Friday 21 May: The hospitality industry can’t afford yet more delays and uncertainty

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/05/20/lettersthe-hospitality-industry-cant-afford-yet-delays-uncertainty/

692 thoughts on “Friday 21 May: The hospitality industry can’t afford yet more delays and uncertainty”

    4. Do you mean, that your all these

      magnanimous, beneficent, self-forgetting, generous, altruistic, charitable,
      self-giving, greathearted, selfless, self-forgetful, diffident,benevolent,
      self-denying, philanthropic, humanitarian, unselfish,self-sacrificing.

      1. Don’t know what dictionary you’re using but if I were you, I’d get another. ‘Solipsistic’ refers to the philosophical proposition that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified.

        My comment was intended as a joke. Shame to have to explain it…
        :¬(

        1. Too early, Monarch of the Glen. Far too early. I know you have had daylight since 3 am….but not down south!!

        4. Oi, you stole it from me. I made the very same joke on here about a year ago.

          1. Much as I hate to gainsay a lady, I’m not having that! I ‘stole’ nothing from you. I used this same line in this forum much longer ago than one year. I’ve also used it on Breitbart and elsewhere.

            You may well have used it too but I don’t recall seeing any such post. In any event, you didn’t invent the joke and neither did I. It’s been around for donkey’s years – it’s even been printed on T-shirts.

            https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/is_it_solipsistic

          2. Much as I hate to gainsay a lady, I’m not having that! I ‘stole’ nothing from you. I used this same line in this forum much longer ago than one year. I’ve also used it on Breitbart and elsewhere.

            You may well have used it too but I don’t recall seeing any such post. In any event, you didn’t invent the joke and neither did I. It’s been around for donkey’s years – it’s even been printed on T-shirts.

            https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/is_it_solipsistic

  3. Who will make the case for liberty? Douglas Murray. 21 May 2021

    While Dr Fauci’s wisdom is questioned openly, Britain is haunted by the presence of Prof Neil Ferguson, who repeatedly returns to our screens like a bad horror movie. Rarely has any expert in British life been more wrong about so many major things, and yet still he crops up, where he is given a respectful audience at government level and by most of the media. His latest appearance has seen him warning — with the Prime Minister following suit — that the Indian variant of Covid might necessitate delaying the end of lockdown. But what is striking is not just that Ferguson gets away with repeatedly being wrong, but that his constant urges for greater caution are not balanced by any force urging the opposite.

    Morning everyone. It’s quite incredible that this mountebank, whose life’s work is a tale of lies and failure, has not been tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. Indeed his survival is in itself a matter of curiosity. Does he serve someone’s purpose in disseminating his views?

    https://unherd.com/2021/05/our-politicians-no-longer-care-for-freedom/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups

    1. Came there a Voice valedictory, Who is for Victory, Who goes home?
      GK Chesterton

  5. SIR – Does British Rail coming back under a new name (report, May 20) signal a return to those long-gone days when trains were prompt and efficient, and our services were the envy of so many countries?

    If so, where does this leave the great vanity project that is HS2? Are we still expecting hundreds of people to be prepared to pay what will no doubt be an exorbitant price to travel from not-quite London to not-quite Birmingham to save 20 minutes?

    Olly Plater
    Holmer Green, Buckinghamshire

    A great piss-take….shirley?

  6. SIR – My wife and I are UK citizens in the United Arab Emirates, currently on the red list. We are both fully vaccinated, are regularly tested, and have not left the country in months.

    The UAE is the second most vaccinated country in the world, with lower infection and mortality rates than the UK. The reason for leaving it on the red list is that it is a travel hub – but what does the Government think Frankfurt or Charles de Gaulle airports are? Why can’t we return to the UK and quarantine at home?

    Mike De Meyer
    Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    With a poncey name like ‘De Meyer’, we don’t want you back here….so yah boo sucks

    4. Dubai is nice enough for a visit, wouldn’t want to live there – so, I don’t. Bahrain is better.
      Like a lot of us expats, MdeM will have to put off a visit to UK a while. Tough titty.

    1. Blimey it was 25 years ago,
      I would never have dreamt of watching panorama even back then.

      1. not difficult to notice the dredging up of all this in an attempt to deflect attention. Like you, I never watched panormama back then, certainly not this subject topic

  8. Let’s see what emtional Woke of Fiction emerges today: Campbellon Mclearnon is slowly getting the reality, but yet to join all the dots. Judy Ayris reveals her shopping trips from the 1950s as does Mary Hill’s war time fox terrier habits. Iain Green might do better visiting this site and help Conway out:

    SIR – The Government’s initial roadmap out of lockdown was well planned and well communicated.

    As such, for some time the hospitality industry will have been preparing for June 21. Many of these businesses, which have already been hammered over the past year, will have invested in stock, food, drinks, staff and marketing – and many of these costs cannot be recovered in the event that they are unable to trade.

    However, the Government is now considering delaying the final easing. This could be the last straw.

    Restrictions should not be based on infection rates but, rather, the number of people who become seriously ill. While the Indian Covid variant may be more infectious, it does not appear to be significantly more dangerous. If this is the case, there should be no further delays to the lifting of lockdown.

    Angus Long
    Newcastle upon Tyne

    SIR – I agree with Allison Pearson (“We can’t cancel Freedom Day for another ‘scariant’”, Features, May 19). My family work in hospitality and, after the long furlough period, it seemed as though there was light at the end of the tunnel. Common sense must prevail.

    Jane Holmes
    Lymm, Cheshire

    SIR – The Transport Secretary has told us to use “common sense” when considering booking overseas holidays. But do we find that common sense in the Government’s policies?

    The current arrangement risks precipitating the collapse of my industry. The public and airlines need to start acting independently, and applying individual and corporate risk assessments regardless of the confused messages coming from politicians.

    Airlines have lost billions and are burdened with crippling debt. The Mediterranean economies are on their knees, and many destinations will simply not survive another cancelled summer. This will mean destitution for the millions who can only dream of a multibillion-pound furlough scheme.

    The risk to the UK from vaccinated and/or tested individuals travelling abroad is not zero, but it is minimal. The traffic-light system is being overseen by a coterie of risk-averse, economically cocooned scientists and politicians who fear future opprobrium more than financial catastrophe for a critical industry.

    Captain Al Matthews
    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    SIR – My wife and I are UK citizens in the United Arab Emirates, currently on the red list. We are both fully vaccinated, are regularly tested, and have not left the country in months.

    The UAE is the second most vaccinated country in the world, with lower infection and mortality rates than the UK. The reason for leaving it on the red list is that it is a travel hub – but what does the Government think Frankfurt or Charles de Gaulle airports are? Why can’t we return to the UK and quarantine at home?

    Mike De Meyer
    Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Great British Railways

    SIR – Does British Rail coming back under a new name (report, May 20) signal a return to those long-gone days when trains were prompt and efficient, and our services were the envy of so many countries?

    If so, where does this leave the great vanity project that is HS2? Are we still expecting hundreds of people to be prepared to pay what will no doubt be an exorbitant price to travel from not-quite London to not-quite Birmingham to save 20 minutes?

    Olly Plater
    Holmer Green, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – Will Great British Railways be run by Michael Portillo?

    Lynne Cowley
    Bagshot, Surrey

    NHS waiting lists

    SIR – The NHS continues to prove itself to be an organisation without a memory.

    Many years ago the NHS Modernisation Agency did a lot of sensible research into management of waiting lists. It concluded that if you prioritised patients as “urgent”, “soon”, and “routine” then the routine patients would never be seen at all, unless they got worse while waiting and changed categories.

    This is why day-case beds are ring-fenced and segregated from the main body of hospital beds, because otherwise no day-case surgery ever gets done as the beds fill up with overspill from other wards.

    We can discuss the level of service provision generally, but we cannot change the number of skilled staff in the short term. For now, we need to manage the list of priority cases separately from the routine, but continue to tend to both, or we will find ourselves back where we were in the 1980s, when patients needing non-urgent surgery routinely died during the years they waited for treatment.

    Dr Jenny Jessop
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire

    New kind of news

    SIR – Like Allister Heath (“GB News will smash the BBC’s biased, Left-wing broadcasting hegemony”, Comment, May 20), I look forward to the launch of GB News.

    As well as providing a more balanced view of the news than the current channels, it also means we will see more of Andrew Neil on television. There is no better political interviewer.

    I just hope that our politicians find their way to the new channel to be questioned.

    Roger Gentry
    Weavering, Kent

    Wine minefield

    SIR – The new normal is with us at last and we may look forward to the resumption of familiar social habits, not least the dinner party. This would surely be a good opportunity to discard the custom of wine swapping.

    Typically, each guest arrives clutching a decorated gift bag containing a bottle of wine. This puts the host in a quandary. Should they serve the wine and let the donor take the blame for a bad choice?

    The host may have gone to some trouble to choose a wine to complement the menu, so they put the bottle aside with grateful thanks and make a mental note to take it with them to the next dinner invitation. This runs the risk of absent-mindedly returning the bottle to the giver.

    Best to end the practice now and leave the host in charge.

    Donald McIntyre
    Chester

    Learning the law

    SIR – Geraldine Wills (Letters, May 19) is spot on that more is learnt about the law and its application during articles than by doing a degree.

    When I entered articles in 1971 after my degree I was paid the princely sum of £8 per week. I was told: “Think yourself lucky, lad. Two years ago you would have paid me £8 a week.” But what an education I was given.

    Peter Holt
    Halifax, West Yorkshire

    SIR – I may be the last barrister still in full-time practice not to have been to university. To practise at the Bar it was considered sufficient to have passed the exams, thus showing adequate knowledge of the law. A year as a pupil cemented the knowledge required for the exams, and of practical matters – etiquette at the Bar, drafting pleadings, and conducting cases in court. A good pupil-master was worth his fee and the lessons learnt have stood me well.

    I see no reason why a law degree is needed to practise the law. A wider education is likely to be of value, however. As Walter Scott said: “A lawyer without literature and history is a mechanic, a mere working mason.”

    James Cartwright
    London SE20

    Imperial at birth

    SIR – While doctors and nurses now use metric measures (Letters, May 19), as a midwife I never heard parents use them for a baby’s birth weight. “Tell us in English, please,” they said. It still happens, even though today’s parents were taught metric measures at school.

    Rather than removing such things from the curriculum (report, May 15), Oxford University might like to consider freedom of choice.

    Barbara Dixon
    Mansfield, Nottinghamshire

    SIR – My Greek grandmother, born in 1890 in Sifnos, bemoaned the loss of the oka, an Ottoman measurement, when Greece introduced the metric system in 1953.

    Mike Valmas
    Milford, Surrey

    Open door policy

    SIR – When I was growing up in Egham in the 1950s my father seldom locked our front door (Letters, May 20).

    He used to leave a kettle, teapot and tea on the kitchen table so that when the postman called he could come in and make himself a cuppa.

    Duncan Rayner
    Sunningdale, Berkshire

    Lockdown dogs looking for a fresh start

    SIR – You report (Features, May 16) that many animal sanctuaries are full, because of an increase in the number of abandoned dogs.

    This makes it even more vital that people getting a pet adopt from a sanctuary or rescue centre rather than encouraging further breeding through buying from a shop or private owner.

    Iain Green

    Director, Animal Aid
    Tonbridge, Kent

    SIR – During the war we had a fox terrier, Jock, who took himself for daily walks around the farm (Letters, May 20).

    In May 1944, American soldiers, including General Eisenhower, were camped in the nearby woods and Jock became firm friends with many of them.

    If the air raid siren sounded, he knew what it meant and hitched a lift home in a passing jeep before retiring to the cupboard under the stairs until the “all clear” went.

    Mary Hill
    Bishop’s Waltham, Hampshire

    SIR – When I was shopping for my mother in Brighton in the 1950s, nobody batted an eyelid when a black cocker spaniel walked in holding a wicker basket containing a note and purse. He waited until the grocer read the note, supplied the goods and took the money, before wending his way home.

