties. We’d been here before not all that long ago when pro-European Labour and Conservative MPs sloped off in 2019 and formed the now defunct much-maligned Change UK. Fat lot of good it did them.”

    1. Good Moaning, Anne. Even better than Henry Deedes…

      Steerpike
      Gina Miller’s party flop
      13 January 2022, 11:08am

      https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltf04078f3cf7a9c30/blt342ab0496ec88ea3/61e0108e10b1d96fbb211d54/Screenshot_2022-01-13_at_11.09.02.png?format=jpg&width=1920&height=1080&fit=crop

      Political parties are very much in vogue at the moment so naturally Gina Miller had to get in on the act. Steerpike’s favourite millionaire barrister has launched her long-awaited centrist initiative this morning, hailing the advent of the ‘True and Fair party’ before an audience of just, er, thirteen people – unlucky for some. Mr S is no political scientist but the fact he knew 30 per cent of the attendee list personally would suggest the project doesn’t exactly scream ‘mass membership movement.’ Will Miller be suing those who didn’t turn up?

      By way of comparison, around 40 people are reported to have attended Boris Johnson’s drinks in May 2020 meaning you could get three Miller launches into every No. 10 garden party. Maybe if Gina had made it ‘BYOB’ she would have had a better turnout. One attendee who did turn up (only because she was technically paid to do so) was Politics Home reporter Noa Hoffman. She told Mr S:

      “The launch event was quite cringeworthy – there were 13 people in the audience but among them were members of her team and the firm hired to do comms for the party. That said the free merchandise on offer was top quality and Gina looked dressed to impress.”

      Give the people what they want, eh? Gina should have got Martin Reynolds to organise it – he might have some more free time soon.

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

      Astonished • 21 hours ago
      Gina can you not remotely see the irony & hypocrisy of naming your party “True & Fair” ?

      The arrogance beggars belief !

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

      BUT WE MUST BE DILIGENT. People like Adonis think that dumping Boris is the way to aborting Brexit

        1. His book on taxation is actually very good. Unlike my ranting waffles, his is concise, coherent and practical.

          I’m not sure if folk are familiar with the term Rick Rolling – a link that’s actually Rick Astley’s Take on Me – but I do the same to a remoaner chum but with that song.

          I’m a git. And I love it!

        3. Oh that’s the guy who now presents “Headliners” on GB News. I’d quite forgotten this track and hadn’t made the connection.

      2. I liked that article. Miller is pointless.

        All the members of ‘Change UK’ should have been shot.

  28. Why is Andrew being sued by the harlot?
    Because she’s a woman scorned and Hell hath no fury etc.

    He has claimed no knowledge of her and she’s truly affronted. She probably thinks she’s the best shagger on the planet and that every man who’s ever had her would remember her with rapture. Place, date and time and all the moments in her embrace.
    He said he couldn’t even remember meeting her, even with photographic proof, and that’s just insulting.

    2. I wonder if this latest development means Andy’s a bit short of the readies.
      If he can’t buy her off, she’ll have to look for other targets.
      Does Bill Clinton still have control of his finances?
      Or is La Giraffe afraid of suffering Clintonicide?

      1. Really and truly, Andrew doesn’t have cash and none of the rest of The Firm have a lot of loose change let alone being inclined to cough up for the unloved troublemaker.

        There is a school of thought that La Giraffe is utterly delusional and hoping that some sort of judgement can exonerate her from being a prostitute and wipe the slate clean.

        They are both mad

        1. There’s a great deal of difference to the hollywood hookers – actresses who exchanged sex for a part – and underage sex. The actresses feel guilty and wanted to be clean after wallowing in mud. The girls were abused – willingly or otherwise.

      2. Boris Johnson wanted us all to give the NHS the clap. Maybe if Johnson went on to the US and he, Clinton and other ex-politicians gave her the clap she would doubtless sue Johnson rather than her regular American clients.

        1. This is the messed up bit I don’t understand.

          Was she ‘for hire’? AS I know a girl who ‘goes to parties’ where her job is to provide ‘entertainment’. Yet she’s an adult.
          Did Pandrew know she was underage?
          Why the bally didn’t he check?
          Why now, so long after the event?
          Was Epstein bumped off to keep the PTB safe?
          How deep does this rabbit hole go?

          Were other girls abused – either willingly or un? How many? Who else is involved? Is the state machine closing ranks to protect the other guilty characters?

          It’s putrid, the whole thing stinks.

          I can’t call myself a prude or some holier than thou white knight and ok, a 17 year old might think she’s a woman but she isn’t, and you protect them – from themselves, mostly.

          1. I should think that both Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew are afraid of the Clintons et alia getting the Mob to do to them what they did to Epstein.

            On the other hand, maybe this is all part of a great moral crusade to stamp out fornication? If the consequences of any sexual dalliance outside marriage are so potentially damaging to one’s life, reputation and finances then chastity and marital fidelity will become fashionable.

          2. Cameron was notoriously uxorious and he was just as bad as Blair, Brown, May and Johnson.

          4. She wasn’t underage in Britain, and he has no case to answer for sleeping with her in the UK. In Germany, he would have broken the law because of the age gap between them, which is a better reflection of the situation.
            If he was involved with Epstein in the US, he’s probably party to abusive manipulation there. But Epstein and Maxwell were professional manipulators; drawing Andrew in so that he also became guilty is exactly what you would expect them to do.

            Teenagers’ brains aren’t fully developed, they can’t assess risk (including to themselves) and they do need protecting from themselves, and from professional abusers.

            I also think that the people who are calling Guiffre a professional prostitute are falling into the trap of thinking that no abuse occurred just because the victim is not blameless in all aspects.

          5. What we dealing with here, Wibbles, is American so-called Justice which interprets the law in the same way that Humpty-Dumpty interprets English.

            It’s all an elaborate farce, fraud and swindle.

          6. I do not know how many times, if at all, he met and shagged her.
            However, the alleged shag took place in the UK when she was 17, over the UK age of consent.

          7. I do not know how many times, if at all, he met and shagged her.
            However, the alleged shag took place in the UK when she was 17, over the UK age of consent.

          8. Protection – of a parental nature – is something that her family seems to have failed to provide.

          9. Protection – of a parental nature – is something that her family seems to have failed to provide.

      3. It seems he is short (on more than just money ….). He is having to sell a multi million dollar/euro ski chalet in the Alps.
        Looks like he could settle out of court.
        Except the harlot is demanding he also apologises and admits liability – that might be a drawback. But if he goes to court, he might have to show photos of his privates …..
        Oh dear, which ever route he chooses, he will surely and finally regret his past.

        1. Don’t we all have things in our past that we’d rather never saw the light of day. Fortunately we are not in the public eye – thank goodness!

          4. Quite possibly. But he was deliberately using his status to give himself a free ride with no consideration for either the people he was using or the Royal Family. He probably thought his position made him untouchable. After all, this isn’t the first time his arrogant behaviour has landed him in hot water.

          5. I absolutely agree, MIB! For a lot of years he’s been Randy Andy! With good reason, it appears! However, he seems to have been caught out by PC, and his lack of self-awareness!

          6. About time too! I’d love to know what his late father thought about him. Princess Anne’s opinions could also be interesting!

          9. Don’t let us forget that Charles courted and married another gullible teenager to provide him with heirs when he was 36, while maintaining his relationship with another woman who wasn’t deemed good enough to occupy the position of Queen Consort.
            The former also got a bit shirty about it, if I recall.
            There is a generation gap here – Charles and Andrew are too old to understand the modern mantra that feelings trump all, and that gullible teenagers grow into militant women who won’t just sit modestly in the corner accepting their fate.

