Friday 28 February: Don’t panic – doctors should just stick to the facts on coronavirus

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/02/28/lettersdont-panic-doctors-should-just-stick-facts-coronavirus/

635 thoughts on “Friday 28 February: Don’t panic – doctors should just stick to the facts on coronavirus”

    1. Good Morning Bob et al.

      Re the rain – currently heading for 600% of our February historic monthly average for this part of South London :-((

          2. As much as that? I found a Hampstead weather station that had recorded 67mm so far (about 65% up on the average). The regions that have had 6-8 inches in a month have had the serious flooding but we haven’t heard of anything like that from the SE of England.

          3. Hi William,

            I typed Hampstead into the weather.com website and got”London”.
            Their Almanac record is below. I have to say that I’ve been following rainfall patterns since last summer. Being out in the open on the back of boat you can’t but help notice these things! I check the weather com website daily and it seems to be fairly accurate. No rain recorded when there is none; 2mm just an odd shower; 15-20mm when its been persisting it down for hours!

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f0cd2378245716ae868fad46ed136ae921b1df834340bbd5ec9b95a8844777dd.png

          4. I don’t know where it gets its data from but I don’t trust it. It records 120mm for Northampton and I know from two local stations that the figure is about 65. We certainly haven’t had five inches of rain here this month. That figure is nonsensical.

            Unfortunately, the Met Office website doesn’t have the daily observations from its own stations (well, if it does I haven’t been able to find them).

    2. Weather presenter on the radio this morning: “We are expecting half a month’s rain…” That would be a fortnight, then?

      Weather presenter on the telly yesterday: “And now, as we head towards the first half of the weekend…” That would be Saturday, then?

      Thank goodness we have online forecasts. With any luck these goons will soon be redundant.

      ‘Morning, B3.

    3. Amazing the appeal of a top end shopping center (sic) and a city almost completely made up of seven star hotels and exciting and exclusive retail experiences. May their god be with them!

    1. It’s gone too far. It should stop NOW. If it were anyone but the McCanns it would have stopped years ago.

      1. It should stop and the McCanns should be prosecuted for child neglect. They were the ones that decided to leave young kids unsupervised while they went to a bar.

  5. Turkey will not stop Syrian refugees from crossing European borders

    Turkey has decided to no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land and sea, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Thursday, in anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Syria’s Idlib where nearly a million have been displaced.

    Turkish police, coast guard and border security officials have been ordered to stand down, the Turkish official added. Earlier on Thursday, a local Turkish governor said an attack on the Turkish military in Idlib killed at least twenty-nine soldiers.

    1. Turkey is now calling in NATO to support its soldiers fighting Russians in Idlib. I’d have thought that the only one that can claim sovereignty there was Assad, for all his psychopathic rage.

      I would be more sympathetic to Turkey’s position if they extended the same protections to the Kurdish liberators in Northern Syria.

      We are therefore being held to ransom – Erdogan says – safeguard our fighters against the nasty unwashed Russians or all those concentrated Islamists of every stripe from Al Qaeda to Islamic State will be dumped on Lesbos for the authorites to distribute throughout Western Europe, where they will be safe from Russians.

      1. Because Turkey has its self invaded Syrian sovereign territory there is no legal reason for NATO to get involved.

  6. My wife flies in from Poland this morning. I am happy that she will be able to sample February’s UK weather with Storm Jorge this weekend. BTW, I can think of no-one less likely to “self isolate” than my wife, who is mad keen to get out and about each and every day and just loves meeting her friends for a good natter.

  7. My wife flies in from Poland this morning. I am happy that she will be able to sample February’s UK weather with Storm Jorge this weekend. BTW, I can think of no-one less likely to “self isolate” than my wife, who is mad keen to get out and about each and every day and just loves meeting her friends for a good natter.

  11. Which? report says ‘new hybrid cars are worse for environment’ than old ones

    New cars do more harm to the planet than older models, shocking tests have revealed.

    A Which? probe found new petrol, diesel and hybrid motors produce 7% more carbon dioxide than equivalent models made three years ago.

    According to the consumer watchdog’s tests, family sized petrol-hybrids, seen as the greener option for many, were the worst with a 31.7% increase.

    Small petrol cars saw an average rise of 11.2%, while the increase in medium-sized petrol SUVs was 20.4%.

    As well as lab tests, the cars were driven on motorways with the air con on and 200kg of gear in the boot.

    Which? stopped short of naming and shaming all the cars in its test. But it said the Chevrolet Camaro 6.2 litre V8 and Honda CR-V 1.5 litre turbo petrol were among the worst.

    1. Is this why London Mayor Sadiq Khan has put a daily tax on the owners of old cars driving in the capital, or is it that he just does not like poor people, like many metropolitan “moderate progressives”?

    3. ‘Morning Bill, I wonder how much of the increase is due to the new testing regime brought in after the VW scandal?

    4. How good for the planet, and the price of cars, is all the stuff that goes into electric cars? How easily is it reused or recycled?
      Battery use on the scale envisaged is an unknown.
      Maybe all new car production should cease. Maybe only replacement parts should be made in order to keep existing cars running?

  12. Morning all

    SIR – As a GP and a public health specialist, I know how easy it is to generate anxious patients. Doctors must choose their words very carefully and ensure they are properly informed before making comments.

    I find much of the current advice around the coronavirus Covid-19 (Letters, February 27) from academics and public health colleagues confusing. There seem to be far too many doctors willing to appear on radio and television to give opinions.

    While encouraging my patients to take sensible precautions such as washing their hands, I am also making it clear that they do not need to panic. This advice is based on information published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, based on over 70,000 cases of Covid-19 from China, which suggests that eight out of 10 people got a mild illness. Just as with flu, those most at risk of becoming more sick are the elderly and people with underlying conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and chronic chest problems.

    Dr Nick Summerton

    Brough, East Yorkshire

    1. SIR – So far, about 3,000 people have died from the new coronavirus. While obviously tragic for those involved, this needs to be put in context. The World Health Organisation estimates that anywhere between 250,000 and 500,000 people globally die from flu every year, with most succumbing between December and February.

      Is there something radically different and more dangerous about this particular virus, or is the world suffering an unnecessary fit of overreaction? I hope it is the latter, and that this latest scare will fizzle out, as Sars, bird flu and swine flu all did, well before the forecast numbers of deaths were reached.

      Ian Rennardson

      Tunbridge Wells, Kent

  13. SIR – Your leading article (February 24) on the treatment of former soldiers who served in Northern Ireland took me back to my own Army service.

    I once took my platoon to support a unit in a dangerous area. We arrived to find the butchered bodies of about 30 soldiers. After that, I could have committed acts for which I might now find myself in a criminal court. No one who has not been in such a situation has a right to accuse those who have.

    David Mitchell

    Ringmer, East Sussex

    1. I wonder what Mr Mitchell would like to do to Mr Blair? I expect many people would like to do the same thing when our soldiers are prosecuted and murderers are pardoned.

      Whether or not he sorts out this injustice once and for all will be a good indication of whether Boris Johnson has any real integrity or not.

  14. SIR – Placido Domingo did go too far (report, February 26), but women are going to miss out on romance as men abandon the art of flirtation for fear of provoking a harassment suit.

    Camilla Coats-Carr

    Teddington, Middlesex

  15. Morning again

    SIR – The Court of Appeal’s ruling on Heathrow’s proposed third runway – that not enough consideration was given to environmental concerns – is a prime example of why judicial review should be restricted.

    I was against expanding Heathrow, but whether to build or not to build a major infrastructure project such as a runway is a political decision as it involves conflicting factors such as the economy, travellers’ needs, local residents, international competitiveness and the environment.

    Judges may think they know better, but that is not how democracy should work. We elect a government to take such decisions for us.

    Michael Staples

    Seaford, East Sussex

    SIR – The decision against Heathrow’s third runway is a victory for common sense. It has always been an airport in the wrong place. Parliament’s vote in favour of a third runway simply doubled down on the original error.

    The future of aviation in Britain rests on better airports in the North and better use of the airports in the South – the rail connections from London to Stansted and Luton airports are a disgrace.

    Alastair Prain

    London SW9

    1. Good Morning all.

      Folk are celebrating too soon over this. What the Court judgement said, in terms, was that Government had not related the VFM to their Climate Change politcy. They do not have to comply with it but they do have to take it into account – and they did not. Acccident, incompetence? Possibly, but more likely design imo because Boris did not want to have to take up a possition in front of the bulldozers.