    Judy Ayris
    Folkestone, Kent

    SIR – As children we had a mongrel, Lassie, who would beg each day for her treat. My mother would throw a penny in the air, which she would catch before heading to the sweet shop. There she’d swap it for a bar of toffee, which she would bring home to eat.

    John Wright
    Kirk Ella, East Yorkshire

    Whole families penalised by the cost of care

    SIR – My wife has been in care for five years suffering from dementia. The cost has consumed her life savings and my house is safe only because I need it to live in. Meanwhile, my five adult grandchildren are all desperately saving to get on the housing ladder. My wife and I could have assisted them had the care system been properly funded as part of the NHS.

    The fact that this financial trauma is piled on top of the devastation caused by dementia is scandalous.

    Campbell McLearnon
    Bangor, Co Down

    SIR – My mother-in-law, who succumbed to Covid in her care home, was paying about 20 per cent extra in fees – which were charged against her
    home once her savings had gone – in order to subsidise the council-funded residents, who were already being paid for from her and our council tax.

    How is this fair? The Prime Minister must honour his 2019 election promise to sort out care home fees and stop this disgraceful anomaly.

    Patrick Tracey
    Carlisle, Cumbria

    2. A Comment:-

      Robert Spowart
      21 May 2021 8:40AM
      Olly Plater’s letter is not so ridiculous as it seems as for a VERY short period towards the end of BR it actually performed as well, if not better, than many other railways.

      This was after the “Organising For Quality” reforms of the early 1980s that swept away much of the Beeching mentality and split the operating side away from the Regions into the Business Sectors.

      Unfortunately, the improvements were cut short by Major’s Privatisation plans.

    3. “SIR – You report (Features, May 16) that many animal sanctuaries are full, because of an increase in the number of abandoned dogs. This makes it even more vital that people getting a pet adopt from a sanctuary or rescue centre rather than encouraging further breeding through buying from a shop or private owner.”
      Iain Green
      Director, Animal Aid
      Tonbridge, Kent

      Chance would be a fine thing!

      What annoys me is the number of rescue centres IMPORTING dogs from Romania, Cyprus, etc (at a cost of nearly £500). Surely we’ve got enough here looking for a home without bringing in any more.

  9. I heard a little bit on the radio news earlier this morning, didn’t catch it all, that Boris is today promoting some WHO global surveillance system to ensure this pandemic never happens again.
    I fear for the freedom of all of us, life is never going to be the same again, we are going to be controlled by big tech from the cradle to the grave and the gap in between will not be as long as before when we are of no use.

    1. Morning Bob. I am beginning to look forward to the Climate Change Apocalypse. Indeed any Apocalypse!

        2. “I love the smell of vaccine in the morning. It smells like …… victory!”
          — Mad Hancock

    2. 333161+ up ticks,
      Morning B3,
      The funny thing is in a macabre sort of way over especially these last three decades, it has been done in the main with the herds consent.

  10. Good morning, all. Grey, damp and blowing a gale.

    I wonder how the beeboids will report their deception over Diana Spencer…if at all. Heads to roll?

    Tony Hall to resign all his “great and good” jobs and go into a monastery?

    1. C’mon…you know darned well that they still haven’t told the unadulterated truth…the delays have been an exercise in cover-up and burying.

    2. Morning Bill. I was amused to see Earl Spencer describe her as a “Girl” who needed protection. This a woman of thirty five with two children!

        1. And if the “Well Known London Secrets” circulating at the time are true, she was damaged goods LONG before Charles for near her.

      3. If she needed protecting , where the hell was her brother and her sisters and mother, oops she had fallen out with them all!

  11. This urge to jab everyone is now beyond being called sinister. Johnson, Hancock et al. must be really worried about having a ‘significant minority control group’ i.e. the non-jabbed out there countrywide. I sincerely hope that their concern is maintained, and built upon, as more whistleblowers find the nerve to speak out.

    https://twitter.com/SuzanneEvans1/status/1395270443863580673

    1. KtK monring. I was exchanging on yday’s thread with ogga saying there is a head of steam building up which neither MSM or woke Govt will acknowledge, while they play with their abascus to seek justifying numbers. And like 2016 EU referendum, the usual shock and horror when they realise as you put it “significent minority control group” is actually the majority. the “sheen of fear” has worn off, but accept some of the Nation will take time to join all the dots

      1. The true situation re jabbed is not in the public domain. All we have are the government figures for take-up. In the last couple of weeks there has been publicity about the 40yo + groups being jabbed but I know for a fact that people in that group were being jabbed in Suffolk nearly two months ago. Several months ago Johnson was bemoaning the ‘significant minority’ of non-jabbed and he is still using that term. Exact numbers would be useful or even percentages would give an indication: of course the government will never release the true figure as they would probably destroy the government’s narrative.

        Significant:

        sufficiently great or important to be worthy of attention; noteworthy

        1. the Govt entities do know the real / true number and it’s not met their expected take up level, that’s their worry as the numbers game they’re playing isn’t stacking up and their corporate talking head financial backers need more. They’re playing the usual mind game based on false data for a non existent “virus”, so have to continue “promoting” a corporate message, which an obliging MSM will provide. Providing exact details will finish them, that they know and will hide it at every step. They believe they can create and apply rules and an obliging population will follow. That isn’t happening the rules of this agenda in destroying true democracy and systems within it, aren’t being followed. As usual their fundamental mistake is publicising the intent before it happened. They’re in it far too deep to stop and admit their errors

          1. On a 20 mile return drive yesterday I went past 3 different vaccination stations, Staff in their high-viz ( so must be important ) were just stood outside – no cars parked – nobody walking in or out – and this was early afternoon.

        2. “Exact numbers would be useful” – really – exact nembers? – from a govt that has lied for over a decade about cutting immigration ?

          1. Of course exact numbers would be useful, however, I did not express any expectation that this lying, cheating, back-sliding and obfuscating government would do such a thing. Quite the opposite in fact.

  12. I posted this on the Speccie just now about the Bashir/Diana nonsense that they are dragging up to bury some bad news we’re not supposed to hear about.

    “I cannot get myself enthusiastic about this Report, which like most official reports from so-called intelligent life in London, misses the point and dwells at length on irrelevancies. It then becomes the main news bulletins for weeks, despite the events happening 25 years ago, burying bad news that is unfolding today. We never do get to hear what Erdogan is doing to the Kurds.

    The main culprit in this sorry invasion of privacy is Diana herself, not Bashir. The BBC reporter was doing his job rather well, worming his way into the royal circle to extract titbits of gossip about a prospective future queen that the proles like to hear. Unlike the Report, I cannot fault him for his underhand methods, gaining the confidence of Diana’s brother and then using his professional skill as an interviewer to get her to let slip things that are better, in hindsight, left buried.

    Diana should never have gone near the snake, but she did. She is a grown-up woman and one thing grown-up women should know about are the intentions of snakes when out to create mischief. Has she never read Genesis?

    The victim in this was not so much Diana, who felt she knew what she was doing, but her sons, whose own private lives were dragged through the mud when they were not of an age to do anything about it. They won’t blame her, because she was after all their mother, so sadly they will never come to terms with this unfortunate episode. For their own sanity, I wish they would in private accept that their sainted mother made a mistake, paid for it royally, but as with all mistakes, one has to mitigate where possible and then turn the page.”

    I am sorry that the Duke of Cambridge, our future King, fell for it and issued a statement.
    It would take a playwright of the calibre of Shakespeare to make sense of this saga, but all it really goes to show are the fascinating complexities of human nature that has fuelled art through the ages.

    William’s parents never loved each other. Diana didn’t love Charles any more than Charles loved Diana. It was a marriage of convenience cooked up largely by the Queen Mother. There have been many such marriages in high places through history. Loveless marriages are sad affairs, but nothing particularly unusual.

    The best they could have done was to have shunned the cruelty of the moral uplifters, particularly those who frowned on Edward and Wallis and Margaret and Peter, and do what married folk do to keep their sanity, and that is to take lovers/mistresses discretely, whilst maintaining in public a show of solidarity. The children of such an arrangement, if they know what is going on, are remarkably resilient and adaptable. They have to be.

    Charles could spuddle at Highgrove with Camilla in their green wellies, and Diana could hold court in Kensington with her A-listers and exotic foreign heirs. The public would just have to lump it – after all Edward VII was not short of a mistress or a few dozen to keep him happy while the ever-liberal minded Alexandra looked on. History showed that it actually set up Entente Cordiale, ending centuries of animosity with the French, when it turned out that Edward had “charmed” many of Paris’s influential society hostesses.

    The best thing for William to do is precisely what he ended up doing. Like Saffy in ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ he snorts contemptuously at his parents’ hedonism and takes on a nice girl from a rock-solid family in Middle England and raises a rock-solid family with her.

    1. Amongst all the smoke is the thought that if Bashir can get documents forged so easily, how many other BBC reporters use the same methods?

    2. Amongst all the smoke is the thought that if Bashir can get documents forged so easily, how many other BBC reporters use the same methods?

    3. I’m slightly mystified as to why Lord Spencer kept a few scribbled notes for 25+ years. He lives in a stonking great house, has had an ‘eventful life’ and has minions to lose stuff for him (though I manage to do the same all by myself in a house that would fit into his library). Why keep a few scraps of cheap paper from the sort of notebook I use for shopping lists? Did he not trust the Beeb or Basher? If not, why wait so long – particularly after his ‘beloved’ sister’s demise? Surely after his grandstanding at her funeral – when he was really making headlines – was the time to go tonto.

      Quite frankly, the whole bunch are as mad as a box of frogs and complete shits into the bargain. They deserve each other.

      And Hacked Off are very quiet; doesn’t quite fit their agenda, does it!

      1. The Princess of Wales’s brother is an extremely unpleasant man.

        Has everybody forgotten that he treated his sister very badly and was exceptionally cruel to the women who were stupid enough to have married him.

    1. You can what what the chief cunstalble (sic) meant when he said, the other day, that perlice are not all that bright.

      2. But bright enough to eat lawyers for breakfast when appearing in the witness box.

          3. As were Lutfur Rahman, Neil Frew, Rebecca Harling, Gavin Dowell, Eion MacCarthy, Iain Farrimond, Alistair Main and countless others.

            There are bad apples in the barrel of every vocation. When it applies to those administering law and justice it becomes exponentially worse. Nearly as bad, in fact, as when it applies to the bad apples amongst those charged with the care of our health and wellbeing.

  15. Jailed Kremlin critic Navalny ‘more or less’ recovered after hunger strike – prison official. 21 May 2021

    Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has ‘more or less’ recovered his health following a hunger strike and has the possibility of communicating with his family, the head of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service said on Thursday.

    A Medical Miracle that’s our Alex! After sprinting up and down the hospital stairwell a month after being “Novichokked” what’s a little Hunger Strike? I suppose he’s doing forty pull ups a day by now!

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/jailed-kremlin-critic-navalny-more-or-less-recovered-after-hunger-strike-prison-2021-05-20/

    1. more pull ups than that, his pockets are empty. He’s probably on a bet with security guard to crack 100 in a record time in exchange for his shoes back and his bus fare home. He’ll soon be seen in Salisbury buying perfume

  17. Prince Harry accuses Royal family of ‘total neglect’ and ‘bullying’ in Apple TV series. 21 May 2021.

    The Duke said that he and the Duchess of Sussex were subjected to such a level of harassment on social media that he felt “completely helpless” and assumed that his family would help.

    His eternal whingeing will no doubt help to ease this burden!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2021/05/21/prince-harry-accuses-royal-family-total-neglect-bullying-apple/

    1. His Memoirs “How I ended my privileged career in two weeks and lost the plot achieving it” will be a best seller

  20. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ab3c6ad51e9798f121ce8780a71ff3c85b59bd90d4fd4225718408f332153d9e.png

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/05/20/snp-scotland-hospital-patients-discharged-into-care-homes-unlawfully-report-finds/

    Wee Krankie is asking for the other ‘leaders’ of the UK to join her in committing to to a full UK wide inquiry.