          10. Royals have always put it about a lot. The status makes it easy. Normally, it’s all glossed over, same with top politicians.
            With a very few exceptions, none of these people have morals, either.

          11. There were plenty of rumours about P Philip and lady friends. Even the Queen; it was suggested once that she’d had a fling with a Lord Porchester, I think it was, and that Andrew was Porchester’s son.

          17. I have always abhorred the attitude that a poor helpless, defenceless man in his 30s or 40s should be regarded as the victim of a cunning, ruthless schemer when he sleeps with a teenager and she gets angry at being discarded.

          19. Well I am exaggerating slightly but that is the basis of the criticism of both Diana and the young women that Andrew met via his paedophile friend – that they are adults who “knew what they were doing” when they were teenagers. Incidentally, it was also the same attitude that was used as an excuse not to prosecute rape gangs.
            It’s just the old blame-Eve-she-tempted-Adam argument.

          20. Right from the off I have been making that comparison with the Pakistani Muslim groomers.

            I understand that Epstein entertained Roberts’ parents, I doubt many of those groomed in the UK had their parents being entertained. There was damning evidence at the Maxwell trial where a witness for the prosecution!! stated that she had been enticed by Roberts to become involved.

          21. Controlling abuse is never black and white, it is always shades of guilt. Manipulating the victim to do things that they know are wrong is the ultimate control – and has the added advantage of making them less likely to go to the police, as they are then also blameworthy.

          23. There is a photo of Diana curled up on a sofa reading a Barbara Cartland as a teen!
            I read piles and piles of the most frightful guff when I was a teenager. Was in a constant state of shame that I didn’t enjoy the stuff I was supposed to be reading. I got round to it later in life, and I think I got more out of literature that I read in my thirties and forties.

          25. Her family had been involved with the Royals for centuries.
            OK, she was pimped out to be the brood mare, but even she had some idea of what she was getting involved with. The money, the fame, choice of houses, Harrods account …..

          27. She always struck me as being manipulative and I have on reputable authority (someone who knew her well) that she set her cap at Charles and was determined to have him.

        2. The delights that await us should it go to court read like a Booker shortlist, such as ‘The Prince That Never Sweats’ and ‘What Royals Get Up To When Ordering a Pizza in Woking’.

          Never mind Budgie the Helicopter, there’s enough material here to keep Fergie in advances until they compost her.

    3. Why now, though? Why not raise this immediately after the event? You know, when the evidence was literally on her? Plod wouldn’t ignore that (as they did with the girls raped by pakistani muslim padeophiles). Why comes forward now, over a decade and a half later?

      1. I suspect that the death of Epstein, swiftly followed by the good fortune of the Maxwell trial was the stimulus.

        She’d signed a non-disclosure agreement with Epstein and he was out of the way. Andrew is probably the least well connected to US Bigwigs, who will happily watch him thrown to the lions while themselves hiding behind the agreement, and Andrew is the most vulnerable whilst still being rich enough to make a no win no fee lawyer be willing to have a go.

        1. The usefulness of the Andrew case is that it could open the door to cases against anyone else whose name just might happen to have cropped up on the passenger list of that plane, or whom Epstein could have called in to see while he was purely by chance in the company of a crowd of gullible teenage girls.

          1. “…whose name just might happen to have cropped up on the passenger list …”

            Including Bill Clitoris?

      3. She fast approaching middle age and looks every day of her 38 years.
        Earning power has gone.

    4. I haven’t read that any of the teenagers involved have made careers in the sex industry.

      1. Neither have I, but why would they advertise it, their reputations will be passed by recommendation.
        Obviously some will have slipped away as soon as they could, but I suspect that others will have taken a liking to the billionaire lifestyle.
        How much do you think they made made either in cash or other benefits?
        Roberts has even been accused of procuring other girls.

        I have little doubt that many were groomed, but I also suspect many were willing participants.

        The tale of the man sitting next to a beautiful woman at a dinner party springs to mind:
        Man: “would you sleep with me for a million pounds?”
        Woman: “yes, of course”
        Man:” would you sleep with me for £10.”
        Woman:” what do you think I am, a prostitute?”
        Man: “we’ve established that, we’re now negotiating price”

        1. Their careers since have been reported in the newspapers, and it would certainly have been highlighted if any of them were working in the sex industry. They all seem to be living normal lives trying to put it behind them.

          1. The one mentioned above by Sos was interviewed for the Mail, for no fee as they kept on about. Can’t recall her name but she was recruited by Roberts. She had also been a stripper, an escort and had had problems with drug abuse.

          4. The one I was thinking of is a Carolyn Andriano who says she received a text from Roberts saying she was going to dinner with Andrew, Maxwell and Epstein. She also claims that Roberts told her she “got to sleep with Andrew.”
            The Mail has a whole page of previous columns about all this sordid nonsense.

          5. Clearly I have not applied myself to it assiduously enough! 🙂
            Saturation point comes very quickly.
            This woman is now married, a Christian and has five children. It is really hard to see what happened to her as anything but abuse.

          6. She is no doubt reformed but according to the interview, she has been a stripper, an escort and had drug problems. Maybe I’m hard-hearted but it seems that these young women wanted money then and they want money now.

          7. Are you serious? She was sexually abused as a small child by her own family and was introduced to Epstein and Maxwell at 13.

          8. That was not mentioned in the interview I read but then it was in the Mail which is not always a bastion of truth.
            I don’t believe most of what I read or hear about this; all the nonsense in the world nowadays jaundices one’s outlook. I will not be reading anymore about it.

  30. Novak Djokovic latest news: World No 1 facing deportation after Australian visa cancelled

    It would teach the Aussies a lesson if Lidl, Tescos, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose all put a ban on importing kangaroo meat.

    2. We already put a boycott on Australian produce when we joined the Common Market, remember…
      *effective

      1. Ah, but I’ve been buying Aussie wine and boycotting EU produce since we voted to leave. It looks like I’ll be confined to buying Chilean, then!

  32. Yo ALL

    What does an air conditioner have in common with a computer?

    They both lose efficiency as soon as you open windows.

    1. We’re doing a bit of work moving a customer from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

      I suggested he try Linux – he did, and got fed up. Linux is great, but the cost of training, unfamiliarity and application compatibility just doesn’t make sense.

      1. Updates are pending on my 8 year old Windows 10 computer. I have a horrible feeling I’m about to get Windows 11 dumped on me without warning.

        2. That shouldn’t be the case. Windows informed me of an upgrade to Windows 11, but then told me that my pc did not meet the minimum system requirements to run it (my pc is 11 years old). There was a link to a download exec to check for compatibility – there were a couple of issues which mean I won’t be upgrading. Check ‘Update & Security’ > ‘Windows Update’ in your settings.

          1. My iMac rollon keeps telling me there are updates and I ignore them until I want them, no stealth installs.

          2. People believe that Apple computers are overpriced, but the joy of avoiding Windows is the compensation.

          4. From Windows 10 to Windows 11? Previous upgrades have always been elective (some have even been chargeable).

          5. Yes. But it belongs to a customer, so they probably just okayed it as part of their policy.

        1. I’d love to keep them on X, but it’s out of support, especially security patches. Windows 11 I imagine is 5 years away.

          Fundamentally Windows 2000 is the same as Win11 win 11 just has more lumpy mess put in front of the commands.

      3. I studiously have avoided anything after my Windows 7 Professional.

        I don’t think Linux is a viable alternative.

    1. Nahh, no thanks. I don’t need a yellow bench. Besides, those people sat on it get in the way.

        1. It was those poor, broken shoes, and the suitcases with names on, and the small cooking utensils, combs and similar insignificant personal stuff that broke me up at Auschwitz. All that was left of people’s lives.
          The collection of hair was just downright disgusting.