  16. Central bankers have no power against the economic tornado of coronavirus
    • AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD

    28 FEBRUARY 2020 • 5:58AM
    •
    The world economy has yet to face the full impact from the virus, but it is only a matter of time
    Central banks have met their match. They cannot counter the economic havoc caused to global supply chains from the coronavirus.
    Nor can tax cuts or a blast of government spending plug the gap when crumbling confidence and emergency anti-virus measures are blocking the transmission channels.
    We are in an unprecedented global situation more akin to the outbreak of war than any episode in collective economic memory.
    “Everyone believes it’s going to be a V-shaped recession, but people don’t know what they are talking about. They prefer to believe in miracles,” said Nouriel Roubini, the Dr Doom of the 2008 saga. “This crisis is a supply shock that you can’t fight with monetary or fiscal policy.”
    Olivier Blanchard, the International Monetary Fund’s former chief economist, said the emergency measures now being taken in expanding areas of the world strike at “the core of economic organization” and are so extreme that the effects on output are drastic.
    What the authorities can do to prevent this economic ‘sudden stop’ from metastasizing into a depression is to blanket the financial system with love. The imperative is to avoid panic fire-sales that become self-feeding and utterly destructive, and to ensure that ‘good’ companies caught in a liquidity crunch are not forced into bankruptcy. Such support measures can buy time in the hope that warmer weather slows contagion of the virus and that the epidemic starts to burn itself out.
    Yet the immediate task is getting harder by the day. The damage in China is orders of magnitude greater than originally supposed under the misleading Sars template from 2003.
    Capital Economics said the rate of economic contraction is now likely to be a staggering 25pc (annualised) over the first quarter – using proxy measures of real activity – a level unseen in modern times. “For much of February, economic activity effectively ceased in China,” said Mark Williams, the group’s chief Asia economist.
    Two thirds of China’s 300m migrant workers have still failed to return to the factories after the Lunar New Year. Coal power plants are still running at half the normal level. Housing transactions have collapsed to almost zero. Car sales were still down 83pc in the third week of February.
    What has caused markets to take serious fright this week is the spectre of multiple ‘Chinas’, a synchronized shock across the world as Europe, the US, the major economic centres all go into virus lockdowns and face economic mayhem at the same time. Nomura says the big ‘global macro’ hedge funds are already switching to trades that make sense only in a worldwide recession.
    Professor Roger Farmer from the National Institute for Economic and Social Research warned that a chain-reaction may already be underway. “If the stock market decline persists, it will cause a recession. The mechanism will be a self-fulfilling feedback loop that generates a fall in aggregate demand and causes deflation. It is very dangerous,” he said.
    The US Federal Reserve can try to stop this doom-loop taking deeper hold and causing a collapse in the natural rate of interest, which would in turn lead to a contractionary worldwide bust. “I fear the Fed is way too late in reacting. It is precisely now that they need to use everything,” he said.
    He thinks the Fed should buy equities and prop up the stock market indices to prevent a confidence shock through the ‘wealth effect’ but this would require a change in US law. “They should buy the riskiest stuff possible at this point because that is what is hit hardest in a panic,” he said.
    For now the Fed is holding fire, even though yields on 30-year Treasuries have fallen to an all-time low. Even more threatening, the real yield on five-year Treasuries has collapsed by 140 basis points over the last year to minus 0.4pc. David Beckworth, an ex-Treasury official now at the Mercatus Centre, said the Fed is allowing “passive tightening” to occur and pushing the US economy towards the brink.
    The markets are pricing in rate cuts, betting that the Fed will soon be forced to capitulate. But vice-president Richard Clarida said this week that it is “too soon even to speculate” on fresh stimulus. Analysts at Evercore ISI said the Fed may not have the luxury of sitting on its hands for much longer as this lightning-fast drama unfolds.
    The Fed at least has some powder left for emergency action. The European Central Bank has almost none. Interest rates are minus 0.5pc and sovereign bond yields in the eurozone core are steeply negative, blunting any gains from further quantitative easing.
    What it can do is to step up purchases of corporate bonds and prop up the debt markets, as well as offering unlimited free credit to the banks (TLTROs). This reduces the risk of a liquidity crisis but it cannot stop Italy sliding deeper into recession, with Germany following close behind.
    Christine Lagarde, the ECB’s president, said the said it was too early to take action or to conclude that Covid-19 amounts to a lasting shock. “We are certainly not at that point yet,” she said.
    Markets are reacting badly to central bank insouciance. The Dow Jones index is down over 10pc and entering an official ‘correction’. The real worry is in the credit sector that tends to sniff out trouble first. “Its carnage in high-yield. Everybody is already thinking in terms of recession by the second quarter,” said Marc Ostwald from ADM.
    Risk spreads for smaller US oil and gas frackers have spiked to 952 basis points. “Issuance has totally dried up.
    We can probably handle this for a couple of weeks, but if we stretch into late March, we could see some problems,” he said.
    For now we are in a state of suspended animation, waiting for the full manufacturing supply shock to hit from the logjams at East Asian ports and the halving of container shipments on the European and Pacific routes – but also waiting for the psycho-drama of rising infections, certain to come once Europe and the US begin to test for the virus in earnest.
    Nouriel Roubini expects an equity bloodbath and a slide of 30pc to 40pc on global bourses before we reach the bottom. If the central banks allow that to happen, they may find that they no longer have the firepower to lift their broken economies out of the deflation trap.

    1. If AE-P had been correct even 1% of the time over his career we’d all be living in caves.

      He’s a bigger doom-monger than I am.

      The great fear is that at some point he might, just might, be bang on the money.

      1. There is nothing irrational about the coronavirus panic – it will change the world as we know it
        JEREMY WARNER
        Follow Jeremy Warner
        27 FEBRUARY 2020 • 8:00PM

        By coincidence, I happened to be reading John Kelly’s The Great Mortality: an intimate history of the Black Death, when news of the coronavirus outbreak first broke in the British press. It is remarkable what an enduring hold this devastating historical event – which killed between a third and half of Europe’s population – continues to have on the public imagination.

        Nearly seven centuries later, its memories and impact continue to resonate. Still sung today, the nursery rhyme Ring a Ring o’ Roses is sometimes attributed – probably wrongly – to the plague of 1347-8. More likely in its derivation is the word quarantine, from the Italian quaranta giorni, referring to the 40 days that ships suspected of infestation were obliged to wait in isolation before being allowed to dock.

        There were few, if any, protections from the bubonic plague; if you got it, you were almost certain to die from it – miserably and painfully. Never mind the immediate human tragedy, both the long-term societal and economic effects were transformational.

        Covid-19 plainly doesn’t begin to compare; we have got rather better at understanding and dealing with these things and, in any case, we know that the coronavirus isn’t even remotely as deadly, even in countries with poor healthcare systems.

        Global pandemics are nonetheless becoming more frequent, with their contagious effects by no means confined to the epidemiological. Globalisation in combination with social media amplifies their wider economic consequences. There is nothing quite so contagious as fear.

        A quite serious global recession is now pretty much baked into the present hysteria, with the risks of a “sudden stop” in international trade, similar to that which occurred during the financial crisis, growing by the day. That the bulk of the damage comes from the panic, rather than the disease itself, doesn’t lessen the impact.

        We can dismiss what’s going on as alarmist nonsense if we like, but when dealing with the unknown, panic and overreaction is a perfectly rational response. On the precautionary principle alone, governments and citizens are bound to run for the hills.

        Let’s take the mortality rate, already far greater than ordinary seasonal flu, with which the Covid-19 is often and misleadingly compared. In collating known infections against deaths, present calculations suffer from a basic statistical flaw: they assume that everyone who has tested positive for the disease but is not yet dead will survive. This cannot be true, as recorded death rates from the epicentre of the outbreak in Wuhan (4 per cent) to the surrounding province of Hubei (2 per cent) and then out into China as a whole (0.8 per cent) graphically illustrate.

        The Chinese authorities cite these discrepancies as evidence of growing success in containing and treating the disease. But they may also be down simply to time differences in the epidemic’s progression. If we instead divide the number of deaths by the number of closed cases, we get a mortality rate of closer to 8 per cent. Reductio ad absurdum, if we were to assume that everyone in Britain contracted the virus, you might then end up with more than 5 million deaths, a level of mortality that would change the face of the nation for ever.

        These numbers are at the extremes of possibility, and extraordinarily unlikely, but wherever we end up with Covid-19, it is small wonder that what might seem unnecessarily draconian measures are being taken to contain it.

        Unfortunately, these are having an equally draconian effect on economic activity. The Chinese economy is fast grinding to a halt, which given its vital importance in global supply chains is having severe knock-on consequences elsewhere, regardless of whether directly impacted by the virus. Multiple factory and office closures in Europe and beyond will soon be a reality. If we in the UK haven’t yet felt it, it is only because container shipping from the Far East is on a four- to five-week lead time. The big freeze from China will be blowing in any day now.

        The good news is that, unlike the financial crisis, where lost output was never fully recovered, the economy ought to bounce back sharply once the epidemic is over. Nonetheless, there will be some long lasting effects.

        Whether or not Covid-19 turns out to be the “big one”, what it has done is highlight the risks both of unfettered international travel and over-reliance on global supply chains. There is probably no turning back the clock on the first of these phenomena, but on the second there very much is. Already acute concern over security of supply coincides with technological advances in automation, which in turn reduce the incentives to offshore production to low labour-cost economies, and make possible a radical reimagining of the way the global economy works.

        Renationalisation of supply, renewed localisation of production, and a decoupling of major economies from one another, these are likely to be the lasting effects of the virus. For China, it is a particularly unhappy irony: the country that has benefited so much from globalisation has given birth to the virus that may start to kill it off.

        1. Or more ironic the possibility that China actually created the virus that may start to kill it off.

          1. All the big plagues have started in the east.
            This time, it may have been over-clever Chinese scientists rather than scrofulous marmots.

        2. If the statistics so far are correct and his analysis is accurate, both possible, then the death toll will principally be amongst the elderly, the weak/infirm and the extremely poor.