    No, Nicola, you can’t blame Westminster for the shameful failings of your SNP administration – not this time. What we must demand is a Scotland specific inquiry, led by an independent judge – untainted by and unbeholden to the SNP – if such a creature is still to be found in Scotland.

      1. I have listened to Delingpole’s ‘Nina’ podcast and it threw some light on the jabs for specific recipients. ‘Nina’ called it the ‘celebrity jab’ and she cited an example of someone who received their jab but were informed sometime later that a mistake had been made and a saline jab had been administered in place of the real potion and would they rebook for the real jab. One has to question why a saline container would be in close proximity to CV-19 containers such that a mistake could be made. In addition, surely different labels would make the difference abundantly clear, or maybe not if some CV-19 jabs are ‘person specific’ and the difference in labelling is slightly different so as not to be noticed by anyone not in on the scam.

        1. I posted I think on yday’s thread earlier this am. Here in Kenya since January the very few that have been jabbed [elders] were given mixed Glucouse and saline in jab. All support packaging said Covid 19 supplies. Wasn;t helped one of elders was told no alochol. 20 mins later he’s taking his usual whiskey and soda. He then realised he’d been used as a pawn in Govt stats. To make him feel better, we bought him the whole bottle but on stipulation he bought his own soda

        2. 333161+ up ticks,
          Morning KtK,
          Sort of like when the look alike UKIP
          name was above the genuine article on the voting paper.

    2. There are a number of retired judges. I do think that it may be possible to find an upright judge in Scotland. However, as we see, inquiries* take many years to come to a conclusion and no one is ever held to account. In many cases the Lord Advocate pre-empts the inquiry by ruling out the possibility of prosecution. ( See the Glasgow bin lorry deaths.)

      *Croydon Train crash inquest: The crash investigators knew what happened within a week (but not why), the inquest took place over four years later!
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-57164860

    1. 333161+ up ticks,
      G,
      Three have ruled the roost within the polling booth for
      decades.

  22. Good morning from a blasted and blustery Bursledon.
    Non-stop high winds through the night and outside too.

  23. Friday Comes Around Again

    This guy dies and finds himself in hell. He is wallowing in despair when he has his first meeting with a demon. “Why so glum?” the demon asks.

    “What do you think? I’m in hell!” the guy responds.
    “Hell’s not so bad. We actually have a lot of fun down here… you a Drinkin’ man?”

    “Sure, I love to drink.”
    “Well you’re gonna love Mondays then. On Mondays that’s all we do is drink. Whisky, tequila, Guinness… you name it!”
    “Gee that sounds great.”

    “You a smoker?”
    “You better believe it!”
    “All right! You’re gonna love Tuesdays. We get the finest cigars from all over the world and smoke our lungs out. If you get cancer no biggie you’re dead anyway!”
    “Wow…that’s awesome!”

    “I bet you like to gamble.”
    “Why yes, as a matter of fact I do.”
    “Wednesdays, you can gamble all you want. Craps, Blackjack, Roulette, Poker, Slots, whatever you want! Hey, do you like chicks?”

    “Are you kidding? I LOVE women! You don’t mean…”
    “That’s right! Thursday is orgy day. Help yourself to the finest pussy hell has to offer!”
    “Yowza! I never realised Hell was such a swingin’ place!”

    “Are you gay?”
    “No…”
    “Ooooh… then you’re gonna HATE Fridays!”

    1. The old ones are the best. Even when recycled from the desert outposts of the Empire!

  24. Britain cannot afford to become a bit-part player in the new Arctic battleground. 21 May 2021.

    If Russia’s malign intentions in the Arctic were not already clear, Vladimir Putin this week sent a series of signal that no responsible Western nation, least of all Britain, can afford to ignore. Designed to coincide with a meeting of the Arctic Council, Russia’s PR machine has been in overdrive, with foreign journalists invited to visit its snow-bound military base in Franz Josef Land, deep inside the Arctic circle, and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warning its rivals in bellicose terms against staking their own claims to the region.

    Russia’s “malign intentions” in this case consist of protecting and exploiting its own Arctic territories of which the UK has none! As to being a “bit-part” player that is now the UK’s role. It has an army that can fit comfortably inside Wembley Stadium and two aircraft carriers that act as a reserve to the US fleet. We possess no unilateral capability at all. We cannot even protect our own waters from the EU or our coasts from infiltration!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/20/britain-cannot-afford-become-bit-part-player-new-arctic-battleground/

    1. If the UK doesn’t have any ‘Arctic Territory’ since it doesn’t border the Arctic; why then does it have a ‘British Antarctic Territory’ when that is on the other side of the planet?

      [Yes, I know: the Antarctic is a land mass whilst the Arctic is nobbut frozen sea; but my point remains.]

      1. Because we have the Falklands which are the nearest bit of land to the BAT section.

      2. Morning Grizz. You are right there should be no British Antarctic Territory but the lack of an indigenous human population made a land grab inevitable. It would be best if the entire continent were cleansed of human settlement but things being the way they are this is unlikeley!

      3. Morning Grizz. You are right there should be no British Antarctic Territory but the lack of an indigenous human population made a land grab inevitable. It would be best if the entire continent were cleansed of human settlement but things being the way they are this is unlikeley!

          1. Much to do about nothing, Grizzly? You are really William Shakespeare and I claim my five bob postal order. :-))

      5. There are a few places around the Meridian that can claim an unbroken view of the North Pole across the sea from their land territories:

        Ireland – 11º0’W to 7º41’W, except for UK (St Kilda) 8º38’W to 8º28’W

        Denmark (via the Faeroes) – 7º41’W to 6º15’W
        UK (Hebrides to Lowestoft) – 6º15’W to 1º46’E
        France – 1º46’E to 2º32’E
        Belgium – 2º32’E to 3º22’E
        Netherlands – 3º22’E to 4º36’E
        Norway from 4º36’E

        Svalbard to the East kicks in at 10º26’E
        To the West, Greenland kicks in at 11º0’W, blocking out Iceland

      6. Are you sure the UK doesn’t have any Arctic Territory? Where, then, did Arctic Roll come from?

  25. I’m waiting for the ‘clever dog’ letters to out do each other all the way up to ‘My dog performed my wife’s brain surgery only two weeks after returning from his solo circumnavigation of the globe’

  27. MI5 chief accuses Facebook of giving a ‘free pass’ to terrorists and child grooming gangs with new end-to-end encryption for messages. 21 May 2021.

    The head of MI5 has accused Facebook of giving a ‘free pass’ to terrorists with its plans for end-to-end encryption.

    In his first interview, Ken McCallum said the plans by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg would enable terrorists to plot attacks on Messenger and Instagram without being visible to the security services.

    The security service has warned that Facebook is set to stop using algorithms that flag illegal content, instead only making it visible to the sender and receiver.

    I personally would welcome terrorist organisations using a public service to transmit their plans in the face of the fearsome decoding abilities of western intelligence and so I suspect does the head of Mi5. There is of course nothing of substance to this story. ISIS and al Qaeda long ago gave up using such means and so it can only be aimed at domestic targets. These comments by McCallum probably serve more as an advertisement to use this service; which itself tells you how unreliable it is against penetration. Knowing what we know about the world there exists the real possibility that it has been set up for such a purpose and that a back door exists to read such communications in real time.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9602421/MI5-chief-accuses-Facebook-giving-free-pass-terrorists.html

  28. Good morning all

    We have still have gale yellow warnings , the gale continues , we were really blasted last night and hardly slept .

    This morning is no better , the lilac tree is now blossomless, and my Ceanothus tree has cast blue blossom everywhere

    The ships (cruise liners and a beautiful sailing ship ) that were sheltering in Weymouth bay a few days ago , had cleared off to calmer waters yesterday, where I don’t know , we noticed when Moh drove me to Weymouth in his car. (Mine is still waiting for a spare part)

    Perhaps you will enjoy this old folk song most of us knew from our childhood.

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

  30. Shite weather here. Gale; rain; cold. I am delighted to say that I used The Times “Climate Change – Vital Green News” supplement to light the stove.

    2. Breezy and overcast on here on the Costa Clyde, with rain promised later. It should arrive just as our four-ball reaches the 2nd tee.
      It’s an offshore wind so some of my shots may prove a danger to shipping.

  31. ‘Morning All

    #CovidClownWorld

    Beware the Yorkshire variant…..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cae25653317def9fa534b4ea2243b3f5cd9c3b94fe03c70863e3d9d2211c2d73.jpg

    The Long,the Short and the Tall??

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bfc28b0411ed4d0ee2aa59f82763da75058cb3d1c399aa681fc4dd00223392f2.png

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dfa92c9bb60230d06878a1c56f056d01b86f1c58d6a8c66818466c958a0acb21.png

    Canada,be afraid be very afraid

    https://twitter.com/CanAditude/status/1395113595957125121
    Edit
    Missed one
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/57118a61ba594c3d22d1f60d419c66adf78c26cd6f2333854258c08cca03b148.jpg

    1. There should have been a group of big strong men go in, grab him, rip his jacket off and say – “We don’t need your parent’s consent to do this” – and vaccinate him with every variation of the vaccine possible – all at the same time. If he complains he would be told – “you don’t understand”.

      1. The cure for the Yorkshire variant is simple: lashings of thick, beefy, onion gravy and a dollop of Colman’s English!

        2. That’s the DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo to you.
          We all know what the word ‘democratic’ means in the name of a country.

    3. Nice one Rik.
      Don’t forget to give me a call about a lift on Tuesday week.

  33. Nicked Comment,Hear,Hear

    Rhodes statue remains:

    ‘Oriel College said they had decided not
    to remove the monument due to ‘considerable obstacles’, including
    financial costs and ‘complex’ planning processes.’

    They chose to
    hide behind bureaucracy rather than making its retention a matter of
    principle and rationality. They could have detailed all the many
    positive achievements of Rhodes and pointed out the fallacy of judging
    history by modern ‘standards’ and obsessions.
    Cowards.

  35. Regarding the much hyped threat from Covid-19 ‘variants’, Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College, has indicated that a team at the university tracking coronavirus cases does not believe that the Indian variant of the Wuhan virus, which is now abroad in the UK, appears to be making the situation significantly worse.

    “There’s no clear evidence yet that the new Indian variant is significantly worse than the old Kent one,” Spector said.

    Ah yes, the Old Kent variant. So called because folk caught it in the Old Kent Road, I suppose.

    1. Years ago, there was a BTL poster on The Grimes who would refer to those we now call woke as educated at The University of the Old Kent Road Bus Shelter.

    4. The Old Kent Road is the cheapest property on the Monopoly Board. The Mayfair or Park Lane variants would have had more social cachet before the areas’ demography was diversified so that white British people can no longer afford it.

  36. Welcome to the Free Speech Union’s weekly newsletter. This newsletter is a brief round-up of the free speech news of the week.

    Help people like FSU member Lisa Keogh

    Lisa Keogh is a 29-year-old law student at Abertay University and a member of the Free Speech Union. She is being put through a disciplinary procedure for defining a woman as “someone born with reproductive organs and who can menstruate” in the course of a classroom discussion, and this week the university has escalated its investigation into her. Lisa spoke to Woman’s Hour about the ordeal of facing an official investigation, with the risk of expulsion, while sitting her final exams; she is just days away from finishing her degree. She described to Spiked the feeling of having a target on her back. The case exposes the falsehood of those who claim that campus censorship is a myth, writes Tom Slater in the Spectator.

    The enforcement of trans orthodoxy across UK universities, backed up by disciplinary codes, means it’s no longer safe to state what most would consider biological facts without risking serious consequences. Lisa’s case was raised by Joanna Cherry QC MP during the debate on the Queen’s Speech last week, in which she spoke up in support of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill.