          2. What really caught my attention was a small crumb brush in the brush display cabinet.
            That suggested the prisoners were escorted to the ‘work camp’ under the delusion that life would continue much as before. Someone had made the deliberate decision to pack that item into their suitcase.
            I think it was a Jewish mother who thought that in their countryside flat, her family would still be holding Shabbats and there would be bread crumbs to be swept from the table after each meal.

          3. I never saw that. Or, more likely, never noticed it.
            Such a tiny item that reveals a person behind it, and a family rubbed out.
            That’s heartbreakingly sad. You can see it happening, in the mind’s eye.

    10. And the Dutch are deleting their State coach because it has a painting of , as the Telegraph quaintly puts it, ‘people of colour’… The West is lost.

    11. And the Dutch are deleting their State coach because it has a painting of , as the Telegraph quaintly puts it, ‘people of colour’… The West is lost.

      1. That proves the hypocrisy of denying the indigenous of these islands the right to freedom of speech and opinion….
        by an Act of Parliament…..

    14. Surely that’s the line up for the Womens 5000 metre event….oops Good morning, constable!

    15. I remember reading somewhere that a chap said that in the 1950’s he avidly pored over the photos in the National Geographic Magazine because, at the time, it was the only place where you could see photos of women who were naked.

      1. Both the libraries I ran took the National Geographic and they were archived and kept in the reference section. It was not unusual to find groups of boys looking avidly at the pictures. This was in the late 90s and into the 2000s.

      2. I was always odd I suppose. The only article from those 1950s National Geographics that I remember was all about tapping the maple trees for the syrup in the Canadian snow!.

        1. We learnt much of female anatomy from Health and Beauty – a naturist magazine – soon to be ousted by Forum.

          Ah the days of testicular enquiring youth.

      3. I was always odd I suppose. The only article from those 1950s National Geographics that I remember was all about tapping the maple trees for the syrup in the Canadian snow!.

      4. Available in the Junior Public Libraries in the 50s and 60s. (National Geographic? – educational!). A friend told me.

    16. All with Westernised “relaxed” hair it appears…who are those exposed legs and tits supposed to titillate?

    17. Judging by their appearance, I doubt many come from areas of Africa that approve of women showing their faces, let alone their scrawny ankles.

  34. China now owns £143bn in UK assets, from nuclear power to pubs and schools.
    It was a fitting image to mark the dawn of a “golden era” between Britain and China. In 2015, president Xi Jinping and then prime minister David Cameron clinked pints of Greene King IPA at the Plough at Cadsden, a quintessentially British pub. A year later, the 16th-century Buckinghamshire hostelry’s symbolic status was cemented: it was bought by a Chinese investor for an undisclosed sum. Then, in 2019, Greene King itself was sold to Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing for £4.6 billion.

    The Cameron era kick-started a wave of Chinese investment in the UK that has risen in recent years, despite increasing concern in Boris Johnson’s government over human rights abuses and spying.

    2. Time to do an Edward II, when he found himself in hock to the Jews around 1240. Kick ’em out.

      Same with the Chinks and sequester their assets. Too far away to wage successful war. Someone needs to take a lead.

  35. 344170+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Friday 14 January: There’s time for a new, sterner prime minister to take the helm before the next election

    Preps for set up time again are being put in place, new head but the party
    rancid cankered body still in place, the close shop will remain in place.

    Does it not gauge the level of the electorate somewhat when labour the initial unleashers of the ingredients for mass foreign paedophilia & long term cover ups, mass assorted felonies are leading the race to number ten by a country mile?

    There are genuine pro United Kingdom fringe party’s ( uncontaminated)
    out there with peoples of decency manning them, the electorate should seriously,seriously be thinking of giving them a shot.

    1. Yo ogga

      As I have said before, I am available Wednesday Afternoons and Thursday Mornings

      1. 344170 + up ticks,

        Morning OLT,

        Currently , the electorate will accept NO ONE of a pro United Kingdom
        patriotic nature, so patients, your time will come.

  36. From Ian Brent-Smith of Stratton Audley, Oxfordshire

    Poor Knights of Windsor is a holiday pudding of ours,
    Fry white bread in lashings of butter. Spread a good sharp jam on top and then slather with clotted cream. Delicious.
    To earn this feast, our children had to have taken part in at least three of these during the same day:

    surfing,
    waterskiing,
    tennis
    walking uo Brea Hill
    and a coastal walk with parents.

    We could only barely afford bread and jam

  37. The Boris conundrum – why, after everything, do people still love him?
    What he lacks in sound political judgment he makes up for in sheer self-serving savvy

    Judith Woods : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2022/01/13/boris-conundrum-everything-do-people-still-love/

    BTL

    I do not forgive Boris Johnson for failing to get Brexit done.

    The mess in Northern Ireland, the disaster for our fisherfolk, the continued interference in British affairs by European judiciaries all mean that the ‘Boris Brexit’ is a farce.

    Of course Nigel Farage is largely to blame. He was bullied into getting Brexit Party candidates to stand down in constituencies where there was a sitting Conservative MP and the consequence was that it resulted in a government still stuffed with remainer Conservative MPs and it gave Johnson the chance to water Brexit down to the mess it is.

    1. 344170+ up ticks,

      Morning R,
      The farage chap needed no bullying.

      The whole Brexitexit designed & triggered by the real UKIP party, went into eu damage control when the wretch cameron was forced to quit, straight into pro eu mode, remember treacherous treasa and the nine month delay.

    2. It makes me wonder what he has to do to stop people loving him – kill everyone’s first-born?

    3. Judith Woods obviously doesn’t read Nottle – there’s not a lot of love for Fataturk round here!

    4. The UKIP candidate who stood in Eddisbury against four remainers lost her deposit. Just sayin’. They elected a Con remainer.

      1. 344170+ up ticks,
        Afternoon AA,
        Does NOT apply to the current lab/lib/con coalition politico’s, party members / voters otherwise the JAY REPORT & revealings would have taken the whole heap of political shIte down, seemingly the electorate find the need in continuing to wallow in shite comforting.

  42. Does Johnson go or stay

    Of equal importance, will the Floyd family of America and their ‘mafia’, the BLT Wokists, allow the
    the House of Commons/Electorate to have a White Heterosexual PM, (of either of the TWO Genders)

  44. Sunny now – they lied about fog continuing all day. BUT – there is still a very heavy frost.

  45. Bob was in trouble, he had forgotten his wedding anniversary.
    His wife was really angry.
    She told him “Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE!”
    The next morning he got up early and left for work.
    When his wife woke up, she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway.
    Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway, brought the box back in the house.
    She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale. Bob has been missing since Friday.

    1. There is or was a review for a chainsaw on a UK garden equipment retailer, which explains how delighted the man is to have found exactly what his wife wanted for Christmas.

      1. Saw a review of a petrol-driven fence-post pounder that said the best thing about it was ow easy it was to return the pile of junk for a refund!

      1. I used to lose car keys when they were in my pocket. This has got worse – I now waste time looking for the car keys when they are in my hand.

        1. There is a tiny gadget called Tile (other brands are probably available); you can fix it to some easy-to-lose item and it will beep when you delve into a search&locate program on your good wife’s mobile device.

        2. I’ve occasionally “lost” my car keys when they are actually being held in my teeth [which, before anyone asks, are still where they are supposed to be!]!