          Callously:
          In the West, in harsh economic terms, those are the least productive and some of the most expensive for society as a whole to “maintain”.
          In the extremely poor third world, a major culling of the population of the planet might be a good thing, if the climate-doomsters are correct.

          Both outcomes might bebeneficial for “humanity” and “nature” as a whole; I’ll probably be a goner.

  17. MP column: Free speech is increasingly under attack

    The latest column by South Dorset MP Richard Drax

    AS A politician for 10 years, I have seen an ever-increasing assault on free speech.

    It’s often perpetuated by those who are easily ‘offended’ if their cult-like beliefs are questioned.

    The ‘offender’ is treated like a heretic, and demands for their resignation, sacking or an apology abound, especially via social media.

    The ‘offended’ all too frequently uses the latter to hide their identity.

    I remind you of George Orwell’s words, which are inscribed on his statue outside BBC Broadcasting House.

    “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

    https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/18266863.mp-column-free-speech-increasingly-attack/

      1. Morning, Belle.
        Piece of Jan Moir on ‘Arry’s wish to be ‘ordinary’.

        “A life less ordinary!

        Just call me Harry. In many ways it is admirable that the Duke of Sussex (irony alert) just wants to be an ‘ordinary’ bloke.

        But there is ordinary and then there is ordinary, isn’t there?

        There is waiting in the rain for a bus ordinary; there is can’t afford it until payday ordinary; there is worrying about getting the kids into a good school ordinary.

        His kind of ‘ordinary’ seems to be living in a ravishing waterside mansion in an exclusive Canadian enclave — something he almost certainly could not afford without his royal privilege and daddy’s cash.

        There is nothing very ordinary about that, is there? Harry’s quest for normality is touching but there is an uncomfortable undertow that makes it feel disrespectful to the monarchy.

        By the way, is he going to make the effort on this UK trip to visit his grandmother and ailing grandfather? Let’s hope he finds in his heart to do the right thing.”

  19. With the Heathrow decision the first signs of Johnson’s Green revolution are having the expected effect – LBC Nick Ferrari this morning.
    The anti-business climate change revolutionaries are ecstatic and will now see their chance to push through more of their nonsense, and nonsense it is when one of their leading lights describes the facts that China has 200 international airports and a massive expansion of coal powered electrical generation as a worn out trope i.e. he didn’t want to admit that our 1% (and falling) of World carbon dioxide generation is insignificant in the face of China’s.
    Unable to give a clear answer to the question of the impact on industry, business and tourism this dangerous person merely repeated his own worn out and arrogant trope of where the UK leads others will follow and the UK will become a world leader in carbon reduction. There is little or no evidence for the latter but plenty of evidence that China et al. will plough on and the UK will wither on the vine as the reliability of our power resources dwindles and the restrictions the Greens, via a compliant Johnson government, will apply to our ability to transport materials and people around the country bite hard.
    Jeremy Hunt MP added his pennyworth by affirming that the UK will become a go-ahead economy while at the same time becoming carbon neutral by 2050. How that can possibly be achieved with unreliable solar panel and windmill power he didn’t care to explain. The government’s failure to get plans passed for a high speed railway, one new runway for its sole international hub airport and one additional nuclear power station after decades of discussion is indicative of our politicians’ inability to lead effectively. Why should we believe that in 30 years these serial failures will create a new industrial revolution that will lead the World. The original industrial revolution wouldn’t have happened here if these people had been around at that time.
    The, “Carbon neutral by 2050,” is obviously the message of Johnson’s government: Gavin Williamson, at first discussing education matters with Ferrari, brought that phrase into play as he ended his interview.
    We are heading into very dangerous times, not because we are leaving the EU but because we are being led by a house of fools who seem determined to destroy any advantages we gain from that leaving. May made us an international laughing stock during her Brexit ‘negotiations’ and now Johnson appears to want to continue that state of affairs by running the Country into the ground on the back of dubious Green issues.

    1. “Don’t do that!”

      “Why not?”

      “Because I say so!”

      Most parents know that treating children in this way is not sensible and breeds resentment and cynicism.

      It is exactly the same with environmental matters – we are treated like very small children and not given objective information which leads many of us to think that we are being deliberately duped.

  20. Another reason to be grateful for being poor. (The other one is that we can’t afford holidays to China or Italy). I’ll stick to my Noddy car, thank you very much.

    SIR – Geoffrey Saunders (Letters, February 27) may rest assured: car security has indeed moved on.

    “My husband’s Tesla cannot be started without a pin number being entered and, when left, it engages “sentry mode” and four cameras record any activity around the car. All these recordings are stored online, but serious incidents are automatically uploaded to Tesla headquarters.

    Suspicious activity inside the car causes it to play the William Tell Overture at ear-splitting volume, as our unfortunate friend discovered when she chose to wait in it while we nipped into a shop.

    Frances Williams

    Nine Elms, Wiltshire”

    1. Ditto the same here , just happy with my old car , as are the dogs .. and the thought of queueing at airports and sitting cramped next to people I don’t know for 12 hours or more is hell .

      No place like home !

      1. It has been a source of great perplexity that in a mere century (which is nothing in the whole span of h0m0 sapiens’ existence) one of mankind’s perpetual aspirations has been reduced to a sweaty hell where people pay good money to be treated like criminals.

        1. Our airports always seem to be far more crowded and uncomfortable that those of our destinations.
          And when we return it’s back to long walks waiting for luggage and more queueing.

          2. No I haven’t. But according to our eldest son who has to visit the state’s on Business from time to time, the unpredictable nature of flights within the US are well known.

    2. Morning all.
      Perhaps a good idea would be to place an apple on the roof of the car. Appropriate action could follow.

  21. And a million upticks for Mr. Saunders:

    “SIR – The threat by clinical commissioning groups to deny free hearing aids to older people with mild hearing loss (report, February 23) goes beyond the iniquity of denying devices to those unable to afford them.

    The commissioners would do well to remember two adages: “prevention is better than cure” and “penny-wise, pound-foolish”. Untreated hearing impairment can lead to social isolation, cognitive disorder and even dementia, which in time will surely cost the NHS far more to treat than the price of a hearing aid or two.

    Peter Saunders

    Salisbury, Wiltshire”

    1. I wonder if the Clinical Commissioning bods have overlooked the money spent on gender-change ops.? … Just asking (perhaps its members have all signed the Trans Pledge).

  22. Why Sharks Circle before attacking.
    Two great white sharks swimming in the ocean spied survivors of a sunken ship.

    “Follow me son” the father shark said to the son shark and they swam to the mass of people.

    “First we swim around them a few times with just the tip of our fins showing.”

    And they did.

    “Well done, son! Now we swim around them a few times with all of our fins showing.”

    And they did.

    “Now we eat everybody.”

    And they did.

    When they were both gorged, the son asked, “Dad, why didn’t we just eat them all at first? Why did we swim around and around them?”

    His wise father replied, “Because they taste better if you scare the shit out of them first!”

    1. I can remember along with many others being vigorously encouraged by life guards to “GET OUT OF THE WATER NOW”!
      By life guards on popular Aldinga beach south of Adelaide.
      The last time I went swimming in the sea.

    1. In the early years of London’s deep-level underground railways, ozone was added to the ventilation because of its sterilising qualities. It was noted that underground train drivers and guards on these lines seemed to be immune to Spanish flu.

      (In large quantities, ozone is a poison, but so is chlorine, which is routinely added to our water supply.)

      2. Oxygen, as in O2, is also a poison at moderate partial pressures and above.
        “Exposures, from minutes to a few hours, to partial pressures of oxygen above 1.6 bars (160 kPa)—about eight times normal atmospheric partial pressure—are usually associated with central nervous system oxygen toxicity and are most likely to occur among patients undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy and divers.

        1. ‘Morning, Paul, many pilots and navigators, when I was strapping them into the ejector seats of a Javelin Mk 8 at RAF West Raynham in the early 60s, would very quickly grab their oxygen mask, saying, “Where’s me 100%?” as it was a great relief for a hangover.

          1. We used to take a few breaths of pure oxygen after a heavy nights drinking when I was stationed in Germany – the Canberra B(I)8s carried plenty

      3. And fluoride, in some places in the UK. It has been put forward as a possible explanation to the Swedes’ passivity as it occurs naturally in the water supply. Allegedly.

        1. In many parts of Sweden it occurs naturally in the water supply. That was the case where I was in Orebrolan.

          Many Swedes are inbred.

    2. Your a star Maggie. 💡🌟
      I’m going to try and get that from our library this morning.
      It’s very similar to the one many Nottlers have read by Terry Hayes. I am Pilgrim.
      But only one country was thd target.

    3. I’m wondering how long the media will try to keep the lid on this. And I also wonder what Donald Trump thinks of this.

      1. I have heard something like a Chinese whisper (someone quoting someone else quoting Trump) that it will all have died down by April. I wonder what he knows?

        1. Maybe it was just a tester.
          I have not read the book but apparently the virus mentioned in it, attacked grey matter reducing it to a type of puss.
          Several sections of the media it seems, have already been affected.

    4. Thanks, Mags, I’ve read other Dean Kootz books but here he is remarkably and chillingly accurate. I’ve just downloaded it for Kindle at £1.99.

    5. I just tried to borrow an online copy from our library.

      Number 49 on the wait list. Will I be around to read it?