    We’re backing our member in full and hoping the university will conclude that Lisa has no case to answer. But if the university tries to withhold her degree, the case will probably end up in court and we will back Lisa all the way. (See our press release about the case here.) To keep helping people like Lisa we need new members. Membership starts at just £2.49 a month. Take a stand for free speech and join us today if you haven’t already. If you are a member, spread the word: invite a friend or family member to sign-up.

    FSU backs trainee teacher over career-threatening referral for supporting the right to show Mohammed cartoons in class

    The fallout from Batley Grammar School continues to spread: a trainee teacher at Manchester Metropolitan University faced a serious hearing, threatening his future career, after he asked his course leaders to support the right of teachers to show cartoons of Mohammed. The decision has prompted widespread outrage. He is a member of the FSU and we have been supporting him. The result of the hearing is expected soon.

    The teacher at the heart of the Batley affair is still in hiding nearly two months on, with the location of the safe house kept secret even from his relatives. The Mail on Sunday reported that an imam at the centre of the affair may have broken hate crime laws after he called Muslim MPs who defended free speech “coconuts”. Free Speech Champion Daniel James Sharp wrote about the Rushdie affair in Areo, an event which has been a grim prototype for the enforcement of Islamic blasphemy norms in the West ever since.

    Stonewall’s silencing of gender critical views exposed

    The University of Essex has issued a rare and welcome apology for cancelling talks by two academics because of their gender critical views. An investigation into the events, commissioned by the University, concluded that Stonewall, the LGBT charity which had helped draft the University’s Trans and Non Binary Staff Policy, had undermined the “university’s obligations to uphold freedom of expression”, given an “incorrect summary of the law” and provided “misleading policies”, according to Kristina Murkett writing in UnHerd. In the Spectator Julie Bindel called the report a “game-changer”. The full report and apology can be read here.

    Meanwhile, Lady Falkner, the new head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has defended the right of women to question trans ideology.

    Is the tide turning in universities?

    The new Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill is critical to the fightback against cancel culture and campus censors. We’ve been campaigning for stronger free speech protections in universities, so this Bill is very welcome. The Free Speech Union has dealt with more than 100 university free speech cases since its launch in February 2020. You can read our press release about the Bill here. Several academics, including our Chair, Professor Nigel Biggar, and our Advisory Council member, Professor Eric Kaufmann, wrote to the Times defending the proposed legislation after it was dismissed as unnecessary by Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein.

    The University College Union (UCU) has produced a survey designed to discredit the Bill, encouraging respondents to describe cancel culture as “overblown rhetoric” – not exactly an impartial way of gathering views. But the censorious behaviour of university authorities continues to make the case for the Bill even as its critics claim everything’s rosy in the garden.

    In the past week alone, Exeter University faced accusations of a Soviet-style culture on campuses, with academic staff told their courses won’t be accredited if they don’t “move away… [from a] white, Eurocentric” curriculum; our Advisory Council member Zoe Strimpel drew attention to the roll out across the higher education sector of mandatory unconscious bias training, leaving many academics “terrified to speak their minds”; and Cambridge has just unveiled a new bias reporting hotline, encouraging students to report students and academic staff for such crimes as raising their eyebrows when a student of colour is speaking, referring to a woman as a “girl” or failing to use a trans person’s preferred gender pronouns. One beleaguered Cambridge academic told the Telegraph: “Heated disagreement on many academic subjects are likely to become impossible. They have effectively laid out the pitchforks, and it is now up to the woke mob to pick them up.”

    We continue to support our member Dr Neil Thin, an anthropology lecturer at Edinburgh University. This week the Times reported that no action will be taken against the students who abused him as a “rape apologist”, “crusty old man”, and “scumbag”. In the Herald, Stuart Waiton says freedom of speech is doomed unless people stand up for it.

    Meanwhile, our founder Toby Young welcomed the surprise decision by Oriel College, Oxford not to pull down its statue of Cecil Rhodes, calling it a “victory for common sense over the woke Taliban”.

    Chaplain deemed to be extremist for telling school students they were free to question LGTB policies

    Dr Bernard Randall was referred to the Prevent programme by his school – a CofE independent boarding school – after he gave a sermon in which he defended students’ right to form their own philosophical views about LGBT issues and shouldn’t feel under pressure to conform with fashionable orthodoxy. He ended up losing his job and has now begun a legal battle in the Employment Tribunal. He is a member of the FSU and we are writing to the school to complain about his treatment, as well as to the Education Secretary to complain about the school.

    Cancel culture and intolerance

    An especially absurd case of cancel culture came our way last week – an art historian was suspended by the Arts Society for an off-the-cuff comment about the aftermath of Harry and Meghan’s Oprah Winfrey interview. “You couldn’t turn the television on without some person of a colourful disposition having a moan about something,” she said – the word “colourful” landing her with a suspension from the approved list of speakers and compulsory “diversity training”. We’re backing her.

    Professor Rima Azar is the latest Canadian victim of cancel culture. She has been suspended without pay because she challenged a student who said Canada was afflicted by “systemic racism”. Professor Azar is raising funds to mount a legal defence. You can donate here.

    Developments at Pimlico Academy don’t bode well for the future of free speech: the headteacher resigned after his insistence on flying the Union flag and on other “utterly unremarkable” policies triggered a massive backlash, according to the Spectator. There was no sign of tolerance either from Bangor’s new “agender” mayor, one of the surprise victors in this month’s local elections. Peter Franklin has written an optimistic piece for UnHerd arguing that the new wave of Maoist intolerance sweeping the land won’t triumph in the end. Maybe not, but only if good people band together to resist it. That was the view of Janet Daley in her Telegraph column this week.

    Prince Harry baffled by free speech

    The Duke of Sussex attracted ridicule after he said he found the First Amendment “baffling”. As Toby pointed out in the Mail, free speech doesn’t just protect people at the fringes of society, it protects people like him and Meghan too: “I’m hopeful that if we do more to defend mavericks and dissenters – by introducing the equivalent of the First Amendment in the UK, for instance – we will revive our democratic tradition and learn to appreciate open debate again. In the meantime, Prince Harry would do well to remember that free speech protects everyone, including him, not just the enemies of the woke Left.”

    Our director Douglas Murray likewise wrote in the Telegraph that the UK could do with a First Amendment of its own: if we did, perhaps police wouldn’t record “non-crime hate incidents” against people for making perfectly lawful remarks.

    Elsewhere in America, a Space Force officer was relieved of his command for comments criticising diversity and inclusion programmes in the military.

    Tech and online “safety”

    Kenan Malik criticises the Government’s new Online Safety Bill in the Guardian, while Paul Coleman in Spiked says the legislation rests on a “very dangerous” approach. You can read our briefing about the Bill, written by Radomir Tylecote, our Director of Research, the day after it was published, here.

    Google is to “help” users by prompting gender neutral language within its Google Docs app, the Times reports. While Twitter temporarily suspended a Spanish politician after he tweeted that a “man cannot get pregnant”.

    New Zealand FSU up and running

    Our sister organisation in New Zealand has launched successfully and has already taken up the fight for free speech. You can follow its efforts here.

    Help defend London’s Polish-language newspaper

    A Polish-language newspaper is facing ruin following a libel case and a string of judicial errors. Help defend free speech and journalistic freedom by contributing to its crowd-funder.

    Video of FSU’s ‘speakeasy’ with Quentin Letts

    For those of you who missed the FSU’s first ‘speakeasy’, in which Toby interviewed the journalist Quentin Letts about his new book Stop Bloody Bossing Me About, you can watch it on video here.

    Sharing the Newsletter

    We’ve received several requests to make it possible to share these newsletters on social media, so we’ve added the option to post them on a few different platforms, including Twitter and Facebook. Just click on the buttons below.

    If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

    Remember, all of our work depends on our members, we receive no public money: sign-up today or encourage a friend to join and help us turn the tide against the censors.

    Best wishes,

    2. National social guidelines state that thou shalt not swim backstroke in a public pool, as the virus may be forced upwards.

  38. Good Moaning. (Well, apart from grey skies, blustery winds and intermittent rain – and did I mention sub-Arctic temperatures?)
    Aaaarrrggghhhhhhhh ….. I potter downstairs to pick up the print DT off the doormat and there is a full blown pikkie of the Ginger Whinger. Or was I still looking at the doormat?

      1. From the Speccie article:

        The Duke also talked about how media and social media had impacted his wife. He told Winfrey that in January 2019 Meghan decided to ‘share with me the suicidal thoughts and the practicalities of how she was going to end her life’, adding that she later decided against it because she didn’t want him to lose ‘another woman in my life’.

        Never read such utter cobblers. Pure Hollywood. And Harry fell for that?

        1. If she felt suicidal, she knew she had hurt her poor old father and relatives , and she also knew she was acting out her dream role , and didn’t really fancy the balding whining ginger whinger!

          The role was too big for her .. She knew that she was outclassed and rather inferior!

      2. Would his mother then have had to wear a burka?

        Incidentally, I suspect that Bashir is a Muslim and she confided in him – and didn’t she have a fling with a Pakistani surgeon as well as with the Muslim Playboy? She clearly is drawn to and has a penchant for men of the religion of peace.

  39. Government considers BBC shake-up after damning Diana report. 21 May 2021.

    Damning findings about Martin Bashir’s Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1995 means the governance of the BBC and how it operates will have to be examined, according to a senior government minister.

    “The government has to, in the light of these serious findings, consider the matter very carefully and comprehensively indeed,” Buckland told Radio 4’s Today programme.

    We’ve been here before! Many Times! The only solution is to shut this Woke Propaganda Service down! Permanently!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/21/government-bbc-diana-report-martin-bashir-panorama-interview-inquiry

  40. Good to see the fragrant and truthful BBC on the hook once more – anyone else notice the continued use of the phrase ‘mocked up’? That’s BBC Speak for fraudulent.

    They can’t help themselves can they?

    The BBC couldn’t lie straight in a bed, what more evidence is needed? A sign from God?

    1. I fear this “scandal” will make neither a jot nor a tittle of difference to the beeboids.

  41. OT – bizarre thing. In small Fakenham (pop: 7,600) we have, within half a mile radius: B&Q, Screwfix, Toolstation and Travis Perkins.

    The first two belong to Kingfisher; the second two to Travis Perkins.

    Handy though they are – and I went to all four this morning before 8 am – seems a touch of overkill.

    I wanted 25 mm plastic tube. B&Q and Toolstn had it – but the wrong interior diameter. TP – none. Screwfix had the right thing. Then I had to go back to B&Q to get 22 mm dowel to fit inside the tube.

    So I have been taking the Tube all over Fakenham…

    I’ll get me overalls.

    1. Slightly too narrow bore can be solved by dipping the end into very hot water until it’s hot & pliable, then quickly shove it over the nipple.

  42. Good morning, my friends

    Will the Bashir outrage activate Boris Johnson to do something about the BBC or will he use his usual verbose evasions and do nothing?

    And what new outrage from the EU would prompt him into abandoning the Northern Ireland Protocol, reclaiming British fishing waters in full and going for WTO?

    Has it occurred to anyone else that Michael Gove has some source of blackmail and control over Boris Johnson? If you remember, just a couple of days before the “deal” was agreed it looked as if Northern Ireland and Fishing were not negotiable and that Britain would stand firm. Then Gove arrived in Brussels and immediately Johnson and Frost caved in on both counts and Britain is now lumbered with the most appalling deal which, as Ursula Fonda Lying, has teeth with which to bite Britain in the bottom at the EU’s whim.

      1. Looks like a controlled demolition explosion; are you sure Fred-Al-Dibnah wasn’t involved?

      2. Very reminiscent of 9/11 with out further damage how on earth did an airstrike demolish the whole block in one go ?
        I’ll get me bomber jacket……….