        3. You only need to worry when you’ve got the keys in your hand and you can’t find your car!

          1. You only need to worry when you’ve got the car keys in your hand and don’t know what to do with them! hope it never comes to that 😰

        4. They’re always in the last place you look (why would you continue looking after you’d found them)

          1. “And do you know, I found them in the very last place ….”
            That comment cracks me up every time.

  47. Extract from today John Redwoods Diary.

    The
    significance of officials inviting each other to a bottle party when
    their rules and words told the rest of us to stay at home alone or with
    our immediate family is twofold. It implies they did not think the
    virus was as serious as they told us it would be, as they were willing
    to take risks themselves. It reinforced the view of a technocracy that
    lectured the rest of us but lived by different standards. Apparently
    officials decided what was right and asked the PM to drop by his own
    garden to thank the staff. He was clearly not in charge of working
    arrangements. Some argue he should have been . It leads to more
    questions about the way advisers used statistics and one strand of
    scientific opinion to take over government and dictate controls and
    interventions on a war time scale.

    Ministers and the Prime
    Minister not only allowed them to do this, but made it all visible by
    thrusting forward one group of advisers to front news conferences and to
    explain policy. You cannot allow government policy to be dictated by
    the “science”. Ministers should of course place public safety as a
    central aim of policy and should take best medical and epidemiological
    advice. They must however balance that with assessments of what lockdown
    will do to mental health, other causes of death, to jobs, incomes and
    livelihoods. They should also test out the official advice by hearing
    from other scientists. There were other views to consider on
    treatments, air flows, infection control and expanding capacity that
    were not welcome as part of the official narrative. There were other
    ways than locking us up at home of limiting spread, abating the impact
    and fighting the virus that we needed to do more about. My questions and
    comments to get these actions were often accepted by Ministers but not
    progressed with energy or pace.

    1. Apparently, no. 10 is Crown land and, as such, is exempt from the cruel, draconian rules impose on us mere plebs. However, when our lives have been so severely impacted, they should demonstrate that ‘we are all in this together’ by being seen to stick to the rules.
      Presumably the Queen could also have used this rule when she attended the funeral of her late husband. But, like her mother before her (remaining in London during the blitz rather than taking up her entitlement to be evacuated), she chose to do the same as her subjects have to, by sitting alone instead of being close to even one member of her family.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eacc9c1c2db68e8dba5aeec47dc39db50f9bc54b364bf00643dae4ca73e03b27.jpg

      1. If covid rules were made for our health…what possible reason would there be for them not to apply to crown land?

        1. Kitchen & food hygiene rules don’t apply to hospitals, as they are Crown property, too.
          Great escape, eh?

      3. Reminds me of the huge kitchens at Severalls Hospital.
        The rafters were home to a colony of sparrows. Underneath were huge vats cooking up food for patients and staff.
        All permissible at the time because the hospital was Crown Land.

          1. If you saw what the average mental patient ingested, boiled cabbage a la sparrow shite was the least of it.
            Jugs of chrysanthemum water, f@g ends, even gold fish bowl contents including inhabitant. Many other things as well, but you get the general picture.

          2. That makes sense – hadn’t realised it was a mental hospital. Tough insides from the sound of it.

  48. The pettiness and stupidity of Covid rules:

    An English football club has postponed its next home game after it was accused of breaking Welsh Covid rules.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59956048

    As it is, spectators will be allowed back into sports grounds in Wales from next Friday (21st), so perhaps the authorities can stop worrying about something so inconsequential.

    1. Oh good. There is a chance I can use my annual membership at Bangor races in February, then.

  51. Novak Djokovic latest news: Government requests tennis star’s detention after visa revoked
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/01/14/novak-djokovic-australian-open-visa-medical-exemption-covid/

    BTL

    I remember that when Clement Freud, the Liberal MP with a famous grandfather and a famous artist brother, visited Australia he was asked at customs if he had a criminal record. He replied with another question: “Is it still obligatory?

    I remember that Clement Freud was accused of interfering with young girls. This was most unusual as most male Liberals prefer to interfere with young boys.

    2. Tough call..0 – 0
      If Novac plays in the Aus Open there will be riots in the stadium…

      If he is banned from playing there will be riots outside the stadium…

      1. I should think he couldn’t possibly win now, as his training has been so disrupted. One has to wonder whether that was the goal all along.

      1. Good afternoon, Spikey

        I suspect that Clement was, amongst other things, a plagiarist.

    4. I’d have thought that the Australians would have complained about how they are being treated, not how a tennis player is treated.
      PS. how did Andy Murray get into the country?

      1. I agree, Horace, I’ve never seen, in all my visits, any evidence of Australian subservience.

        What’s happened to keep them down?

      2. Or from the polytunnels round Spalding. Remove the flowers this year to sell the bulbs next year…

    2. My first thought was we Nottlers should join her party, a dozen or so of us would ensure enough numbers for a complete takeover.
      Imagine that we have the oxygen of political posturing, so much to say to so many hacks. BT could be our Attorney General, the rest I leave to your own thoughts.

      1. We could join her “party” and then vote to remove her. She is a great one for “democracy”, isn’t she? Be good to see her face when it actually jumped up and bit her on the bum.

    1. Complete with mask (not worn, of course) and I expect the latest i-phone is in his jacket and his trainers are top of the range.

    2. One volcano errupting spews out more CO2 than the UK generates in a year.

      And politicians still think that their robbing more money will magically solve an invented problem.

    1. When did Neil Oliver demand ‘harder, longer, earlier’ lockdowns?

      There are several further down that thread like this: “A harder, earlier lockdown would have led to more lives being saved and a faster, longer return to normal life.” I’m not sure I would have the patience to debate the subject with them.

  64. Nicked (one for Plum??)

    Mrs R said, “I can think of 14 reasons to leave you, plus your obsession with tennis.”

    I replied, “That’s 15 love.”

  66. Very late on parade today, we have a had no internet all morning, Virgin making ‘improvements’ again still no email 4 days now !! But I had another call from my GP this morning and I now have a face to face next week, but with a new member of the team, perhaps some one not yet fully qualified who might have a bit more enthusiasm for the tasks of keeping the elderly alive a bit longer………….well, I hope so anyway. Perhaps also one who might be able to stop my coughing… I know there are two ways of spelling that.

  67. Even Aftenposten have it in for Boris, after his partying.
    https://www.aftenposten.no/verden/i/dnzdxB/skal-dette-bildet-felle-boris-johnson-mens-dronningen-soerget-var-det
    They wrote that Her Majesty was alone in St Georges Chapel at the funeral of Prince Philip, and the day before Boris was attending a party that was an amalgamation of two parties at the same time.
    One person showed dignity and leadership, the other is an unspeakable bastard.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/23ac63449a961002dd8053f7045e84645633ab9480864c814c8ec3ca8ae2082d.jpg
    An old lady all alone, yet still doing her duty. I wish that politicians would put so much as a microgramme of effort in to that, compared with HMs tonnes.

    1. It’s not just Boris the Bastard. All attendees should be arrested and fined, as were folk out for a walk in parks and the countryside.
      Mn, this has really p’d me off. One rule, and all that. Given the option, I’d petrolbomb 10 Downing St.

      1. Liars and hypocrites every one of them. The current lot might as well be left in place because there’s no-one better or honest enough to replace them. They disgust me, all of them.

        1. Oliver Cromwell April 20, 1653:-

          Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter’d your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?
          Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil’d this sacred place, and turn’d the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress’d, are yourselves gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.

          The Parliament 2022 obviously does not read history.

          3. None of the politicians has ever learned from history; if they did, they wouldn’t keep making the same mistakes (iran/iraq/meddling in other countries/unlimited immigration – you name it, they’ve repeated it).