  24. 316695+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Would in not be possible for this johnson chap to finance
    the leading lights of the “greenies” to a long term China visitation to set up a conversion campaign, starting at the top offenders in climate abuse then, when done there, work back to the very least offenders ie England / GB.
    ALL the global warming rhetoric to be contained within China.
    I am pretty certain every chink with a chop,chop stove is in waiting to give the global warming activist a warm welcome.
    Ps, make sure gove is a campaign member.

      1. I’ve just lost a filling too. Should I wait until the Covid 19 panic is over before visiting the dentist?

        2. I’d just get on with it, now, before the scare gets scarier. There is no time like the present. It’s not like hundreds then thousands are coming down with ‘it’ every day. If Covid 19 exists, and I do wonder about this, (Novichok springs to mind) your dentist may well be dead if you wait until the ‘pandemic’ has quietened down.

    2. I watched a programme the other evening that had the Big Bang as its subject. The question the programme posed was, “Did the Big Bang occur?” The astrophysics and cosmology community are now questioning the Bang theory and putting forward the idea that it wasn’t an explosion in the accepted sense. The people positing this new idea weren’t from the weirdo edge of science but the likes of Phil Plait, James Bullock, Michelle Thaller, Sean Carroll et al. people with impressive cvs in their respective fields. The science isn’t settled, unlike some theories.

    3. Is there any point in holding a strike when they are off? It would be like pub workers going on strike between midnight and ten AM!

      As for holding their demonstrations during half term, I agree it could have been last week.

      Just play a recording of someone sneezing, that’ll scare them.

  27. Drax power station to cease burning coal in March 2021

    Energy company Drax is to stop burning coal at its North Yorkshire power station – once one of western Europe’s biggest polluters – from March 2021.

    It says it will then close its two coal units in September 2022 with the loss of 230 jobs at the site near Selby.

    The move comes ahead of a government ban on coal-fired electricity in 2025.

    Drax said it had held discussions with the National Grid, the regulator and the government before deciding to end commercial coal generation.

    “Ending the use of coal at Drax is a landmark in our continued efforts to transform the business and become a world-leading carbon negative company by 2030,” said chief executive Will Gardiner.

    Coal represented about 3% of Drax’s power generation in 2019, down from 30% in 2016.

    2. ‘Drax power station to go over fully to burning irreplaceable American forests to maximise its subsidy income in March 2021’.

      That’s more like it.

    1. ‘Morning, Mags, as usual it doesn’t take too much imagination to identify who is at the root of the trouble-making.

      Because of their previous bad behaviour, India was partitioned in 1947 and they were given their own corrupt shitholes in Pakistan to the west and what is now Bangladesh, in the East. Round ’em up and ship them out – not wanted here.

  29. Labour Faces Calls To Suspend Activist Reported To Fraud Police Over £90,000 Debt

    A Momentum activist who was reported to anti-fraud police over her talent agency business is facing calls for her suspension from a key post within the Labour party.

    Dorinda Duncan, who currently sits on Labour’s London regional board, is being investigated by the party over claims that her firm left families tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket, HuffPost UK can reveal.

    Her agency, Connect Your Talent (CYT), is accused of taking more than £90,000 from the parents of child dancers in Scotland and the North East who had been promised trips to California that never happened. No refunds have been paid.

  30. Woman, 35, arrested in UK first after new live facial recognition cameras rolled out

    A woman in London has become the first person in the UK to be arrested using a new live facial recognition system rolled out by police.

    The 35-year-old was arrested for failing to appear in court in connection with a serious assault on an emergency worker.

    A Met spokesperson said: “Officers arrested a 35-year-old woman at approx 5.30pm for failing to appear at court in connection with a serious assault on an emergency service worker.

    “The arrest was made by officers who reviewed an alert from Live Facial Recognition technology identifying her as wanted by police.”

  31. “When I get older, losing my hair”. The next bit of the song no longer applies to me, unfortunately!

        1. So have I. I enjoy working out finger picking arrangements for the acoustic guitar. When I’m Sixty Four lends itself well to this but my favourite is “I will.”

          1. I Will is a lovely song. page 106.
            Let it Be is a good song for finger style. But I play it G D Em C, with a flourish at the end of the verse.

    2. I reflect that when the song was first released in I think 1967, a significant proportion of Britons had kicked the bucket before reaching age 64, and of those who did reach it many were physically worn out.

        1. I have an old (older than me) acquaintance whose birthday is tomorrow. He reckons he’s only in his 20s 😆

  32. Teenager who fatally stabbed Nashon Esbrand named publicly for first time

    Dior Lupqi was 15 years old when he and a gang of associates chased, trapped and killed 27-year-old Nashon Esbrand in Mitchison Road in August 2017.

    Lupqi, who landed the fatal blow, was 16 when he was jailed for a minimum of 12 years for murder at the Old Bailey – but couldn’t be named because he wasn’t 18.

    Nashon’s mother, Princess Esbrand, said: “He murdered someone. If you have murdered someone you have to take the consequences. And he was the one who used the machete and stabbed Nashon three times.”

    Cally gang member Jack Stevens, who was alleged in court to have orchestrated Nashon’s killing, had his sentence reduced from 23 years to 21 years at the Court of Appeal on Friday last week.

  33. Hackney Council bans Home Office from Windrush advice event

    The call was made as a “direct consequence” of the deportation of 17 people to Jamaica earlier this month.

    Twenty-five others remain in the UK after a judge found that they had not had adequate access to legal advice within detention centres.

  34. A new Disqus “interesting side effect” – or certainly one I haven’t noticed before. Every time I post something, the display moves to the very bottom of the page – odd!

  35. First Bristol & West Bus changes for today

    City Services

    1 & 2 Cribbs Causeway Normal route to Temple Meads (stop T8), then Temple Way, Bond Street, Bear Pit, Marlborough Street, Upper Maudlin Street (stop H1), Park Row and normal route from Queens Road (top of Park Street).
    1 & 2 Broomhill / Stockwood Normal route to Queens Road (top of Park Street), then Park Row, Upper Maudlin Street (BRI stop H2), Marlborough Street, St James Barton, Bond Street, Newfoundland Street, Temple Way, then normal route from Temple Meads.
    3 & 4 City Centre Normal route to Queens Road (top of Park Street), then Park Row, Upper Maudlin Street, to terminate at BRI stop H2.
    3 & 4 Cribbs Causeway From BRI stop H1, Upper Maudlin Street, Park Row, then normal route from Queens Road (top of Park Street).
    5 Terminate and commence from Bus Station
    6 & 7 City Centre Normal route to Cabot Circus South stop (S14) on Bond Street South. Terminate.
    6 & 7 Kingswood / Staple Hill From Cabot Circus South stop (S14) , continue ahead, Newfoundland Street, Bond Street South. Old Market roundabout, to resume normal route.
    8 & 9 72 Clifton / UWE Normal route to Bond Street, then then via Marlborough Street, Upper Maudlin Street and Park Row, resuming normal route from Queens Road (top of Park Street).
    8 & 9 72 Temple Meads Normal route to Queens Road (top of Park Street) then diverted via Park Row, Upper Maudlin Street, Marlborough Street, St James Barton, Bond Street, Newfoundland Street, Temple Way then normal route to Temple Meads.
    22 Morning Unaffected
    22 Evening (if required) Normal route to Redcliffe Way and terninate at R4
    24 Ashton Gate Normal route to Old Market (stop M4), then Castle Street, left Tower Hill, right Counterslip, left Victoria Street, right St Thomas’ Street, right Three Queens Lane, left Redcliff Street and ahead Redcliff Hill to resume normal route.
    24 Southmead Hospital Normal route to Redcliff Hill, then right Redcliffe Way, left Temple Way, up the bus lane to Old Market roundabout, serving stop M2 on the slip road, right to Old Market, then normal route.
    36 City Centre Normal route to Cabot Circus South stop (S14) on Bond Street South. Terminate.
    36 Brislington From Cabot Circus South stop (S14), Newfoundland Street, Bond Street South, up the slip road to Old Market roundabout, then normal route.
    35 42-45 City Centre Normal route to Cabot Circus South stop (S14) on Bond Street South. Terminate.
    35 42-45 Kingswood / Hanham From Cabot Circus South stop (S14), Newfoundland Street, Bond Street South, up the slip road to Old Market roundabout, then normal route.
    48, 48a & 49 City Centre Terminate at Bond Street stop S2 (McDonald’s).
    48, 48a & 49 Lyde Green Commence at Bond Street stop S2 (McDonald’s) then divert around St. James Barton roundabout, Bond Street, Newfoundland Street, Bond Street South and up the slip road to resume normal route at Old Market.
    70 City Centre Normal route to Stokes Croft to terminate at stop N2.
    70 UWE FrenchayTo commence from To commence from Stokes Croft stop N1 then normal route
    71 Bower Ashton Normal route to Stokes Croft, then Marlborough Street, Upper Maudlin Street, Park Row, Triangle, Jacob Wells Road to resume normal route at Hotwell Road.
    71 UWE Frenchay Normal route to Hotwell Road then divert via Jacobs Wells Road, Queens Road, Park Row, Upper Maudlin St, Marlborough St then normal route.
    72 See 8 & 9 See 8 & 9
    73 Temple Meads Normal route to Stokes Croft then left Bond Street (stop S1), Newfoundland Street, Bond Street South, Temple Way to Temple Meads Station.
    73 Cribbs Causeway From Temple Meads, continue ahead up Temple Way, Bond Street to St James Barton then normal route from Stokes Croft.
    75/76 Cribbs Causeway Normal route to Redcliff Hill, then right Redcliffe Way, left Temple Way, Bond Street,St James Barton and Stokes Croft to resume normal route.
    75/76 Hengrove Depot Normal route to Stokes Croft then left Bond Street (stop S1), Newfoundland Street, Bond Street South, up slip road to Old Market Roundabout, third exit Castle Street, left Tower Hill, right Counterslip, left Victoria Street, right St Thomas’ Street, right Three Queens Lane, left Redcliff Street to resume normal route.
    90 City Centre Normal route to Redcliff Hill, then, right Redcliffe Way, left Temple Way, to terminate stop M2 on the slip road prior to Old Market.
    90 Hengrove Depot From Old Market stop M2, left Castle Street, left Tower Hill, right Counterslip, left Victoria Street, right St Thomas’ Street, right Three Queens Lane, left Redcliff Street, ahead Redcliff Hill back to normal route.
    91 & 92 City Centre Normal route to Temple Meads, then ahead Temple Way, to terminate stop M2 on the slip road prior to Old Market.
    91 & 92 Hengrove Depot From Old Market roundabout stop M1, via Temple Way to Temple Meads, then normal route.
    Park and RIde Services