        1. Precision guided missiles fired at the weakest structural points of a building based on computer models & actual testing on disused structures on a firing range

        2. Russian contractor demolition gangs fixed explosives to bring down the Twin Towers in place. This was progressive collapse by the use of synchronised timing devices.

          1. I read about that and an explosives expert who said so had a nasty ‘accident’. Also one other building went down but wasn’t t hit by an aircraft at all.

        3. Russian contractor demolition gangs fixed explosives to bring down the Twin Towers in place. This was progressive collapse by the use of synchronised timing devices.

    3. Who’s this idiot with a handkerchief on his head who seems to be ghosting me?

      1. Plenty more taxpayer’s cash yet to throw about – “Splash the Cash” Sunak hell bent on destroying us as much as BJ is.

    2. Clearly BJ and his gang are as trustworthy as that chap Cameron who was going to trigger Brexit , on a Leave vote result – and walked away.

          1. Thanks for that – ended up with tears of laughter running down my cheeks. Real comedian – not like this modern stuff.

  44. Can someone please explain why and how the previous days comment and reply facility are locked and no reply can be made ?

    1. Comments close after two days – that was done due to the ongoing spammer attacks.

      1. Thankyou Ellie, I don’t always keep tracks of the replies and it’s a shame I can’t get back on salient points.

        1. We’re under attack again at the moment – they’ve been ongoing for months. You can reply on yesterday’s posts but not on anything older than that.

          1. I don’t spend a lot of time on here now, I have so much to get on with at home. In fact i’m off for a a couple of hours now.

  45. The population in the UK of muslims and useful anti-semitic idiots has grown markedly (I decided the word ‘steadily’ was not appropriate here):

    There has been a huge amount of comment in recent days on the latest round of exchanges between Israel and the terrorists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. As usual whole slews of celebrities and other important figures on the international stage have lamented the fact that Israel has put so much effort into the defence of its own citizens. As usual these ignoramuses cry about ‘disproportionate’ death tolls. As though it would all be a lot fairer if Israel turned off the Iron Dome system for a night or two and let the increasingly sophisticated weaponry of its enemies rain down, unmolested, upon its people.

    But all this, and much more, has been rehearsed a thousand times before. From the UK there is only one interesting observation that can be made about this conflict. Which is that it once again bears out a rule that has been observable for the last couple of decades. The rule is this: It does not matter what the size or scale of any conflict involving Israel might be, the reaction on the streets of the UK worsens each time.

    This has been an observable rule throughout each of the interventions in Gaza, however long or short-lived they have been. It was observable during the 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Each time the eruption on British streets is worse than the time before.

    This exchange, for instance, has only lasted a couple of weeks so far and looks like coming to an end fairly soon. It has not involved a land invasion of Gaza. It has involved rocket barrages fired at Israel from Gaza, responded to by Israeli precision bombing against the launch sites and other targets that Hamas and co have built in among the Palestinian civilian population. So by the standards of previous exchanges this has been minimal. Yet here are just a few of the things that have happened in the UK as a result.

    Large scale protests outside the Israeli embassy in London involving openly anti-Semitic messages, attended by leading politicians of the opposition Labour party. Nine police officers injured by members of the crowd throwing missiles at the British police.

    Convoys of cars of pro-Palestinian activists drive through Jewish-populated areas of London, broadcasting out calls to ‘Fuck the Jews. Rape their daughters’.

    While her colleagues are being injured by the mob, a police officer in London promises protestors that she is on their side and says she is ´praying day and night´ to Allah. Eventually joining the crowds, raises her fist and chants ‘Free Palestine’.

    Elsewhere on Britain’s streets, Muslims call for Jihad.

    I could go on. This is just a taster of how Britain — still technically meant to be under Covid restrictions — loses control when a comparatively minor exchange occurs thousands of miles away. Naturally politicians of the mainstream on all sides condemn the outright racism, bigotry, and intimidation. But they have no strategy — how could they? — for dealing with the growing number of people in Britain who find Israeli self-defence so appalling that it makes them call for violence, and commit violence, on the streets of Britain.

    Israel can look after her own affairs. But with each conflict Israel gets dragged into the question arises: can Britain look after hers?

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-do-parts-of-britain-erupt-whenever-israel-defends-itself

    1. It is hardly a surprise that anti-semitism and protests against Israel are on the rise in the UK. The reason is simple – the growth in the Muslim population.

    2. Why is this surprising? They get here, they sit on welfare, they get a free house, food and everything, then they breed. Muslims have 5 or 6 children, natives have 1. we’re being erased and that’s being paid for from our taxes – taxes so high we don’t have so many children.

      It’s a vicious circle that will continue as long as child benefit and housing benefit exist..

    3. Why is this surprising? They get here, they sit on welfare, they get a free house, food and everything, then they breed. Muslims have 5 or 6 children, natives have 1. we’re being erased and that’s being paid for from our taxes – taxes so high we don’t have so many children.

      It’s a vicious circle that will continue as long as child benefit and housing benefit exist..

    2. “GIVE ME PRIVACY – LEAVE ME ALONE”

      He and his daft bint will go on shouting until the press stop reporting them.

      Call me naive, but I simply don’t understand why the MSM keeps on and on about Brash and Trash, I really don’t.

        1. He’s discovered that tootling one’s pipes, no matter how empty the tune, brings in the dosh.

    3. That expensive lifestyle is not going to pay for itself, you know. Their Title-tattle will only have a monetary value whilst people are still interested. Thankfully, we don’t all go loopy when we lose a close relative.

        1. I actually think he will go mad and end up on suicide watch.
          It could be argued that his mother took the same path; even without the Paris incident, she would not have made old bones.

    4. Problem for Harry is that he is so thick like his mother , he cannot see just what is going on and he is being exploited by the media just like his mother.

      2. Life style in California has driven him mad, his eyes look very vacant , it is as if she , his wife, has been like a Praying Mantis , devouring him from the inside out .

        He has paid a huge price for going against the grain by shagging a mulatto games show participant .

        2. edited: TB, that is a distasteful description of PH’s wife and the mother of his child. No baby can choose its skin tone or its parents. In any case, the m word ends with ‘a’ for females.
          As for PH paying a huge price, he now has his own little family to worry about, and there is a remote chance that his delicate feet will eventually make contact with the Earth beneath him.
          And whilst I don’t have a high opinion of MM, it must take some sort of courage to marry PH, even if it’s only temporary.

          1. Not the baby’s fault – the parents are to blame. Anyway, Archie looks pinker than pink.

          2. Hi Ndovu, no, I was referring to little MM as a child. Over the years I have met quite a few people with mixed ancestry, and some are nice and some are ornery; but none of us can choose our parents. Prejudice is not just about physical appearance, but also about upbringing and money, so it’s simply snobbery.

          3. Oh – I’d agree with all that – Meghan is a good-looking girl and I don’t dislike her on that score at all. What I do dislike about her is the wokery, her continual complaining about the way she was treated in this country, when three years ago she had the most woderful wedding, with the British public lining the streets and welcoming her. She was welcomed into the Royal family, and the Queen showed her great kindness. She has ruined Prince Harry, with her “therapy”, when he used to be a very popular member of the RF. Many of the things she came out with in the infamous ‘interview’ have been shown up to be false. I just can’t stand the way she has hehaved and she has obviously homed in on his insecurities and magnified them.

          4. So, Meghan, what was it about a billionaire’s life-style that attracted you to the Ginger Gormless?

          5. Hello Tim
            Of course you are quite right and sensible and very measured in your response to me .

            I reckon that PH was emulating his frisky mother and going gungho and probably punishing his family by thinking he could find happiness with MM .. Diana /Dodi… PH/MM. He probably equated a different colour with the happiness his mother found with Dodi , and of course the others .

            What a shame he didn’t have a big conversation with MM.

            He has made an absolute fool of himself , and we are sick and tired of all their problems , especially so as their relationship is still new!

          8. Courage? Or overarching (see what I did there!) love of money and (in)fame(y)

        3. I’ve been watching the repeats of ‘The Secret Life of the Zoo’, and the Praying Mantis eat their males head-first, since the head (unlike that of a ginger prince maybe) contains the most nutrients.

          Maybe you are thinking of the jewel wasp Ripley, whose daughter Sigourney ate her intended, Cockroach Karl, from the inside out, after cutting off his feelers and trapping him in a glass tube with rocks at one end?

      1. Mummy and Daddy are muzzies who came here from Pakistan. Martin became a ‘committed Christian’ and used to go to a Presbyterian church when he was based in NYC.

    1. Leave your cow at home, then.

      And bring back 6 months quarantine for animals coming into the UK.

    2. Tell them the pet is “woke” and has trans-specied.
      Train it to do at least one trick on command.
      That will allow you to demonstrate that it is at least as intelligent as Lammy and can be considered human.

    3. When will HMG realise that the EU is just being its usual vindictive self – and apply twice as stringent rules to EU people (and their animals) when they arrive in the UK?

      2. I think HMG is doing everything it can to “nudge” the public into saying “we should rejoin the EU”. HMG is actually helping the EU by not standing up to them in any way. In a few years time, maybe even sooner, there will be calls to rejoin “our friends” – hah! in the biggest trading bloc closest to us.

        1. The fact that Gove arrived in Brussels a day or two before the deal was announced is very deeply sinister because, until that moment, it looked as if Frost and Johnson would stand firm on fishing and N. Ireland. But within 24 hours of Gove’s arrival they had capitulated.
          I am sure that Gove managed to blackmail Johnson into capitulation just as I am convinced that if Cummings had not been sacked and replaced by NutNuts, the Johnson paramour, we would have secured a far better deal or left on WTO terms.

          The depth of Gove’s evil is almost as deep as May’s.

          And since then the EU gave chance after chance and every justification for Britain to scrap the deal and go for WTO terms before the EU deigned to sign it themselves. Why on earth did Johnson not take the chance?

          1. I do wonder what Gove has over Johnson – after all it was Gove who torpedoed J before and with drew his support. Add to the mix that J wanted David Frost off the Brexit negotiating team but relented when Frost kicked up a fuss. There are so many machinations going on behind the scenes and BJ never was a conviction politician. He just seems to sway whichever way the wind is blowing. He seems to get involved where his attention is not at all needed. The BBC report on the Diana situation is a case in point. And he was going to do something about the TV licences way back, wasn’t he. He is just an absolute liar. They are all liars.

            J didn’t “take the chance” because he’s a Remainer at heart. He has no appetite or will to stick up for any principles because he doesn’t have any. I’m positive he regrets becoming PM, he’s found it a lot harder than he thought it would be. The sooner we can get rid of him the better. But who instead?! Can’t actually think of anyone.

          2. There isn’t anyone but the Tories are not alone in this. There isn’t a single man of vision with the charisma or intelligence to pull off that vision into a winning election strategy in the entire Houses of Parliament. There are no more Attlee or Thatcher types which is exactly what we need. The political situation has been dire for decades.

          3. I do wonder what Gove has over Johnson – after all it was Gove who torpedoed J before and with drew his support. Add to the mix that J wanted David Frost off the Brexit negotiating team but relented when Frost kicked up a fuss. There are so many machinations going on behind the scenes and BJ never was a conviction politician. He just seems to sway whichever way the wind is blowing. He seems to get involved where his attention is not at all needed. The BBC report on the Diana situation is a case in point. And he was going to do something about the TV licences way back, wasn’t he. He is just an absolute liar. They are all liars.

            J didn’t “take the chance” because he’s a Remainer at heart. He has no appetite or will to stick up for any principles because he doesn’t have any. I’m positive he regrets becoming PM, he’s found it a lot harder than he thought it would be. The sooner we can get rid of him the better. But who instead?! Can’t actually think of anyone.

        2. Not a chance. Rejoining the EU now would mean taking it wholesale, Euro and all. Even these current Tories are not that damn silly. We must never join the hated currency union it would kill the UK stone dead.

    6. I don’t like going abroad. I like climbing up a hill with the dog.

      The wife likes going to hot places and sitting on a beach. This is hell for me.