          4. Afghanistan being a prime example.
            Just a thought: Rory Stewart seemed to be rather more informed about Afghanistan, but was castigated by the MSM if I recall.

          5. Indeed. We tried and failed three times, but they only needed to look more recently to see how Russia fared.

    1. Even if the actions of those people holding the party in No. 10 are found to be within the rules, it shows that the organisers and attendees are guilty of crass and insensitive behaviour, at a time when the Queen, the Royal Family and the nation were in a period of mourning for Prince Philip – indeed, while he was not yet in his grave (and I write this as an anti-monarchist).

      1. I doubt that it even entered their heads.
        There are far too many special people around to whom the rules do not apply.
        When the general public decide that enough is enough and start making their lives a misery I shall have no sympathy. They will have brought it on themselves.
        I include people like BLM and ER amongst those who regard themselves as above the law.

      2. I think that many former arch monarchists are beginning to think that when the Queen dies this should be the end of it.

        Neither Charles nor William are intelligent nor dignified men indeed they are both tediously self-righteous and pedagogic in their utterances – but to imagine someone like Blair as Head of State defies contemplation.

        Of course we do not know the full story about Andrew but it seems that both his older brother and his nephew are more than happy to twist the knife.

        1. The standard objection of monarchists to the idea of a Republic is always – “You would get a President Blair”, the assumption being that the USA model of a republic would be adopted. However, the model of an elected Head of State with no real political power is widespread throughout the world e.g. the Irish Republic.

          1. That doesn’t stop a Blair being elected as a Head of State and strutting the world stage spouting his garbage and peddling influence.

          3. Indeed, but imagine the crap at every State visit, COP, G7 etc, both at home and abroad. I really can’t see him taking the Queen’s approach or even Prince Charles’s and keeping his nose out pretending that his view is more important than Parliament’s.

          5. That is pretty much the US at the moment, an elected head of state with just about zero power – thankfully.

            Compare that to our Canadian situation an elected (sort of) PM effectively suspending parliament and ruling by fiat.

    2. Even if the actions of those people holding the party in No. 10 are found to be within the rules, it shows that the organisers and attendees are guilty of crass and insensitive behaviour, at a time when the Queen, the Royal Family and the nation were in a period of mourning for Prince Philip – indeed, while he was not yet in his grave (and I write this as an anti-monarchist).

    2. He was just sitting in his garden with his wife, as allowed at the time. He was so engrossed with her that he didn’t realise there were others nearby having a business meeting with alcohol. Nothing to see here, move on. . . . .

      1. All involved in the party should be fired immediately, from clerk to PM.
        Either they deliberately broke the law, or were too stupid to work out what it was.
        Or – lock them in no. 10 and throw petrol bombs in through the windows.

      2. “Actually, we took the view that our party was more important than marking the death of some old geezer. (Was he someone important?)”.

    2. Latest update. 17:04

      Ex-head of Covid taskforce had lockdown leaving party
      We’ve just learned of another lockdown leaving party in government.

      The former head of the civil service Covid taskforce – the team responsible for drawing up Covid restrictions – says she’s sorry for holding a leaving party during lockdown in 2020.

      Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, has tweeted a statement in which she says she had drinks with colleagues on the evening of 17 December.

      The event took place in their office at the Cabinet Office to mark her leaving the civil service.

      “I am truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result,” she says.

      4. Leaping from one government job to another but never having a real job.

        She must be building up quite a pension for herself.

      5. “I am truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result,”
        Trans:
        “Bu88er, I’ve been caught out.”

    3. Latest update. 17:04

      Ex-head of Covid taskforce had lockdown leaving party
      We’ve just learned of another lockdown leaving party in government.

      The former head of the civil service Covid taskforce – the team responsible for drawing up Covid restrictions – says she’s sorry for holding a leaving party during lockdown in 2020.

      Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, has tweeted a statement in which she says she had drinks with colleagues on the evening of 17 December.

      The event took place in their office at the Cabinet Office to mark her leaving the civil service.

      “I am truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result,” she says.

    4. Bastards for forcing rules and misery on us that they clearly thought were unnecessary. And Starmer et al for demanding even more stringent rules and misery then cynically abusing victims by using them as examples to hit Johnson with.

    5. Words fail me. I couldn’t believe that they partied on the eve of the Duke’s funeral. Then to make HM sit alone, masked up like that!

      1. The bright side is, she showed grit and leadership, and did so.
        Now, there’s a lady one can admire – not those asswipes in government.

      2. I think she probably took it upon herself to sit apart from the others. They were further along in the stalls, not that far away. But the photo is iconic.

  72. Mother’s house central heating oil tank has developed a leak. Sent a request for a quote to get a new tank just this afternoon, and they already called me to arrange a survey. That was quick! Something must have happened in Wales, as sudenly, when I need them, companies are giving service with quality, and good prices, too!
    Mother herself will be moving into God’s waiting room on 19th. The house we will be organising to be sold. So, it needs an oil tank that doesn’t wee oil.

      2. That is why they were quick to respond.

        Don’t forget the environmental survey and cleanup. If it is like over here, any possible soil contamination sets off automatic profit alerts.

        3. You must have read The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl. He has cunning plans, all of which are nasty.

  73. As we all go about our respective Friday afternoons, preparing for the subdued weekend ahead, take comfort in the knowledge that somewhere in London there is a Sunday newspaper editor sitting on an absolute doozer of a story, just waiting for the minutes to pass…

    1. Yeah, right, A double page spread by the self-obsessed and ubiquitous sister of the BPAPM about how wonderful it is to be a Johnson – and what a lively spark Carrion is…..

    2. You may be planning a subdued weekend but we’re gonna party- er sorry, have work meetings.

    2. Yet none of them apologise for their poxy regulations being wrongly inflicted on the rest of us or admit that they flouted them because they knew they were lying.

      1. It appears that we must eat cake, Sue. The cake leftovers from their parties aren’t available though.

    3. I once read an article about things you could do with leftover wine. The comments were hilarious. What is leftover wine? was a common one;-)

  75. Afternoon, all. Too cold to do much in the garden today (ground is still frozen), so I’m here to plague you all earlier. I don’t particularly want a “sterner” PM, I want one who will cut the waste and red tape, actually do something about controlling the borders and deport ALL illegals instanter, ditch the “green” nonsense, stand up for indigenous Brits and our culture, get us a proper Brexit and not adopt any more “European” (i e EU) regulations.

      1. I do, Bill. Every time I’m down on my knees and the priest is asking us to pray for “refugees”, I’m praying that they’ll stay in their own country and we can have a Reconquista!

      1. If we ever were to get a PM that would achieve those, lacoste, I think we’d be entitled to throw a party or two!

          3. La bouteille reste là depuis 2016! Je ne l’ai pas ouverte le jour de la liberté et après ça j’ai apprécié que la bataille n’a pas en fait été gagnée 🙁

    1. Editor = sister of Babbling Poltroon’s wife. Funny that she should be having a go at BPAPM. I can’t think who might have put her up to it…..

    2. I do not suppose for an instant that any of the elite stuck to any rules. And that includes the royal family in private.

        1. Hmm. Hypocrisy, though. I wish people would profit from partygate by wising up to how we are NOT in this all together.
          But I have a nasty feeling that they will all rush down the next road that the government’s Pied Piper unit wants to lead them along.

          1. I cannot understand why people are not absolutely hopping mad about what’s gone on. Not the parties per se but the fact that they all obviously Felt perfectly safe and were not worried about some virus! That is the point.

          2. Yes, I have the feeling that many people are angry for the wrong reason, and think that good old Keir or Rishi or whoever will see us right. Sigh…

          3. Probably because they have not yet twigged that there is no virus but rather a laboratory formulated spike protein contained in the jabs which is causing the deaths and spread of the ‘disease’. That, and various toxic contaminants resulting from rushed and sloppy manufacturing processes.