    Bris Normal route to Bond Street then around St James Barton roundabout, Bond Street, around Newfoundland Street, Bond Street South, Old Market roundabout, Counterslip, Victoria Street, St Thomas’ Street, Three Queens Lane & Redcliff Street to resume normal route.
    Port Normal route to Hotwell Road, then divert via Jacob’s Wells Road, Clifton Triangle, Park Row, Upper Maudlin Street, Marlborough Street, Bear Pit, Bond Street (stop S1) then around Newfoundland Street, Bond Street, around St James Barton roundabout, Marlborough Street, Upper Maudlin Street, Park Row, Triangle, Jacob’s Wells Road to resume normal route at Anchor Road.
    Airport Flyer Services

    A1 City Centre Normal route to Temple Meads. Then, direct via Temple Way and Bond Street to Bus Station.
    A1 Bristol Airport Out of Bus Station, turn left onto The Haymarket St James Bartont then Bond Street, Newfoundland Street, Bond Street South, Temple Way to Temple Meads, into Temple Meads Station and then resume normal route.
    A2 City Centre Normal route to Redcliff Hill, then right Redcliffe Way, left Temple Way, left round into Bond Street. Terminate.stop S6.
    A2 Bristol Airport From Bond Street stop S6, around St James Barton, Bond Street, Newfoundland Street, Bond Street South, Old Market roundabout, Counterslip, Victoria Street, St Thomas’ Street, Three Queens Lane and Redcliff Street, then ahead onto Redcliff Hill to resume normal route.
    Metrobus Services

    m1 Cribbs Causeway Normal route to Redcliff Hill, then, right Redcliffe Way, left Temple Way, up the slip road to Old Market Roundabout, across to serve the Cabot Circus South metrobus stop on Bond Street South (S13). Then right, straight onto M32.
    m1 Hengrove Park Normal route to the end of the M32, then left onto Temple Way, and up the slip road to Old Market Roundabout (stop S15). Third exit at roundabout, Castle Street, left Tower Hill, right Counterslip, left Victoria Street, right St Thomas’ Street, right Three Queens Lane, left Redcliff Street, then ahead onto Redcliff Hill to resume normal route.
    m2 Long Ashton P&R Normal route to Temple Meads, then up Temple Way bus lane as far as Old Market Roundabout stop M2. Then, left Castle Street, left Tower Hill, right Counterslip, left Victoria Street, right St Thomas’ Street, right Three Queens Lane, left Redcliff Street, ahead Redcliff Hill back to normal route.
    m3 City Centre Normal route to Bond Street to terminate at normal stop S2
    m3 Emersons Green Commence from Bond St stop S1 then normal route
    University Services

    U1 City Centre To terminate at BRI stop H2.
    U1 Stoke Bishop To commence from BRI stop H1, Park Row then normal route
    U2 City Centre To terminate at Queens Road outside of Sainsbury’s. (as normal)
    U2 Langford To commence from Queens Road outside of Sainsbury’s, then around Triangle, resuming normal route left onto Jacob’s Wells Road. (as normal)
    BANES And North Somerset Services

    37 Bristol Normal route.
    37 Bath Out of bus station, turn left onto The Haymarket to St James Barton, then Bond Street, Newfoundland Street, Bond Street South up the sliproad to Old Market Roundabout, then left to resume normal route at Old Market.
    178 / 376 Bristol Normal route.
    178 / 376 Radstock / Wells Out of bus station, turn left onto The Haymarket, Bear Pit, Bond Street, Newfoundland Street, Bond Street South, Temple Way to Temple Meads, then normal route.
    349 & X39 Bristol From Temple Meads (stop T8), Temple Way, Bond Street into bus station.
    349 & X39 Keynsham / Bath Out of bus station, turn left onto The Haymarket, St James Barton, Bond Street, Newfoundland Street, Bond Street South, Temple Way to Temple Meads, then normal route.
    X1 to X9

    Bristol Normal route to Hotwells Road, left Jacob’s Wells Road, Triangle, Park Row, Upper Maudlin Street, Marlborough Street, St James Barton to bus station.
    X1 to X9 Outbound Out of bus station, turn left onto The Haymarket, St James Barton, Marlborough Street, Upper Maudlin Street, Park Row, Triangle, Jacob’s Wells Road, Hotwells Road then as normal.
    TI & Y1

    Toward Colston Avenue

    Terminate and commence their journey from Bus Station.

    T1 & Y1

    Toward Thornbury & Chipping Sodbury

    From Bus Station via Haymarket then normal route.

    ——-

    1. Living in the NW Highlands I’m really grateful for this information – I will have to re-plan my day

      1. #MeToo in East Suffolk. Thank you for that Spikey, I was trying to think up a not too offensive reply – you’ve done the job.

      2. I’ve just had to move my car because the council are trimming trees in my road.
        How would I have known without that post?

  36. ‘Morning All

    Spiked

    “Frighteningly,

    although none of these ‘incidents’ is in any way against the law, the

    police’s record could show up on an enhanced DBS check. These are used

    by employers to check an applicant’s suitability for a job. Police

    Scotland insist that these ‘hate incidents’ will only be revealed to

    potential employers if cops deem it relevant to the job in question. But

    given the low bar the police have already established for putting

    people on the database in the first place, who can say what jobs would

    be discounted?

    This is a terrifying state of affairs. In police stations across the

    land, there are teams of rozzers looking through social-media comments

    and impugning the motives of those posting them.”

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/02/27/policing-humour-is-no-joke/

    I suspect all OUR names are aready on ze list

    2. I found out I was on the list in 2005 when investigating why I kept getting terminated from jobs without any explanation a few weeks into a job. I was a pay clerk in a special school, and asked under Freedom of Information for my file, and there was that unfounded malicious complaint to the police where they took no further action after questioning me, surfacing with embellishments, which is released to every employer that asks for it.

      It is an old-fashioned blacklist.

  39. I have just sent this email to my MP

    Now that the panic has started about the Coronavirus COVID-19 can we now have reassurances that the Border Force Taxi Service, that operates from 3 or 4 miles off the coast of the U.K. to bring illegal immigrants to the coast of England, now be required to tow these illegal immigrants back to France and send a clear message that the Border Force will no longer be doing the work of the human traffickers. Their first priority, as should always have been the case, is to protect the indigenous population of our once great country.

  42. East Yorkshire flooding worsens as residents evacuated from homes

    Residents in parts of East Yorkshire were evacuated from their homes overnight as flood water levels rose rapidly.

    The flooding at East Cowick came as fields in the area, holding vast quantities of water from the River Aire, began to overtop.

    Emergency services deployed boats to assist with evacuating residents.

    Meanwhile in Shropshire, repairs to buckled flood defences will start later if river levels fall low enough.

    The Environment Agency (EA) aims to do the work ahead of Storm Jorge, which is due to hit the country this weekend.

    1. I have lived in Yorkshire all my life, but never heard of East Cowick until now.
      My knowledge of geography increases daily.
      I hear there was a wraith in Snaith.

    2. Should have dredged those rivers like we used to. Spoil used to increase the height of the banks.

      1. There is a Directive forcing people to take in the “migrants” (who are really Islamist troops retreating from Syria and Iraq or released from internment when the Turks attacked the Kurdish guards) sent over by Erdogan in reprisal for criticising him and Trump over the annexation of Kurdish-liberated Northern Syria in order to create a “Peace Corridor”.

        EU rules say that these fifth columnists, along with their extended families, must be evenly distributed throughout Europe, and that over-run natives in Lesbos have no business stopping them.

        Didn’t the EU Commission once threaten the Austrian Chancellor with reprisals if he persisted in patrolling national borders, closing down mosques and sending Ottoman-friendly imams back to Turkey? A few months later he was brought down in a highly dodgy intrigue involving a fake Russian journalist and his Coalition partners. The only way Kurz (who is far and away the most popular force in Austria right now) could get back into office was through a Coalition with the Greens. He cannily traded off more action tackling climate change with them agreeing to his border protection measures, but we wait to find out if this works, or whether the EU will intervene.