      Ergo, she goes on holiday where she wants to and I go where I want to. We went on holiday together a long time ago and it wasn’t fun for either of us. We’re OK if it’s temperate or mild, but too hot and I can’t cope and get properly cranky.

    7. I don’t like going abroad. I like climbing up a hill with the dog.

      The wife likes going to hot places and sitting on a beach. This is hell for me.

      Ergo, she goes on holiday where she wants to and I go where I want to. We went on holiday together a long time ago and it wasn’t fun for either of us. We’re OK if it’s temperate or mild, but too hot and I can’t cope and get properly cranky.

    8. I have never seen the point in taking a pet abroad. If you have pets, holiday in England; there are plenty of lovely places with mind-blowing scenery.

    1. It’s greener and saves the planet. Don’t you listen to anything?

      1. 333161+ up ticks,
        Afternoon HP,
        You are right of course cars before kids, rotherham showed us that in council & police vehicles for 16 plus years, maintaining former, purposely avoiding latter.

      1. Better? In what sense? Not in range, environmental use, energy efficiency, speed, weight or longevity of the machine.

        They are not more efficient (see range, longevity) and require vastly more fuel to power them.

        Cheaper? Not a chance. Never will be. Manufacturing is as lean and efficient as it can be for petrol engines.

        Accessible? Kid doesn’t live in a flat then. Or a dodgy area. Or parks on street.

        What damage has petrol really done? Or diesel? He won’t know except to spout waffle. Just send him a picture of a child mining cobalt but he won’t accept it – he can’t. Ne needs to fight his corner and won’t tolerate any other viewpoint. He’s a typical Lefty.

        1. If as they say, electric will get better then I will wait for the new improved version.

  51. LARF of the week:

    “Only by acting with complete transparency can the BBC expect to win back public trust.”
    (The Grimes, today).

    2. That public thrust has now degenerated into the pubic thrust we’d all like to give ’em!

    1. Ay opptoop thoop,…….. That’s gonna leave a mark………Scar borough ?

    3. Except, Wibbles, the Yorkshire raviant is autslexic and wears a cat flap.

  54. Buckland’s a member of the Cabinet “led” by the duplicitous Johnson and he claims what is being done re the “vaccine passport” is very un-British.
    It could be that Buckland is not being straight with what he knows and was embarrassed by JHB’s questioning, an incompetent fool for not paying attention during Cabinet or Hancock is running his own shit-show on a long leash from Johnson. Whatever, Mr Buckland, you are bound by Cabinet responsibility, you haven’t resigned, ergo you are complicit and your name will appear in the (sane) people’s little book.

    https://twitter.com/talkRADIO/status/1395659656396214273

    4. J H-B for Pope.
      A triumvirate of Douglas Murray, Rod Liddle and J H-B would set the world to rights.

  55. The rain is coming down in sheets , patio like a river , huge rain drops , the gale has backed down and not as noisy as it was .

    2. Wind’s dropped a bit here, too. Still rainingg though – got to brave the elements soon to get some food.

    3. Wind’s dropped a bit here, too. Still rainingg though – got to brave the elements soon to get some food.

  56. Another beautiful hot and sunny day here. Just a pity that it is at least three weeks until we will be allowed to sit on a patio and enjoy a drink.

  57. Two mice were at a bar. One mouse asked the other if he was going to be vaccinated…
    ” Hell no, they haven’t finished testing it on humans yet. “

    1. How on earth was he cleared to fly Apache gunships then, there would have been strict selection and medicals for him to have undergone flying training . Personally, someone has been putting words into his mouth . He was a happy joyous mischievious Harry before he met his wife . She has offloaded all her own personal misery and inferiority complexes and anger at her own family onto him

        1. After seeing him cross his arms over his chest, closing his eyes with associated REM i would suggest California has got to him, with the help of his wife.

          She has her own Court. A coterie of sycophants and hangers on.

          The media lapping it all up and waiting for the explosion.

          She will destroy him.

          He will end up in a tent on Venice Beach with all the other dropouts, druggies and loons.

          2. The next instalment will be from Harry’s tent on the beach bewailing the fact that Meagain took advantage of him at a low point.

            No one ever mentioned a Pre-Nup and he had to give up three Royal Palaces in the divorce settlement.

            Reality/Royalty TV. Better than I’m a celebrity give me a Lobotomy.

          3. I think she’s busy setting him up for a divorce, hence the solo appearances where he makes a twit of himself.

          4. I think she’s busy setting him up for a divorce, hence the solo appearances where he makes a twit of himself.

          5. The next instalment will be from Harry’s tent on the beach bewailing the fact that Meagain took advantage of him at a low point.

            No one ever mentioned a Pre-Nup and he had to give up three Royal Palaces in the divorce settlement.

            Reality/Royalty TV. Better than I’m a celebrity give me a Lobotomy.

          6. Friends of mine used to live in Stanford – le – Hope, beautiful little Essex village which was quite unspoilt & very peaceful when they lived there back in the 60’s & 70’s

          8. Hi Phizzee

            Charles is also very vulnerable now, troubles heaped on his back, lost his father and a brat of a son playing up.
            I hope and pray he doesn’t succumb to a heart attack .

          9. Hello Belle.

            Charles lost his father. Normal.
            Brat of a son. Normal.

            The media always like to big up this sort of nonsense.

            Best they can do is to completely ignore it.

            Those that know…know.

          10. Hello Belle.

            Charles lost his father. Normal.
            Brat of a son. Normal.

            The media always like to big up this sort of nonsense.

            Best they can do is to completely ignore it.

            Those that know…know.

          11. Charles was lucky in that both his parents were still alive when he entered his 70s – that’s not the case for most people.

            He’s got Camilla to keep him grounded.

          12. Charles was lucky in that both his parents were still alive when he entered his 70s – that’s not the case for most people.

            He’s got Camilla to keep him grounded.

          14. Hi Phizzee

            Charles is also very vulnerable now, troubles heaped on his back, lost his father and a brat of a son playing up.
            I hope and pray he doesn’t succumb to a heart attack .

      2. I would assume he was chaperoned and there was always the co-pilot to take over.

        1. Harry wasn’t flying the helicopter; he sat at the front aiming the weapons and going ‘Bang, bang’

        2. Harry wasn’t flying the helicopter; he sat at the front aiming the weapons and going ‘Bang, bang’

      5. A Canadian soldier has just been charged with giving her fellow soldiers cannabis laced cookies.

        Not illegal in Canada but this was during a live fire artillery practice, apparently things did not go well.

    2. I wish the media would respect Prince Hapless and his wife’s demands for privacy and ignore them completely.

    3. I wish the media would respect Prince Hapless and his wife’s demands for privacy and ignore them completely.

    6. Takes people’s attention off looming social credit passports to enter shops.

    7. Takes people’s attention off looming social credit passports to enter shops.

    1. The description and news headline are wrong. The mayor is refusing to take questions from White Journalists.

          1. Ah Hatman! You are such a charmer! Many thanks! I have been living the life today! An outdoor coffee on a windy Falkirk High Street with a dear friend! No missiles, bombs or threatening stuff! Wishing you well and shalom for your weekend!

          2. Thank you Sue, wishing you a great weekend in windy Falkirk from sunny Tel Aviv & just watch out for the occasional militant Haggis sellers !

          7. Is that kosher?
            I don’t believe you.

            Don’t they deep fry in lard in Glasgow?

      4. Apparently the partner worked at the Chicago library. Wouldn’t dating an employee be an issue ?

        2. Why do black racists who despise white people marry or live in concubinage with them: David Lammy loathes white people and yet is married to a white woman just as this black woman despises white people but has a white lesbian lover?

        3. Why do black racists who despise white people marry or live in concubinage with them: David Lammy loathes white people and yet is married to a white woman just as this black woman despises white people but has a white lesbian lover?

        4. Is there a ‘Return By’ date stamped on the marriage certificate? Pah, bloody headline seekers.

        5. Is there a ‘Return By’ date stamped on the marriage certificate? Pah, bloody headline seekers.

      5. Apparently the partner worked at the Chicago library. Wouldn’t dating an employee be an issue ?

      6. How considerate of them to ‘marry’ each other, thus making only two people miserable instead of four.

    7. The headline is wrong. She didn’t say she refused to be, she said there weren’t enough non white journalists.

      Either way, whatever she says – it’s labelling. It’s a career. Distinguishing on skin colour – in either sense – is racism.

    8. The headline is wrong. She didn’t say she refused to be, she said there weren’t enough non white journalists.

      Either way, whatever she says – it’s labelling. It’s a career. Distinguishing on skin colour – in either sense – is racism.

  61. I always enjoy reading Andrew Roberts. I remember him introducing Niall Ferguson to lecture an important audience at some prestigious institution in London and saying “Undoubtedly, he is the finest historian of his generation” and then, pausing, and adding with a mischievous smile “I am, of course, one generation older”.:

    Sometimes it is difficult for a people to face the stark truth about themselves, but the latest Gaza conflict makes it unavoidable: the Palestinians need to get over their historical complaints, which largely date back to the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948.

    To listen to some in the anti-Israel movement today – which extends far further into Britain’s media than it should – one might imagine that the Palestinian exodus of 73 years ago was somehow an occurrence unique in modern history. The truth is very different. For all sorts of geopolitical reasons, many groups were forcibly or voluntarily moved during the troubled decade of the 1940s. There were no fewer than 20 different groups – including the Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus of the Punjab, the Crimean Tartars, the Japanese and Korean Kuril and Sakhalin Islanders, the Soviet Chechen, Ingush and Balkars – who were displaced in that period, many in their tens or hundreds of thousands.

    None of the specific circumstances are directly comparable. But all of these peoples chose to try to make the best of their new environs except one, and most have succeeded. Some, such as those who emigrated to the United States, have done so triumphantly. The sole exception has been the Palestinians, whose leaders again and again chose to embrace fanatical irredentism and recurrent intifadas regardless of the interests of their people. The rubble seen in Gaza today is all they have to show for it.

    The Palestinian militant cadres chose the terrorist path while every other one of the displaced people of the late-1940s chose the peaceful one of moving on with their national stories, looking forward, rather than back to a past that has grown rosier through the distorting prism of hindsight.

    After the Second World War, more than 3 million Germans were forced to leave their homes in the Sudetenland, Silesia and lands east of the Oder and Neisse rivers, where their forefathers had lived for centuries. They embarked on the 300-mile journey westwards under conditions of extreme deprivation, carrying only what they could pack on to carts and into suitcases. Having reached the new borders of East and West Germany, they settled and made no irredentist claims to the new Poland and Czechoslovakia. Today, they and their children comprise some of the most successful people in Germany.

    The same period saw massive population transfers in the Punjab and North-West Frontier territories of India, where some 16 million people crossed between the new states of Pakistan and India, and modern historians are finally coming to agreement that somewhere between one-half and three-quarters of a million people died in the appalling communal massacres that ensued. While there are severe border disputes still between the two successor countries over Kashmir, no one from the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities is agitating for restitution of the lands their forefathers farmed or shops they once owned in the Punjab.

    Before his death in 1953, Joseph Stalin moved entire ethnic groups from one side of Eastern Europe and the USSR to the other, sometimes numbering millions. They were “relocated” to Siberia, the Crimea or Central Asia, often hundreds of miles from their homelands and under the harshest conditions. In all, forced internal migrations of the Tatars, Volga Germans, Ingush, Balkars, Karachays, Meskheta Turks and other ethnic groupings numbering some six million led to the genocidal deaths of up to 1.5 million, including 46 per cent of the Crimean Tatars. Yet there are no appreciable irredentist movements among these former Soviet citizens; they have made the best of their new situations rather than carrying on an ultimately hopeless struggle to return.