            It is the batch number that determines whether you are paralysed or simply drop dead.

            Everything is designer deliberate.

      1. The scandal was a bit later, but that wouldn’t necessarily have precluded Epstein’s involvement.

      1. When are they going to wake up?! Have they not been reading all about parties going on at 10 Downing Street? And On the night before Prince Philip’s funeral? FFS what will it take!

          1. Alas, that is why the government has got away with things for so long. If only people would wake up (and especially stop voting the same way and expecting a different result).

    3. They are scared that a policeman will arrest them. Or someone will shout at them. Or that they will drop dead.

      The English police appear no longer to take any action at all re masks or, indeed, the plague.

      I have not come across anyone being shouted at for being maskless.

      Dropping dead seems out of fashion (unless you play foopball, of course). And one is unmasked on the pitch, anyway.

      PROJECT FEAR is alive and well.

      1. So do Morrisons – but none of their staff – the ones who are wandering about the shop – do.

      2. All the shops here have notices saying it’s mandatory or you must wear a mask. Nowhere does it say “unless exempt” (except, possibly, in very small print in Sainsbury’s, but I rarely shop there).

      3. Specsavers also have such a notice. Alf and I have both been there recently and they (and anyone else who asks about masks) are quite happy to accept a polite “i am exempt”. It is merely a request, you are not obliged to comply and, in my opinion, compliance and/or doing so “because others may expect it” is not the way to bring all these unnecessary restrictions, rules and regulations to an end. HMG will never give up their control of us if we don’t force their hand. They have stolen too many freedoms. Remember 2 weeks to “flatten the curve”, a few more weeks, once a vaccine is here we’re all saved, just another jab, now a booster jab, now another booster jab … things will never “get back to normal” unless we seize normal back ourselves.

        1. There was one in Boots yesterday when I collected my prescription. I ignored it and was not challenged.

          2. I always ignore them and am rarely challenged. I used to wear a badge, but now I don’t bother.

          3. I used to carry a paper badge but haven’t done so for, oh, well I can’t remember when I stopped.

          6. I used to keep it in my inner pocket, but of late I’ve been leaving it behind. If they don’t like it, I’ll do what Oberstleutnant did and leave my shopping basket in the middle of the floor before I walk out.

          2. I have been, once.
            So I put down my shopping basket in the middle of the floor, and left.

          5. I’m not sure that stripping completely is necessary, Sue, but whatever floats your boat.
            Got a selfie, BTW?
            ;-))

      4. You could say you’re exempt and you cannot be challenged on that.
        And say it politely.

    6. Our Postmen – who are brilliantly jolly people who have, throughout the plague kept an eye on us – have NEVER worn masks.

      1. They put are exercising while the work. It would be dangerous to do so.
        Our postman says he walks up to 17 mile daily.

        1. When I was in the NNUH, in 2020 being pushed – yet again – to yet another ward, I asked the ever-cheerful porter how far he walked around the horspiddle in a day. “About 16 miles,” he replied. I was staggered!

      2. They put are exercising while the work. It would be dangerous to do so.
        Our postman says he walks up to 17 mile daily.

  80. 344170+ up ticks,

    This photo should be used as a common denominator for the whole nation showing just how low a level we have sunk as a Country, leave aside the fact the lady in question is the Queen of England it could be any aged Lady being treated such in their time of suffering and that is totally unacceptable.

    As the innocent must suffer fallout from the polling booth then the 650
    politico’s minority innocent, multitude odiously guilty ALL must be given a porg chinaman (a wee kin lou) ASAP.

    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2022/01/GettyImages-1232361992-640×480.png

    1. That photo is tucked away on my lap-top. I give it an airing every time some numpty compares covid to the black death or claims we should obey our trustworthy governing class.

  81. OT – a tale of the good and bad of the NHS (clap?).

    I suffer from asthma. It gets worse in the winter. It is quite uncomfortable just now. I take a range of medication each day. When it is worse, I was prescribed prednisone by the consultant at the HHUH. He won’t allow more than seven days. Understandable. Side effects.

    Last Friday, I wrote to him explaining the sitch and asking if he could get the Fakenham GPs to prescribe some prednisone as a one off.

    On Wednesday at teatime, a lady knocked at the door with seven days worth of prednisone hand delivered from the NNHU.

    Today, Friday, I had a very nice letter from the HHUH chap sympathising and saying that he’d e-mailed Fakenham to issue some prednisone.

    I checked by online file at Fakenham at lunchtime. Nothing. 4.30, someone rang from Fakenham to say that my medication was ready. I looked again, and there it was.

    So I will now have TWICE as much as was required, and the NNHU l have spent at least a tenner in sending the lady over on Wednesday.

    I don’t mind – at least I’ll have some spares for the end of February if needed without the buggerment of asking.

    AND, as my online file now shows the tabs in my “list” I ought to be able to re-order if need be….

    Good (and a bit extravagant) service from Norwich. Less good service from GPs. Left hands and right hands?

    I am still refusing to clap – though I might have a party….

    1. It’s the NHS. After a conversation with a novice gp I ended up getting twice as much omeprazole every month as I need and use. It’s too complicated to try to sort them out. So I just periodically skip the prescription.

      1. I was seen by a child posing as a GP about four years ago.

        She recommended (well, the computer did) a treatment, and I asked her to refer me to the private hospital in Norwich.

        She hadn’t the faintest idea what I was talking about. I almost had to draw a map…!!

        1. It’s the crack that lets the light in…..
          I wonder how many of us remember buying both Mateus Rose & or Blue Nun, nearly as bad as a Party Seven, if my memory serves me well.
          Ha, memories of the late 60’s early 70’s.

          1. Mateus Rose is much maligned, probably because the bottles became candle holders.
            It was slightly pétillant and was the Prosecco of its day.

          7. Along with Mateus Rosé. Found in many a student’s home, oft with a candle stuck in the top and a year’s worth of wax dripped down the side!

          10. I had Veuve Cliquot at my wedding – perhaps not the wisest choice of name (veuve = widow), but we survived for 42 years 🙂

          12. My Father received a pressure cork remover for Christmas, when I was about 6 or 7, and proceeded to use it to open a Mateus Rose for Christmas lunch, thereby exploding the bottle all over the food… glass and wine everywhere, especially in the plates of food…
            The instructions were very definite on not using it on a non-cylindrical bottle…

          18. Not for nothing are instructions nicknamed “destructions” (for the avoidance of, obviously) 🙂

          25. We really lived in those days. Dinner on Saturday night with a half bottle of mateus, all paid for with luncheon vouchers of course.

          26. We were given 15 pence luncheon vouchers at one voucher per day. It was a tad embarrassing when paying the bill at The Barino in South Kensington across the road from the office in Alfred Place and more so at The Chelsea Kitchen on Kings Road. (French onion soup and curried eggs with hot chocolate sauce over ice cream for afters).

          27. Mr Patel on Abbeville Road in Clapham Common stocked Hirondelle, Corrida (Corroda), Blue Nun and Liebfraumilch.

            On Sundays we would occasionally drive to Richmond on Thames for lunch at The Refectory next to the church. There they served an English white wine named ‘Maids of Biddenden’ and depicting Siamese twins joined at the hip on the label (the proprietor maintained that the ‘Maids’ had both married) and a wonderful deep Australian red Shiraz from Stanley.

            Cost an arm and a leg.