        1. Worst case, the EU has sown the seeds of Europe’s destruction.

          There is no best case that doesn’t involve forced repatriation in huge numbers.

          Anyone who believes these migrants will settle down and live in harmony with their neighbours hasn’t been observing what is happening elsewhere.

          1. ‘Morning, Sos, any attempt to round ’em up and ship ’em out will have all the snowflakes screaming about ‘Kristallnacht’ and a new holocaust.

            My answer always, has to be, as ye sow, so shall ye reap.

        2. Erdogan has apparently said that the borders of Turkey will be opened to “refugees” from Syria who can the travel onward to the EU (whether they want to or not, I suppose).

          1. Given the carry-on on Lesbos with the locals losing patience with the authorities and their resettlement camps, I think it’s a matter of time before those in North-eastern Greece and Bulgaria start to get uneasy about who is arriving from Turkey.

  45. EasyJet and BA owner set to cut European flights

    EasyJet and the owner of British Airways are to cancel European flights as a result of a big drop in passenger numbers

    EasyJet is also to introduce a pay freeze as part of a cost-cutting drive.

    1. Minor detail Bill. There’s a difference between saying that Easyjet and BA are to cancel European flights and saying that they are cancelling some European flights to severely affected areas of Europe, such as Northern Italy.

    2. No. But then I run with the script that Twitter uses switched off so I never see them! I can see the images where you have provided the http link to click on, as in your previous post.

    1. Those Aztecs, Inca, Maya or whatever they are certainly got to the heart of the matter, for all the good it did them.😎

      1. They certainly got a visit by the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

        Disease and war from the Spanish. Drought which led to almost total crop failure. Then came famine.

        1. Just so, Phil. The Spanish thought them heathens and slaughtered them in their thousands. Imported disease ravaged them, but the coup-de-grace came when the survivors were handed over to the Inquisition

          ……. and they weren’t expecting that.
          :¬(

  48. Daily Brexit Betrayal

    It’s the way they tell it … or even not tell it at all:

    a scan of today’s front pages shows that yesterday’s publication of the

    government’s negotiating mandate was of scant interest to the dear

    authors in the MSM. That the EAW will be gone: not important unless

    you’re a Remainer. Never mind – we can make up our own minds very well

    without the MSSM, can we not!

    So first of all, here’s the actual government paper, titled “The Future Relationship with the EU – The UK’s Approach to Negotiations” (link).

    It’s not that long, a bit over 30 pages. The ‘government sources’ who

    told the MSM on Wednesday evening that ‘Boris will walk away’ if there’s

    no progress by June 30th were correct. There are however other items

    which are important. More on all that below.

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-brexit-betrayal-friday-28th-february-2020/

  50. As far as I’m concerned the threat of Covid-19 spreading across borders and into Europe/UK is as nothing compared to our lives, culture, heritage, and wealth from the spread of muslims.

  51. As far as I’m concerned the threat of Covid-19 spreading across borders and into Europe/UK is as nothing compared to our lives, culture, heritage, and wealth from the spread of muslims.

  52. There is something odd about all this. It would not surprise if this coronavirus fiasco was manufactured by the globalists – one in particular springs to mind – in order to crash the stock market to make a killing. I have not forgotten his involvement in the ERM pound sterling debacle in 1993. Paying for all these immigrants to travel to the UK, the clothes, iphones, not forgetting the bribes must be making a bit of a dent in his funds. Look at the complete lack of concern from ‘the Authority’ regarding people entering the UK especially from places like Italy, Iran, China and the rest. Contrast this with the use of Hazmat suits when a possible photographic opportunity may hove into site which can be used to terrify the population for an illness which seems to be on a par with influenza. Does it actually exist, in fact? It certainly does not seem to be on the same level in ferocity as measles which killed 148,000 world wide last year. So convenient that the symptoms are so vague, just the same as the usual winter viral infections. I am beginning to think it is a hoax for a purpose.

      2. £2.8 trillion so far wiped off global stockmarkets in six days. Some way to go yet. I am thinking all this would fit in with Belle’s quote earlier today along the lines of “equally baffling was the speed with which it dwindled only to reappear 10 years later (sufficient time elapsed to crash the markets again!?) whereafter it vanished completely.” Well, I suppose trying it on three times would be pushing your luck…. Perhaps Trump knows something, he has been quoted as saying “it will be gone by April” or words to that effect.

        The words in italics are mine.

    2. The measles figure is also suspect. What is your source for “148,000”?

      I do not doubt that tragically, many children die of measles, just the ability of the WHO to account for deaths in no-go zones in Africa etc.

      1. The figure is something I saw the other day – I can’t remember now where it was, I look at so much stuff, I just remembered the number. I agree with your comment about Africa, Aghanistan, how do they get figures for those sort of places?

        1. I think it is not the virus, which is genuine; it is the world-wide over-reaction to it.
          It has spread to Africa ! Panic stations ! Nigeria. An Italian guy who works there came back from Italy and sneezed.

      1. As I’ve said elsewhere, if this is deliberate or not, it was started in China.

        Is China likely to want to shut down all commerce? Is China likely to want to curtail its customer activity to its own detriment?

        A somewhat fallacious conspiracy theory to my mind.

        1. Do not underestimate the ruthlessness of Communist oligarchs. China can easily sacrifice a few million people to achieve their ends.

      1. She is keeping the ‘mental condition’ as the get-out-of-jail card. Most celebs seem to be afflicted at one time or another including her cuck.

        1. I agree. Backed up with Harry saying he had to go along with all of this otherwise it would have tipped her over into the abyss. That’s his get-out-of-it-all.

    2. Strange how there was so much obfuscation over the extent that Canada was paying towards the woke security.

      No we are not impressed.

    3. You don’t usually see young mothers taking two dogs for a walk whilst having a baby strapped to you in a front supported harness or ‘papoose’.
      Perhaps she saw the cameras ahead.

      1. Are you referring to those two young mothers behind the bobble-hatted celeb trying to fit in?

        The two doggies are being glowered at “you are doggies; without the banana, you cannot aspire to be security guards just because you identify yourselves that way”.

          1. Maybe they are just identifying as young mothers, so they aren’t chased away as potential abusers?

          2. Maybe they are just identifying as young mothers, so they aren’t chased away as potential abusers?

      3. She does not look even remotely maternal. I pity the child and I even feel sorry for the numpty Harry when he finally wakes up to the fact that he has been cleaned out, gutted and filleted by Monsta Ma Meghan.

        1. When the announcement of their engagement was made, my first reaction was here we go again, a royal marrying some one who will not fit in.
          I have lost count on all the divorces and separations.

          1. She changes nannies more often than the baby’s nappies. Instead of a flesh & blood nanny, there is just a blur.

      4. I have a neighbour who walks her two dogs twice a day wearing a papoose. She doesn’t have a nanny like Markle does and her husband is at work. No choice in her case.

          1. I sometimes walk with her when i take Dolly out. She’s a feisty young lady, i don’t think she would accept my offer to help.

          2. Goodonya.
            I sometimes bump in to our neighbours on their dog walks, but they walk a bit too fast for me. And their constantly yappie little dog steals our big old softie Labs ball. But It keeps him quiet.
            I think perhaps she lets him have it, to shut him up.

    2. Maybe it would better simply just to shoot anyone with a bit of a sniffle. Should be able to get down to 3 billion by Easter.

  55. Games and Greta
    Last night at the track cycling World Championships in Berlin Ms Douglas interviewed the GB women’s pursuit team. Four lovely young ladies, expressed disappointment, and determination to do much better. They had the right attitude. They were very dissatisfied as they only came second (out of around 50).
    They are all looking forward to the Olympics. This is a bit sad and a bit unrealistic. There won’t be an Olympic Games this year. There won’t be any cycling Grand Tours either: no Giro’d’Italia, no Tour de France. (The UAE Tour currently taking place has been stopped with two stages to go as a couple of Italians have Covid-19.)

    Meanwhile a foreign teenager has being allowed into this country with the specific objective of inciting illegal behaviour. Why was Greta not stopped at the border and turned back? Will she be arrested at the demonstration? If not, why not?

    1. Woke]

      VERB
      past of wake.
      ADJECTIVE
      US
      informal
      woker (comparative adjective) · wokest (superlative adjective)
      alert to injustice in society, especially racism.
      “we need to stay angry, and stay woke” · ”does being woke mean I have to agree with what all other woke folks say should be done about issues in the black community?” · ”the West Coast has the wokest dudes”

      alert to injustice in society ?………….. oh well the obscenely and hideously normal populations in western cultures have no chance of reversing the social injustice clearly aimed at them, they are mainly white hard working tax paying people who quite inadvertently pay for all the shite shovelled in their direction by the minority, those being, all of these self indulgent self obsessed idiots.

    2. HP, having thousands of schoolchildren congregating and holding hands during a period of time when a contagious disease is on the loose and then allowing those children to disperse back to their schools next week doesn’t appear to be the most sensible action of a government mandated to protect its country. But, what the hell, it’s climate change and we only have (insert your time scale to suit) to save the Planet.

          1. Well, I’ve looked out of the window and it has all gone black and there’s nothing there and I can’t see anything*.

            *© D. Lammy.