    Tragically, it has been the Arab states’ cynical policy for over seven decades to keep the Palestinians boiling with indignation. For those Palestinians who have continued to live in refugee camps even into the fourth generation, 1948 was indeed a catastrophe, but many other peoples have learned to deal with the same or worse by moving onward and upward. The State of Israel is here to stay, and until the Palestinians are able to accommodate themselves to that fact, they will never find happiness

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/21/palestinians-need-stop-living-past/

    1. Funny that they keep moving away, to spread their nonsense to every other part of the globe.

      Why can’t they just sit still, in Palestine?

  66. News story that has CNN going off into anguished rants.

    Texas has a problem with people staying on their covid handouts rather than going back to work. The simple solution has been to stop the handout, residents have a choice of taking a job or relying on not very generous unemployment benefits.

    About twenty other republican states are following the Texan lead.

    1. Good for them, secede from this toatally split states of America.

      UK might, just might take you back if you recognise:

      To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

      In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up ‘revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

      Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

      Your new Prime Minister, Bumbling Boris , will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.
      Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
      To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

      1. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour,’ ‘favour,’ ‘labour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise.’ Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ‘vocabulary’).

      2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ”like’ and ‘you know’ is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter ‘u” and the elimination of ‘-ize.’

      3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

      4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.

      5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

      6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

      7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

      8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

      9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth – see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

      10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.

      11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full Kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

      12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. The children may play Rounders (look it up). It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

      13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.

      14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

      15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

      God Save the Queen!

      1. They need to fix their budget first.

        Point 15. The cream with strawberries should be the real stuff, not thick milk and certainly not that chemical junk they call quickwhip

        1. I think Maggie Thatcher, when an organic chemistry student, worked on developing that white tasteless paste sold as Mr Whippy with a Cadbury’s Flake chocolate bar poking out.

          1. Correct, but to be pedantic, just the whippy ice cream.
            Some say, the best thing she ever came up with.
            More use than Bojo, anyhow.

          2. Correct, but to be pedantic, just the whippy ice cream.
            Some say, the best thing she ever came up with.
            More use than Bojo, anyhow.

        2. I think Maggie Thatcher, when an organic chemistry student, worked on developing that white tasteless paste sold as Mr Whippy with a Cadbury’s Flake chocolate bar poking out.

      2. They need to fix their budget first.

        Point 15. The cream with strawberries should be the real stuff, not thick milk and certainly not that chemical junk they call quickwhip

    2. Good for them, secede from this toatally split states of America.

      UK might, just might take you back if you recognise:

      To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

      In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up ‘revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

      Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

      Your new Prime Minister, Bumbling Boris , will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.
      Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
      To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

      1. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour,’ ‘favour,’ ‘labour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise.’ Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ‘vocabulary’).

      2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ”like’ and ‘you know’ is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter ‘u” and the elimination of ‘-ize.’

      3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

      4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.

      5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

      6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

      7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

      8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

      9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth – see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

      10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.

      11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full Kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

      12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. The children may play Rounders (look it up). It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

      13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.

      14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

      15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

      God Save the Queen!

    3. Ah, the penny has just dropped – they want people to move seamlessly from covid handouts to universal basic income. No wonder the lefties are angry.

        1. yes, I think it is, I meant that I was just a bit slow as I hadn’t made the link.
          Print money, ration it out to the serfs on condition they comply with every medical treatment or other rule you dream up.

    4. Ah, the penny has just dropped – they want people to move seamlessly from covid handouts to universal basic income. No wonder the lefties are angry.

  67. News story that has CNN going off into anguished rants.

    Texas has a problem with people staying on their covid handouts rather than going back to work. The simple solution has been to stop the handout, residents have a choice of taking a job or relying on not very generous unemployment benefits.

    About twenty other republican states are following the Texan lead.

    1. Much the same here; I had hoped to crack on with work in the garden (it’ll be too late to sow my peas soon), but there was no way I could do it.

    2. Having lived there for 5 years, I can tell you, Spain just wants your money. Should anything go wrong – you’re on your own. Don’t look for help – it ain’t there.

    3. Having lived there for 5 years, I can tell you, Spain just wants your money. Should anything go wrong – you’re on your own. Don’t look for help – it ain’t there.

  71. Tottenham stand firm on Israeli flag ban while players wave Palestinian colours unchecked
    Spurs supporters, who have traditional ties with north London’s Jewish community, angered by footage of fan forced to take down Israeli flag
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/05/21/tottenham-stand-firm-israeli-flag-ban-players-wave-palestinian/

    A phrase my father used to use – and which I have used on this forum before:

    Selective Indignation.

    We are outraged by some actions and yet can happily ignore even worse outrages committed by people we do not want – or dare – to criticise. The moral is: the bullies have won.

    And footballers, rugby players and cricketers all taking the knee to honour a violent dead black criminal! Much of professional sport has truly lost any plot it may ever have had.

    1. Typical of Wendyball supporters. They don’t understand, Richard, the difference between right and wrong. If their money extorter says, “Do this.” they do – no questions.

        1. As witness the booing, which the TV stations try to cover with hysterical commentators and fake crowd noise!

          1. Since they started kneeling in support of anti-white black racism I no longer support the England rugby team which I have supported since I first played rugby at prep school 65 years ago.

          4. Professional rugby has a lot to answer for, some people pursue the game for the wrong reasons now.

          5. Since they started kneeling in support of anti-white black racism I no longer support the England rugby team which I have supported since I first played rugby at prep school 65 years ago.

        2. As witness the booing, which the TV stations try to cover with hysterical commentators and fake crowd noise!

    2. Typical of Wendyball supporters. They don’t understand, Richard, the difference between right and wrong. If their money extorter says, “Do this.” they do – no questions.

    3. Strange. The owners have traditionally been Jews. I recall Sur Alan Sugar held shares in the club years ago.

      I also recall the old White Hart Lane and watching the blackest player of his time viz. Garth Brooks. Spurs were always a likeable lot. Arsenal their bitter rivals in those days where composed mostly of Irish players.

        1. You approach me with your syringe: I’ll approach you with my machete.

          Deal?

      1. Netanyahu and the CEO of Pfizer have provided the world with the ultimate human lab rat experiment viz. the State of Israel.

        Both the UK and USA are discovering adverse reactions to the jabs administered. These range from death to varieties of blood clotting and blindness. The numbers of adverse reactions reported are staggering and likely to be the tip of the iceberg.

        The UK government have granted emergency use to unlicensed jabs where other established and safe drug treatments exist and those drugs are being denied under special powers.

        The UK government have granted indemnity to the Pharma giants and are attempting to pass culpability to companies who fall for the ‘no ‘vaccine’, no return to your job’ coercion. The employers will be held responsible should you drop dead or be damaged as a result of the ‘vaccine’.

        Nuremberg 2 cannot come fast enough to put a stop to this madness.

        1. Sorry but your Anti-Israel & Anti-Vaxxer propaganda is total bullshit . In Israel we are out of lock down over a month, nobody has died from the Pfizer vaccine, nor has anybody had any serious or lasting ill effects from it. We don’t use the cheaper & inferior Astra-Zenneca vaccine which has caused some deaths from blood clotting & some other side effects in the UK & EU & I suspect that the standard of medical care especially nursing in the UK is now at a much lower level than it was in the past before the NHS became a bastion of 3rd world doctors & nurses thanks in no small part to Tony Blair & Labour turning the NHS into a series of socially reengineered NHS Trusts

          1. Hi Hat.
            :-))
            Gotta correct you here.
            The NHS is not a bastion of anything. It’s a religion – it replaced Christianity as the State religion in the UK some 20 or so years ago.
            That explains a lot.

          3. I am neither anti-Israel nor anti-vaxx. I agree that our NHS is lacking and that the quality of nursing care here is declining.

            Time will tell whether folk like me who doubt the efficacy of rushed RNA and mRNA jabs and you who have faith in them are correct. I merely cited Israel as a place for study of the effects of the Pfizer jabs because we are told everyone has been coerced into accepting it. In that I am not alone as many serious epidemiologists and virologists are also sceptical.

            You presume too much about my views but let us leave it at that. Some reading for you:

            https://doctors4covidethics.medium.com/the-israeli-peoples-committee-interim-conclusion-report-6df79773ce92

      2. Netanyahu and the CEO of Pfizer have provided the world with the ultimate human lab rat experiment viz. the State of Israel.

        Both the UK and USA are discovering adverse reactions to the jabs administered. These range from death to varieties of blood clotting and blindness. The numbers of adverse reactions reported are staggering and likely to be the tip of the iceberg.

        The UK government have granted emergency use to unlicensed jabs where other established and safe drug treatments exist and those drugs are being denied under special powers.

        The UK government have granted indemnity to the Pharma giants and are attempting to pass culpability to companies who fall for the ‘no ‘vaccine’, no return to your job’ coercion. The employers will be held responsible should you drop dead or be damaged as a result of the ‘vaccine’.

        Nuremberg 2 cannot come fast enough to put a stop to this madness.

    3. I bet you would pay more for his whip.
      And give lacoste a thrashing
      in exchange for a tongue lashing

      };-)

    4. I bet you would pay more for his whip.
      And give lacoste a thrashing
      in exchange for a tongue lashing

      };-)

        1. Why does her skin tone and ancestry matter to you? 99% of the world’s population had the appalling misfortune to be born outside the UK, forever foreigners.

          1. If you worry about facts and pander to difference, you are the problem not the solution.

          2. I couldn’t give a monkies what colour she is! She, on the other hand, seems to think it’s very important! And never ceases to throw it at everyone!

        2. Why does her skin tone and ancestry matter to you? 99% of the world’s population had the appalling misfortune to be born outside the UK, forever foreigners.

    3. “And in the spirit of reconciliation I am giving Harry the title:
      Cunt of Monte Christmas “

    4. “And in the spirit of reconciliation I am giving Harry the title:
      Cunt of Monte Christmas “

  75. That is me done for the day. What a miserable, sodding, sodden day it is. Thank God for the stove. G & P are disGUSted – and have been asleep since 1 pm.

    The MR was wet through after 4 hours carpark duty. The GO surgery has eliminated vaccinated over 20,000 people – at £12.70 a bash – not bad little earner for the practice. Perhaps they’ll risk seeing a patient or two – but I doubt it. New cars all round – for those all-important home visits…(sarc)

    I’ll join you tomorrow – which is the Fulmodeston and Barney Food Production Club’s Annual Plant Sale – just the weather…..

    A demain.

    1. There is a plant sale in our local village hall tomorrow, but I’m not sure I can raise the enthusiasm to make the effort. Today, of all days, (13 degrees C outside) the oil ran out (my Watchman has been broken for some time, but I’ve always managed to avoid actually running out before). I have to say my local oil merchants were brilliant; I rang at about 09.30 and by 10.30 the chap had turned up with his small tanker (to squeeze up the dirt track on which I live) and filled up the tank. Unsurprisingly, I had an airlock in the system so it was a case of ringing up the chap who services my boiler. By great good fortune, he was working fairly close by, so he arrived about 2.30pm and by 3pm it was sorted. Today is the day MOH goes to a day centre so I can have some “respite” – ha, ha!

      1. The Gods of good fortune were smiling.
        Get thee out and buy a lottery ticket!

    2. There is a plant sale in our local village hall tomorrow, but I’m not sure I can raise the enthusiasm to make the effort. Today, of all days, (13 degrees C outside) the oil ran out (my Watchman has been broken for some time, but I’ve always managed to avoid actually running out before). I have to say my local oil merchants were brilliant; I rang at about 09.30 and by 10.30 the chap had turned up with his small tanker (to squeeze up the dirt track on which I live) and filled up the tank. Unsurprisingly, I had an airlock in the system so it was a case of ringing up the chap who services my boiler. By great good fortune, he was working fairly close by, so he arrived about 2.30pm and by 3pm it was sorted. Today is the day MOH goes to a day centre so I can have some “respite” – ha, ha!

  78. “Fear, paranioa and isolation”

    Prince William says that the BBC contributed significantly to Diana’s demise following the Bashir interview.