          28. Liebfraumilch, I had forgotten about that one.
            A far cry from ‘Nuits St George’ which is my memory of a bottle that my wife ordered for my birthday at a restaurant in Lyon: the first time I’d seen a candle being used as the Sommelier decanted the wine at our table.
            Talking to him later, I asked why he didn’t ask me to try the wine as is common in UK. My French was good enough that I understood and sympathised with his response.
            At 71, my taste in wine has changed a lot from what it was in the 60/70’s but one has to start at the bottom and work up to appreciate quality.
            My excuse anyway 😎🙄

          30. It was cheap! In those days students and newly employed teachers had very little ££. Didn’t matter what it tasted like- it was cheap and gave you a (small) buzz.

    4. Crikey Bill, I can sympathise. My asthma gets rather bad during the winter as central heating and damp combine together.

      Going on oral steroids is jolly serious. Take it easy – less pruning apple trees, more resting with a book. A fitness tracker could help monitor your blood oxygen and heart rate as well.

      1. Thank you. Funnily enough, I find that going out on my bike (when the roads permit) and working in the garden help improve my lungs. I do BP and pulse test twice a day. The average is pretty consistent.

      1. That’s quite good, for you.

        You know that the beer – that most people call Jupiter is actually JupiLer….

        1. I did.
          On one of our first trips to France, with all the boys, the first night we stayed in a Jupiler Inn. It was superb and we had a fabulous meal for next to nothing. The boys were hooked on France on day one.

      2. That’s quite good, for you.

        You know that the beer – that most people call Jupiter is actually JupiLer….

      2. The free software ‘Stellarium’ is essential if you want to distinguish Venus coming into season (so to speak) from Jupiter rising….

          1. Well that really is a blast from the past! Did you ever hang out with Jimmy Young by any chance?

          3. One of the ferries out of North Shields to Norway was known as the ‘Vomiting Venus’!

    3. 344170 + up ticks,

      Evening P,
      You mean like the brexit party renamed to protect the
      guilty, now there is one chap capable of turning a silk purse into a pigs ear………

  85. OT – calling all Essex NoTTLers. With woodburners. I have mentioned before an Essex outfit that supplies VERY GOOD logs.

    Well, he has come up trumps again, for sister-in-law in Wivno.

    I commend him (not words you often hear from me). https://www.alexmillercontracting.co.uk/

    £125 a cubic yard. Delivered.

  86. That’s me gone for this chilly day at work, partying the hours away.

    Builder calling at 8,30 tomorrow – so will be up betimes (© the slave profiteer S Pepys).

    Have a bright and shining evening before the fog descends tomorrow.

    A demain.

  89. 344170+up ticks,

    ALL three of the toxic trio have currently their scrawny political arses hanging out , now is the tine for people power to kick them into touch before your village / town is under the governance of the local mandarin.

    Seems like the politico hierarchy have a strong yearn for the Yuan may one ask will they still find support when the electorate find they are selling old Blighty piecemeal ?

    https://twitter.com/Steve_Laws_/status/1482041228107653122

  90. ‘This is work’: Boris Johnson lookalikes rave outside No 10 to mock PM
    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/boris-johnson-lookalikes-of-raving-boris-johnson-downing-street-partygate-b976779.html
    Around 100 ravers dressed up in blonde wigs to look like Boris Johnson have gathered for an impromptu party outside Downing Street.
    Bizarre scenes of a sea of blonde lookalikes pogoing to intense techno music with the refrains ‘my name is Boris’ and ‘this is a work event’ were spotted by Channel 4 journalist Liz Bates on Friday lunchtime.
    The Boris’s were filmed opening cans of lager and bottles of Rosé cheering and whooping as they danced to the music.
    The group were organised by Youtuber Jaackmaate with their anthem ‘My Name is Boris’ produced by Alfie Indra.

    1. Now all the stupid restrictions should be done away with once and for all! These antics in Downing Street have proved beyond any doubt that it has always been about control and nothing to do with health. God rot them all.

          3. I believe her all day, every day over a self-entitled prince who willingly and knowingly associated with a convicted sex offender, whilst operating as though his royal position made him immune from both criticism and the law.

            In case you didn’t watch the second clip all the way through, here’s Giuffre’s account of the night she first slept with Andrew:

            Read more: https://www.2oceansvibe.com/2019/12/03/prince-andrew-latest-accuser-says-he-was-raining-sweat-as-email-surfaces-videos/#ixzz7HyWve5aV

            After they left the club, she claimed, Maxwell told her “that I have to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey, and that just made me sick”. She alleges that later that evening, she had sex with Andrew at Maxwell’s house in Belgravia.

            She said the alleged sexual encounter started in a bath, but “it didn’t last very long, the whole entire procedure. It was disgusting. He wasn’t mean or anything. But he got up and he said ‘thanks’ and walked out, and I sat there in bed just horrified and ashamed and felt dirty.” The next day, she claimed, Maxwell told her she had done “a really good job”.

            Giuffre said it was a “wicked” and “scary” time in her life. “I had just been abused by a member of the royal family.”

            She said: “I just didn’t expect it from royalty. I didn’t expect it from someone that people look up to and admire in the royal family … I couldn’t comprehend how the highest levels of the government, powerful people, were allowing this to happen, not only allowing it to happen but participating in it.”

            In their review of The Prince and the Epstein Scandal, the Telegraph calls it a “chilling noir-ish journey into a heart of darkness”:

            The rawest moments came in Ms Roberts Giuffre’s interview, in which she insisted the infamous 2001 photograph of Prince Andrew with his hand around her waist was authentic. Another Epstein victim, Sarah Ransome, recounted being lured to his private island where Epstein raped her…

            The Prince’s assertion that he could not have sweated all over Roberts Giuffre at Tramp’s nightclub in 2001 owing to a physical ailment was juxtaposed with Alan Partridge-esque photographs from the time of Andrew running, sweating and looking silly…

            …this was gumshoe journalism of the first order and a chilling adjunct to Andrew’s Newsnight disaste

            Read more: https://www.2oceansvibe.com/2019/12/03/prince-andrew-latest-accuser-says-he-was-raining-sweat-as-email-surfaces-videos/#ixzz7HyWXDXnQ

          4. I still do not believe all this. We, in the UK, knew Andrew was a twerp and a randy sod- hence his nickname. There is something else behind all this and it’s money. These women supposedly signed disclosure agreements.
            If anything we read is true….this encounter with Roberts took place in London where the age of consent is/was 16. She was 17. It happened on British soil so how can this apply in the US? Is Prince Andrew even subject to US law? I suggest not.
            I do not care about Andrew one bit but I have a feeling he’s been targeted as a prominent Brit and a Royal. These women want money and, if they signed documents to not name prominent Americans, then what is the alternative? A rich British prince.
            And there could be other motives prompting all this.

          6. Deepwater Horizon, remember that, BP got stung even though an American company was responsible.
            Same with this case: shift the blame and avoid naming USA involvment.

          8. I can accept that Andrew used her.
            What I cannot accept is that she wasn’t doing it for money or “benefits”

  91. Well, finally got a mix of mortar done and, with the sun dropping below the opposite side of the valley an hours and a half before I finished, I was bloody freezing by the time i finished!

    Planning a walk to Matlock Bath with daughter tomorrow for fish & chips followed by a pint, so it’ll probably rain!

        1. I was thinking about the fresh laid mortar! Just surprised that it’s warm enough in January.

    3. Well done with your mortar mixing and wall building, BoB. Enjoy your walk with your daughter tomorrow.

  93. Goodnight, all. Early to arrive, early to leave. I’m off to watch the TV movie “Bomber Harris” on yoochoobe.

      1. I don’t think he had a dog of his own. There was a dog which came with a house he rented and which adored him.

    2. Good night, Conway, and to all on here. I am feeling a little sleepy so will head off to bed now (8.30 am). No doubt this will result in my being wide awake at 4.30 am. If so, it will be downstairs for an early morning cuppa and I shall then watch Part One of D W Griffith’s classic INTOLERANCE for the first time.