        1. “Respicite volatilia caeli quoniam non serunt neque metunt neque congregant in horrea et Pater vester caelestis pascit illa”
          — Mat. 6:26

    2. First item on the BBC news this morning. More important than the financial crash taking place before our eyes, as stock markets plunge towards an irreversible spiral. More important than the unchecked spread of an incurable disease.
      Fantasy trumps facts.

        1. Those in close attendance on Greta Thunberg are in the pay of George Soros.

          Soros is behind most of the trouble in the world, funding the invasion of Europe by millions of menacing Muslims and stoking up the supposed Climate Emergency for both political and monetary ends.

          1. There’s little doubt that Soros is at the forefront of all the misery being laid on the West at the moment. However, I do not see how he has sufficient money to succeed at what he is accused of planning. He has been around for only a few decades but powerful families in Europe and now in the USA and other countries have been around for centuries and have far more wealth than Soros could dream of controlling. IMO he is the front man for some of these families: he started off leeching off the Nasties control of power by betraying and stealing from his own people. His modus operandi probably hasn’t changed, nor his evil intent towards his fellow man.

          3. If Soros is truly behind most of the World’s trouble, isn’t it about time he was rendered useless? Job for the SAS and/or SBS.

    4. Tony, when politicians of all stripes and from multiple countries and the UN etc. became involved and promoted this child’s ramblings then anyone with any sense knew it was a globalist scam. It’s a clear, ‘follow the money situation’. As we’re witnessing on a couple of Greek islands with the globalist immigration scam, the people are not as stupid as the globalists think they are.
      The backlash against mass immigration has started and eventually when people fully understand what ‘carbon neutral’ means to their lifestyle there will be the most almighty backlash. Johnson, by going for his ‘Green’ nonsense is sowing a wind, and neither he, nor any of his successors, will be able to control the resulting whirlwind when reality strikes home.
      The next step from the PTB will be a large expansion in policing and security, here, already, 20,000 additional police are in the pipeline. The EU is massively expanding and training its Gendarmerie but the gilets jaunes and now some Greek islanders have not been sufficiently intimidated so as to back off. Interesting times and I hope to live a few more years to be able to see the start of politicians getting their comeuppance.

  57. Thoughts from the kitchen sink.
    Is Erdogan planning to invade Europe? He is pushing lots of young muslim men into Europe. There are Turkish outposts in every town in Europe. He has a huge ( largest in Europe), well-equipped army and an effective air force equipped with nuclear weapons. (Yes indeedy, our muslim chums at the other end of Europe have nuclear weapons.)
    As Turkey is part of NATO their strengthening of their armed forces has gone almost unnoticed. The US has cancelled the sale of F35 fighters to Turkey but the won’t make much difference.
    (All paid for by our buying white goods etc made in Turkey, and EU grants to not invade us.)

      1. They are occupying the outposts. Literally at least one Turkish barber in every town in Scotland.

        1. There are 5 in my town Pop; 100,000 in the borough. That is beside the other 3 barbers. Can’t see how any of them make a living. I think the Turkish barbers are a front for money laundering.

    3. Kerrigan is planning something, for sure.
      His forces have been bombing Idlib, and now he’s opening the Turkish borders to allow refugees from Syria through to Europe.
      https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/27/erdogan-opens-the-gates-syrian-migrants-granted-unhindered-passage-to-europe/
      Erdogan Opens the Gates: Syrian Migrants Granted Unhindered Passage to Europe

      https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/28/the-hungarian-people-must-be-protected-budapest-braces-for-new-migrant-wave-coronavirus-spread/
      ‘The Hungarian People Must be Protected’ – Budapest Braces for New Migrant Wave, Coronavirus Spread

  59. Ah she tells us the world is on fire whilst the rain is chucking it down

    This is an emergency. People are already suffering and dying from the consequences of the climate and environmental emergency but it will get worse.

    “Still this emergency is being completely ignored by politicians, the media and those in power.

    “Basically, nothing is being done to halt this crisis despite all the beautiful words and promises for the elected officials.

    “So what did we do during this crucial time? What we will do right now? Well I will not stand aside and watch, I will not be silenced while the world is on fire – will you?

    World leaders are behaving like children, so it falls on us to be the adults in the room.

    “Just look at Bristol as an example.

    “The other week, the plans to expand Bristol Airport were cancelled – a lot thanks to climate activists.

    “And of course this is far from enough, but it shows that it does actually make a difference.

    “Activism works. So I’m telling you to act.

    2. Committing to UK economic suicide with the bonkers zero-carbon 2050 target is hardly ‘being completely ignored by politicians’.

      1. Presumably HS2 will now be cancelled – it hardly fits in with the 2050 zero carbon nonsense. No new roads anywhere, in fact, no new infrastructure anywhere. Air travel to be curtailed etc. Etc. Legislation is completely incompatible with energy provision, also to be severely curtailed. We live in a bonkers world.
        Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere, even later than usual to posting.

        1. The HR RW3 closure suits the HS2 narrative.

          People won’t be able to fly north, so the train becomes essential.

          1. They won’t be able to get the train to the North either. HS2 only goes as far as the outskirts of a city in the South Midlands, a hundred miles, and it’s going to take decades to do that. Not much high speed there.

          2. I fear that once the lunacy is started, it will not finish until Johnson gets his bridge over the North Sea.

            Like HR RW3, all on the back of the green stupidity.

          5. But but but what about the demolition of property standing in the way of the proposed route? And the machinery required to do that using so much electricity, the cement to be mixed, the steel to be produced and transported into place … I could go on (I know, I have!) but …

          6. They are only the little people and they don’t count; apart from a few bribes every five years or so, they can be ignored.

          7. They are only the little people and they don’t count; apart from a few bribes every five years or so, they can be ignored.

    3. Of course activism works, especially if the politicians secretly want it to happen, to take some of the blame when the power goes out.

      Someone commented that this won’t stop until people start to starve.
      I think it won’t stop until the snowflakes lose their internet and cell phone connections because of prolonged power cuts.

    4. …completely ignored by politicians, the media and those in power” Are you deranged, Doomgoblin? They might be ignoring it everywhere sensible, but here in Britain (and many parts of the EU) we are going full throttle to destroy life as we know it by striving for the unobtainable!

      1. I take it that mom o those children and their parents go on overseas holidays and that non of them have cars , gas cooker or gas central hating?

        Just a lot of virtue signalling I suspect

      2. I take it that mom o those children and their parents go on overseas holidays and that non of them have cars , gas cooker or gas central hating?

        Just a lot of virtue signalling I suspect

  60. West Midlands to get access to ultrafast home broadband

    One million households in the West Midlands will be able to access ultrafast gigabit-capable broadband from March, Virgin media says.

    The company says the switch-on of its gigabit services is the largest in the UK, and will be available in Coventry, Birmingham and the surrounding areas.

    Gigabit technology allows for download speeds of more than 1,104 megabits per second. The average UK speed is 54Mbps.

    But the ultra-high speeds will cost at least £62 a month – that’s £744 a year.

    Customers who pay for the high-speed connectivity will be able to download an ultra-high resolution 4K film of 20 gigabytes in a little over three minutes, rather than the hour it would take on an average connection.

    Virgin’s gigabit offering is already available in Southampton, Manchester and Reading, and the company says it plans to add “millions” more homes this year.

    2. Virgin internet is extremely expensive. Sure it’s blindingly fast when it works. It does have an annoying habit of going down and it taking their engineers ages to find the problem. Their routers are also junk.

      1. I actaully bought a print copy of the DT this week to read at the hairdresser. I was astonished to be charged £2.50. Apparently the weekend editions are £3.50.

        So £17 for a weeks print editions bought from the newsagent.

        3. I used to get 2 x daily papers delivered & 2 x Sundays
          Paper shops suffered when Supermarkets muscled in and many corner newsagents closed or stopped deliveries.
          My nearest shop is now uphill & 1 mile away, no deliveries as I am too far away – so the daily paper is an impulse buy when out & about although I make a point of buying the DT every Saturday.

        4. The Times is £1.80, £2 on Saturday and £2.50 on Sunday. I get it two or three times a week because they have some excellent writers and few typos. I am incapable of having a breakfast without a newspaper.

    1. Par for the course, Belle, which is why I gave up on it many years now. So predictable, and that includes the blatant anti-right bias.

    2. Unashamedly I repeat one of my comments from last night:

      Jon Arshworth is as slippery & greasy as a Rotzbrocken.

      ‘Morning, Belle.

    1. The good news is it is forecast rain all day.
      They will be at one with their climate, or what I call UK winter weather.

    2. Police warn of travel chaos and risk of CRUSHING at Greta Thunberg’s UK climate rally as thousands of children prepare to take a day off school and join her on the streets of Bristol
      Greta Thunberg, 17, set to speak to 15,000 activists at a protest Bristol on Friday
      Police said the sheer size of event meant safety measures ‘may not be adequate’
      Many roads in city centre will be closed and two schools have also shut for day

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8053089/Police-warn-travel-chaos-CRUSHING-risk-Greta-Thunbergs-Bristol-climate-rally.html

      I wonder how many of those youngsters have been skiing in Italy during halfterm?

        1. Morning m,
          Yep and terrible precious and mimsy … children learn quickly , I daresay they will all have reall tantrums when they find Glasto and all the other festivals are cancelled this summer.