    The BBC have also been doing a pretty good job of inducing these feelings in the general UK population over the last year.

  79. “Fear, paranioa and isolation”

    Prince William says that the BBC contributed significantly to Diana’s demise following the Bashir interview.

    The BBC have also been doing a pretty good job of inducing these feelings in the general UK population over the last year.

    2. When a nurse takes your blood pressure and then tells you to wait until the doctor can see you, that alone is likely to raise your systolic BP by at least 10 mmHg.

      God knows what your resting heart rate really is!

    3. When a nurse takes your blood pressure and then tells you to wait until the doctor can see you, that alone is likely to raise your systolic BP by at least 10 mmHg.

      God knows what your resting heart rate really is!

    1. The follow on video, assuming you get the same one I do, is well worth watching

        1. It was a Jordan Peterson clip.

          I’m starting to suspect any link changes depending on the viewer

          1. I’m surprised that any ‘woke interviewer’ will actually question his thoughts. The MSM certainly won’t entertain him in interviews because he’s not for turning and can back up his views.

    2. The follow on video, assuming you get the same one I do, is well worth watching

    1. Apparently the wee one had “cute myeloid leukaemia” – as you do, when a small child.
      Poor wee lass. “Likkle lion”. She’s well away from parents like that.

      1. The death of a child is dreadful for most parents.
        Doing what they have done, in my view, celebrates them not the unfortunate baby.

        1. Unfortunately, it’s a tendency in parents. Take over their children’s lives and make it their own.
          For our 25th wedding anniversary, Mother-in-Law went overboard, arranging a huge party down in darkest Devon, inviting all and sundry – but kind of forgot that we had something to do with it… it was a celebration of how clever she was to have a daughter who’d managed to be married to some bloke for 25 years. All her friends were invited, to her local church hall, we weren’t asked who we’d like to invite… and nobody I know lives down there – who’d fly to a tin hall in Devon from Berlin, or somewhere for a party?
          SWMBO couldn’t get her to stop.
          In the end, I sent a registered letter telling her to stop, and that if non-refundable deposits had been paid, I’d refund them. It was the only way. The nightmare stopped. Ruined the occasion, se we went to Stockholm and stayed on a converted sailing boat moored by Drottningholmen. It rains in Stockholm in July. A lot. Bloody place was mostly closed, as it was summer vacation.
          Parents, eh?

          1. One hopes to avoid the same mistakes… I’ll not ask Firstborn or Second Son. Might be rather humiliating…

          2. One hopes to avoid the same mistakes… I’ll not ask Firstborn or Second Son. Might be rather humiliating…

          3. Respect to you.

            I doubt I would have had the balls, let alone the resources!

            My/our 25th was spent with HG and the three boys.
            No family, no guests, no friends. Private and very, very special to us.

          4. I confess to not being big on celebrations. I can’t remember what, if anything, we did for our 25th. Our 40th only got a bottle of wine and a bunch of red roses 🙂

          5. Our 40th was celebrated together at a bistro.

            Just me and the most important person in my life.

          7. Oh our 25th was truly memorable, a week in California golfing and touring the vineyards of the Napa Valley. Except our golf package had been lost by the hotel as had our dinner reservations for the anniversary.

            There were no times available at the course included in the package but magically got us onto a private course (only fifty members, four of the playing slowly in front of us). In the end dinner was free, we just said to hell with it and ordered a pizza, they delivered the wrong kind but insisted on replacing it at no charge!

            The fiftieth was far more expensive.

          8. I doubt we’ll make our fiftieth, to be honest. MOH is deteriorating rapidly.

          9. The sort of celebration we wanted – or, at least, with our friends. Not ma-in-laws crumbly mates.

          10. Respect to you.

            I doubt I would have had the balls, let alone the resources!

            My/our 25th was spent with HG and the three boys.
            No family, no guests, no friends. Private and very, very special to us.

          11. Well done, Paul, these virtue signalers, all and sundry, deserve the biggest kick up the ‘arris that may be administered, and it looks like you had your size 14 boots on.

            Gertcha!

        2. Unfortunately, it’s a tendency in parents. Take over their children’s lives and make it their own.
          For our 25th wedding anniversary, Mother-in-Law went overboard, arranging a huge party down in darkest Devon, inviting all and sundry – but kind of forgot that we had something to do with it… it was a celebration of how clever she was to have a daughter who’d managed to be married to some bloke for 25 years. All her friends were invited, to her local church hall, we weren’t asked who we’d like to invite… and nobody I know lives down there – who’d fly to a tin hall in Devon from Berlin, or somewhere for a party?
          SWMBO couldn’t get her to stop.
          In the end, I sent a registered letter telling her to stop, and that if non-refundable deposits had been paid, I’d refund them. It was the only way. The nightmare stopped. Ruined the occasion, se we went to Stockholm and stayed on a converted sailing boat moored by Drottningholmen. It rains in Stockholm in July. A lot. Bloody place was mostly closed, as it was summer vacation.
          Parents, eh?

    2. Apparently the wee one had “cute myeloid leukaemia” – as you do, when a small child.
      Poor wee lass. “Likkle lion”. She’s well away from parents like that.

    3. I, too, am a completely callous bastard; the names put me off having any sympathy anyway!

        1. Probably, but I’m still put off. The Waynes and Waynettas I had the misfortune to teach were all more trouble than they would ever amount to.

      2. #MeToo – check for comments from Lord Rayne – I doubt they’ll appear.

    4. I, too, am a completely callous bastard; the names put me off having any sympathy anyway!

  88. Evening, all. The country can’t afford any more delays, not to mention further bungling.

    1. Slight problem.
      Johnson’s government make flowing molasses look quick, and bungs are their usual motivator, it would appear.

      1. I wasn’t expecting anything good to happen any time soon, just observing that it’s unsustainable. I have no doubt that everything will be completely wrecked with this lot of Fokkers in charge.

        1. Let’s hope there are a few Nottlers who survive to say:
          “we told you so”

          2. That won’t help much, Sos. Maybe it’s time for the youngsters to take a leaf from the suffragette’s playbook and march down Whitehall to Parliament, breaking a few windows as they go.

            Where I able, I’d be there with a slew of the biggest bricks I could find.

          3. They’ll need to hurl themselves in front of the latest electric racing car.

          5. 333161+ up ticks,
            Evening M,
            That would be long term genuine UKIP party as was members, again & again.

  89. If any media barsteward should claim the current inclement weather is due to the ‘Climate Emergency’ then one William Shakespeare can put them right:

    “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
    And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

    Sonnet 18….

    1. To Greta;
      Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not,
      Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot,
      We’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather,
      Whether we like it or not.

  90. I’ve been tied up lately with a renovation project on the house we bought last August. Given the range of work needed we appointed a local architect who had done a fair amount of research free of charge on an earlier property which he and we decide wasn’t suitable. He has produced a Pre-construction information document required by law some 102 pages (Covering lots of things including HASAW) and a JCT contract (132 pages) specifying the work to be done on our new home by the building contractors.

    The past few weeks I’ve removed the old kitchen, central heating, fireplace, light fittings, wall paper in every room bar two, stripped paint from window cills and door frames, taken off and stored decent doors, lifted and stored reasonable carpets. Only one week to go before the builders take possession. They are due to finish by the end of November which means I shall have about two weeks to fit the Kitchen before the Christmas turkey needs to go in the oven!

    All this almost pales into insignificance with the admin MoH is having to do as the sole Executor of our elderly friend who died almost a month ago. HMRC guidance 90 pages. Forms to be filled in 80 pages!.

        3. I liked the worktops the most.
          Only kidding, but is the hob electric? I do prefer gas.

          1. #MeToo – so much that here in rural Suffolk and off the gas mains, we have fitted Calor gas hobs with cylinders outside.

            How will you legislate for that Boris the twatty Doris?

          3. Is induction as controllable or even more controllable than gas? I hate cooking on an electric hob because turning down (or up) the heat has no effect for minutes.

          4. Hi Russell, hope you’re well. Yes, it is very quick to respond. Obvs, you need ferrous pans. Also, a dream to clean. You can wipe away spills immediately: on a flat surface. I wouldn’t go back.

          6. Yes. Instant change in heat – no huge thermal mass of hot element to cool/heat. Also, you get a flat sheet of glass, so any spills don’t vanish in the trough under the pan to dry up and go brown – can be wiped off immediately.

          8. Gas. The next one will be an induction hob which are just as responsive as gas.

        5. That’s a long way from the small English kitchens that I knew where there was room for an washing machine under the counter and the dishwasher was the sink.

          I never had much luck fitting cabinets, getting them perfectly aligned was incredibly difficult.

        6. I fitted new kitchens into the last four houses I lived at when I still lived in England.

  91. I have just filled in a form to enter the UK – it has been updated since the last time we travelled. Now you have to justify why you don’t want some official calling you on your mobile phone.
    If this is about checking quarantine, the “mobile” concept could be relevant.
    In any case, we have reached a new low when you have to justify why you don’t want to receive calls from officials of the state. I have no doubt that the slave mastersgovernment will surpass it very soon.

    1. “Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State requests and requires in the name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary. ”

      In other words FOAD!

      1. See my reply to Oberst. It is a criminal offence not to fill in the form according to this government of criminals. Not much I can do when a bunch of morons keeps encouraging the Cons by voting for them.

        1. I just thought that was a reasonable reason for not wanting to receive ‘calls from officials of the state.’

      1. Everyone entering the UK has to fill out a form since last summer. It is a criminal offence not to now.

        1. What do illiterate illegal migrants do when they arrive on the beach at Dover?

          1. Bloody good question. Failure so to do means entry is barred.

            Thought not. Except for the indigenous population.

          2. They are probably “helped” by a team of interpreters paid for by our taxes, Richard.

      2. I’ve never filled ‘out’ a form. I’ve filled quite a number ‘in’, but never ‘out’.

        I also switch my lights off, never ‘out’.

  92. Enuff! already. I’m away for tonight, so I wish you all God Bless – Heaven knows, we need it.

    1. Must be difficult to light it up in black…

      #WhiteLivesDontMatter

    2. Good evening, Maggiebelle

      As you know my son Henry spent some time in Norwich fairly recently as did I as I too was a student at UEA in the 1960’s as was Bill’s MR in the 70’s.

      I wonder what Grizzly and Bill think of this as both of them also know Norwich well. My Uncle Basil was a surgeon doctor in private practice in Norwich who sang in the cathedral choir. I am sure that he would not be too impressed with the City Hall going woke.

    3. Now, I am totally ashamed of the actions of my county town, nay city, of my birth – I will have no truck with this and cry, “Shame on you!”

      1. I ain’t from Norwich but I’ll stand with you on this one. It is an utter and complete disgrace.

      1. tad grim [grey] but dry here and [famous last words] Kenya Power behaving. Trawling through yesterday’s posts, so far, nothing seismic

  97. Another “Woke arm of Government” trying to fly under the radar.

    Seems every effort’s being made to deflect attention from the House of Saville [HoS = BBC]. The man guilty of failing to address these is John Flasby Lawrance Whittingdale, OBE MP, a part time politician and Culture Secretary who took the decisions that extended the HoS’s charter in 2017, though there are others involved in the mix. Whittingdale’s reputation is so bad even May felt the need to sack him, but the Fat Controller reinstated him to his current pinnacle of incompetence as Minister of State for Media and Data. ‘Minister of State for Media and Data’ means Commissar for Censorship and keep the HoS within the woke tramlines. When MPs were under scrutiny for fiddling, it emerged that Whittingdale failed to declare a couple of ‘fact-finding’ trips to lap dancing clubs.

    His half brother, Charles Napier, a former teacher and former treasurer of PIE, is a nonce and has been banged up since 2014.

    Expect more of woke attention / focus on “racism” et al with HoS compliance and Grauniad worrying if the attention zeroes in further on them as part of the deception agenda

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