    1. Poor wording. I have an irrefutable right to live in Britain, I was born here. And I qualify as ‘anyone else.’

          1. Does it annoy you as much as it does me that we, the native British, are treated worse than the dinghy people? I guess I know the answer.

          4. Same. Apparently my FinL has started going to the bookies again (he used to go there when he was younger, he’s now 89). Hopefully he won’t bankrupt them.

          5. I don’t have that problem as my parents died 39 years ago…I am 68 so you can work that out. MH’s dad died a few years ago so we don’t have in-law issues.
            This recent nonsense has been so hard on so many people for so many different reasons.

          6. Difficult to say about that. You were unlucky to lose your parents so young… On the other hand, looking after 3 of them who are behaving like 5 year olds without the endearing qualities is getting a bit wearing….

          8. My mother (94) lives with us. My wife’s parents live about 50 miles from us. With hospital appointments every week. At different hospitals. We’ll get through it, I’m sure.

          9. You will but that doesn’t mean it will be easy. Good luck my friend. I miss my dad but I am glad he’s missed all this nonsense. He was a staunch Tory and what’s going on now would have distressed him very much. Me? I am not surprised.

      1. My diagnosis, King Steven, is that you were ‘mildly’ warped in a picturesque location …

        What were you on?

      2. My diagnosis, King Steven, is that you were ‘mildly’ warped in a picturesque location …

        What were you on?

    2. For those, who wore a Navy Blue suit, a Lockdown was damage Control State One,
      normally preceded by Action Stations (repeated)
      with no mention of Airborne swine

    2. Too many middle class lefties and the younger generation in general believe in the diversity-is-good line. I expect a frog in warm water enjoys the experience until it boils his flesh. I think we are at the tipping point with several areas of the country already on par with third world practices and values. Sadly, as the old guard shuffle into their care homes, the new world order will spread like a cancer.

  101. I may have to refer this to my esteemed friend Lady Allan. There is a thingy on the BBC news (ha) page asking how much wine fits in a suitcase. My response would be that it depends on the size of the suitcase. Miz Allan admits to previous so I will defer this to her. 😉

    1. I heard on the radio that the tried it out for size ,

      The latest revelation – published by the Telegraph – includes the detail that staff were reportedly sent to a nearby shop with a suitcase, that was brought back “filled with bottles of wine”.

      How many might that be? Following a very unscientific experiment – how big is a suitcase, after all – we found we could fit roughly around 30 bottles, or possibly one Nebuchadnezzar, in a medium-to-large suitcase.

      Although it would be less if you wanted to pad out the bottles to avoid breakage.

      And would there be room for snacks? Do you sacrifice a bottle of wine for a family-sized pack of crisps?

      The research continues.

      1. We don’t eat crisps so that leaves room for more vino. We should conduct a Nottle experiment…all go out with different sizes of suitcase and see how many bottles we can get in them and then compare notes- hic.
        Last one standing wins!!

        1. I agree and some of the California wines in the box were very good- Peter Vella for instance. They are crap over here. My favourite in bottles, is Yellow Tail Pinot- known Chez Lake as Kanga Juice;-)

          1. We have one wine importer that will package their plonk in anything from half bottles up to 16 litre boxes. Most of it is reasonable quaffing wine, perfect for everyday (not quite that often) use. Honest, we haven bought a bottle for months.

            If things get bad, I have a five gallon demijohn of home brew maturing downstairs, very dry but bearable.

            My excuse being that we are still in an almost lockdown here, no indoor dining or drinking. Minus twenty five threatened here tonight, I can resist the temptation to sit on a patio somewhere.

          2. This weekend is likely to bring snow and or ice to GA and NC in the deep south. It has also been very cold here overnight on the south coast. Thick frost the last few mornings.
            Still, that won’t stop the Number 10 fools from partying, now will it?

          1. Maybe, but that was life, in the 1940’s

            In 1952, we had an electric fire, upstairs, in my parents bed sit…. (family lounge their bedroom) ( it still had gas lamps)

          2. We had gas lamps either side of the fireplace in the front room. It was coal gas and the filaments could be purchased in a store in Moorland Road in Bath. The light was a greenish colour from memory.

            I saw the same years later in the Blackfriars PH in London, the interiors of which are a sort of Art Nouveau confection close by Blackfriars Bridge.

          3. As late as the mid 1970’s my gran had friends in a terraced house off the Upper Bristol Rd who only had gas for lighting in every room and gas for cooking, and a single coal fire lit in the dining room for heating the whole house.
            I suppose those original light fittings would be much in demand for some today.

        2. I wish I could remember who said this…might have been late and former father in law. Or it might have been my dad. Standing up against the fire, with his bum to the heat said he was “warming the ‘hole of his body.”
          Edited to add a missing bit.

          1. Yo Lottie

            It was the way of life, just like when, at the age of Five, I walked on my own half a mile to school (and back,) then friends were made
            and we became s group.

          2. Aged 11 I went on the train from my station in south London up to London Bridge. And home again in the late afternoon. Did that for 7 years. And went up to town to see plays for O and A Levels. Well, at A Level age, sometimes we just went to a club or pub;-)
            The only real problem then was the IRA and their nonsense. But you cannot give in to it!

    5. My parents had a lovely thatched cottage in the New Forest. One day, when my mother was away visiting friends for a couple of days my beloved father set fire to the chimney when doing this. It was quite worrying but mercifully the roof did nor catch alight and we managed to clean up the mess.

      “I think, my lad,” my father said, “it might not be a good idea to tell your mother about this!”

    1. Obviously, nobody but a fool would suppose that we have experienced a pandemic.

      What we have experienced is a global construct designed to place us in a sort of denial from old fashioned common sense. The definitions of words have been altered and we are expected to accept the current narratives.

      This Covid cold may well have been manufactured in some filthy Chinese laboratory, who knows, but the vaccines developed on the supposition that it is a real virus seem very weak,

      This whole episode stinks to high heaven, it simply does not add up.

  105. Oh, I have been remiss in not thanking so many of you for your messages of kindness and support when I posted about my friend and his sad situation. Thank you all so much for your consideration.

    1. In the real world, *Geoff runs NOTTHETELEGRAFPHLETTERS, in ours it is also Mates Place

      *Fanx Mate

  108. Plan B restrictions to be scrapped as Boris Johnson plots fightback
    Prime Minister scrambles to secure political survival in the wake of Downing Street parties scandal, starting with return of social freedoms.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/01/14/plan-b-restrictions-scrapped-boris-johnson-plots-fightback/

    Survival Plan for Mr Johnson:

    Invoke Article 16 and scrap N! Protocol;
    Scrap nonsensible green agenda;
    Go back to Manifesto promises – end persecution of army veterans; scrap BBC licence fee;
    End illegal immigration and restore our borders;
    Sort out fishing;
    Free UK from EU jurisdiction;
    Sack all remainers from your cabinet.

    In a phrase : Give the electorate what they voted for.

    And then kick your latest wife out of your bed and out of Downing Street, scrap Covid restrictions and let us get back to normal and let us live with Covid.

    And then you might – but only might – save your party and your premiership but it will still be a damned close run thing.

    1. A more pertinent question which the Gates-funded Telegraph will not be asking is “why have Boris’s minders told him he’s allowed to row back on covid regulations, and how can we best protect ourselves against what they are planning next?”

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