      2. But, but, but supporting St Greta is a great way to assuage their guilt of enjoying their high carbon holiday. Rather like confession or wearing a hair shirt (listening to St Greta is as uncomfortable as wearing one, I imagine).

      3. What’s the weather forecast for Bristol? Cold (2.3C) rainy and windy here. One hopes Bristol is worse. (Sorry to any NOTL Bristolians.)

      4. Lunchtime news – NUT spokesman – we support their skiving because “It is part of their education.” FFS!! The teachers get another day off, more like!

    3. If the authorities were genuinely concerned about COVID-19 the rally would have been cancelled.

        1. I suspect that many of those attending may well have been on skiing and other similar half-term breaks, where the virus was prevalent. It would be poetic justice if the cause of a tipping point was that gathering.

  65. Heathrow Expansion

    Contrary to media claims the expansion of Heathrow has not been blocked. What the judgement said is that the planning approval was flawed in that it had not considered the climate change act. All that needs to happen is the planning application needs to be amended to take the climate change act into account and then be resubmitted

  66. UK’s most isolated island where no one has lived permanently for 90 years because living conditions are too tough is to open a £5.5million visitor centre – on the nearest isle 40 miles away

    The most isolated island in the UK that has had no permanent resident for 90 years because life is too tough is to get a new £5.5m visitor centre – 40 miles away.

    St Kilda – a UNESCO World Heritage site – sits 40 miles west of the Isle of Lewis, Scotland which is the nearest inhabited place – and the location of the new attraction.

    The last people to live permanently on the island were evacuated in 1930 as living conditions became too tough because of regular storms.

    People only now live on the main island, run by National Trust Scotland, on a temporary basis to work at the military site, or on wildlife conservation or research projects.

      1. As a young lass, a pal of mine’s mother was one of those evacuees. Tough conditions, right enough. If bad weather prevented their being resupplied by sea, they scavenged, living on gulls-eggs and whatever else they could find.

        Not a life for the fainthearted!

          3. Ideal for a detention camp for illegal immigrants, criminals on bail and those awaiting deportation. Small chance of disappearing into the population.

            No nonsense from the illegals who’ve burned their papers. Tell us your name, nationality and date of birth. Without these you are being deported to Somalia and will be landed, at dead of night (the same way you came here) on some deserted shore.

          4. Sorry Tom just posted similar. Must get into the habit of looking further down before commenting.

          7. Then they live in the trashed surroundings – or fix it. Not even tough love, just tough. But then I’m all heart.

          8. It would be better if they all moved to Middlesborough. They could move in with the millions already there. It would be supported by Tory toffs as they get paid for housing the “migrants”.

    3. Ahhh. So there is somewhere suitable to build a prison to house the extremist Muslim prisoners, away from the rest of the prison population.

  69. The DM is reporting Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, as saying ‘we have reached a tipping point’. Hardly. A ‘tipping point’ is defined as an uncontrolled escalation of something, which we are nowhere near at present. Of course, unless the UK closes its borders pronto or screens every incoming passenger, we may well reach the point where the NHS can’t cope.

    1. A_A, don’t raise your hopes and expect our politicians, especially Hancock, to get off their sorry arses and actually do something important and useful for the people. Closing our borders means stopping immigration and it will be a cold day in hell when they even contemplate, let alone actually do that. The Channel influx will continue unabated and as a source for any nasty infection.
      The rise of TB in London and other cities is testament to our politicos’ laissez faire attitude to protecting this country.

    2. As I wrote to my MP this morning.
      The U.K. Border Force Taxi Service should from now on, and forever more, tow these dinghies they find 3-4 miles from the coast back to France. Time to secure our borders and we’ll never have another opportunity as this to stop it altogether.

    3. A couple of hundred patients is all that it would take for an NHS “crisis ” to be declared.

  71. The Telegraph letters are so often worth reading:

    SIR – As a GP and a public health specialist, I know how easy it is to generate anxious patients. Doctors must choose their words very carefully and ensure they are properly informed before making comments.

    I find much of the current advice around the coronavirus Covid-19 (Letters, February 27) from academics and public health colleagues confusing. There seem to be far too many doctors willing to appear on radio and television to give opinions.

    While encouraging my patients to take sensible precautions such as washing their hands, I am also making it clear that they do not need to panic. This advice is based on information published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, based on over 70,000 cases of Covid-19 from China, which suggests that eight out of 10 people got a mild illness. Just as with flu, those most at risk of becoming more sick are the elderly and people with underlying conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and chronic chest problems.

    Dr Nick Summerton
    Brough, East Yorkshire

          1. Do you and Bob3 know which horse will win at the Grand National. I could do with a good winner.

            :-))

          3. How can he possibly get over the first hurdle when he is already six feet under it?!?!?

            :-))

          8. I’ll contact my family who are 4 hours ahead of us. They will know who won before the race is run. 🙂

  72. Kids, if you were at school today and you looked up the science of combustion on BBC Bitesize you would have found that the hydrocarbon balance equation for the world fire that you are so worried about is represented by the chemical combustion equation:

    methane + oxygen → water + carbon dioxide

    CH4 + 2O2 → 2H2O + CO2

    In simple terms this means that for every methane molecule that a cow farts and is then subsequently burned, two molecules of oxygen are consumed resulting in the formation of two molecules of water (H2O) and one of carbon dioxide ( CO2).

    As you know, CO2 in the air is so insignificant that it doesn’t deserve an entry in the % gases in the air pie chart on the science website.

    What you should be worried about is that combustion produces twice as much water than CO2 and water is something that we just don’t need at the moment particularly in Shropshire.

    So believe the science – get you muddy boots off and dry them by the fire!

    1. On the nature side of things, especially ornithology sections, subject to the massive increase in rain fall around the UK, it’s been announced that species of British owls are expected to be in decline this year.
      It’s been considered by various experts that it’s been too wet to woo.

  73. We still need to judge Boris on what he does not what he says. I have a great concern about him that he is a green nutter with some of the stuff he supports. He still has to prove himself to me.

      1. You need to judge him on what he does not what he says.He has said plenty and done little. He has changed his mind on the BBC he now says he want the BBC to reform itself from within for example. He has done nothing about all the road closures with the demos. Lets wait and see shall we.

          1. Ah. Trump has done what he said he would do. We will have to wait for Boris. I trust trump more than Boris. I hope I am wrong.

        4. I am hoping that Tony will explain to us just why Boris’s deal is brilliant, how if differ s from May’s WA and why he is so shy about giving us any details.

      2. Good afternoon Tony.

        Since Boris Johnson did not think it necessary to tell us during the election campaign why his “deal” with the EU was brilliant and how it differed from the May Ditched Dodo Deal then please could you do so to put our minds and misgivings at rest?

      3. Well you’re easily pleased.
        He’s done a terrible job in government in every department he’s worked in. The only thing he believes in is buying as many votes as he can. He’s a man full of soundbites but with very little substance behind them.
        The governments since 2010 have been particularly awful. Worse than useless. A lost decade economically. Falling longevity. Falling quality of life. Benefits system ruined. Healthcare system ruined. Gig economy exploded where workers are exploited massively. Homelessness doubled. Transport system has been awful. The chance for Brexit wasted.
        We need a complete change in politics. We need the old parties to die, new parties to form. We need all current MPs to be put out to pasture.

        1. I am satisfied with what he has done since he took over the reins after he was elected. I can think of nobody who could have done a better job.
          I hope he keeps it up.

  74. Either I’m confused, or the authorities/governing bodies/sporting bodies/airlines – are thoroughly mixed up:

    SIR – The rugby international between Ireland and Italy, scheduled for March 7, has been postponed, and the match between Italy and England on March 14 is in doubt, on account of the spread of the coronavirus.

    In the meantime, there are several flights from Italy to Dublin each day, not to mention flights from China. Am I missing something ?

    Sandy Pratt
    Storrington, West Sussex

    2. This reaction is totally illogical. If they were consistent, then we would close down supermarkets, schools, work places etc etc.

      1. Weren’t there some Chinese imports of these toys that were prone to spontaneous combustion?

    4. Maybe a power station near the coal mine and some wires to the south. I know! Someone is going to mention the leakages along the way.

      1. 316695+ up ticks,
        Afternoon AA,
        Well the police & establishment governance parties are, without a doubt.

    3. If you ever need some form of visual aid for the words “petulant spoilt brat”, save that photo!!

    5. Is she being powered by the solar panel behind her? Just as well it was cloudy and raining…

  83. What a Farce

    Forget Paris Agreement: China And India To Build 320 New Airports In 10 Years

    Date: 28/02/20

    Global Warming Policy Forum

    Nobody anyone outside Europe’s green bubble really cares about the

    UK’s apparent decision to stop building new runways. This has nothing to

    do with the Paris Agreement, of course. China and India are both

    signatories to the accord – yet they are building 320 new airports in

    the next 10 years.

    https://www.thegwpf.com/forget-heathrow-china-and-india-to-build-320-new-airports/

    And this

    https://www.thegwpf.com/britains-economic-future-on-the-brink-as-climate-law-fare-threatens-most-infrastructure-projects/

  84. What a Farce

    Forget Paris Agreement: China And India To Build 320 New Airports In 10 Years

    Date: 28/02/20

    Global Warming Policy Forum

    Nobody anyone outside Europe’s green bubble really cares about the

    UK’s apparent decision to stop building new runways. This has nothing to

    do with the Paris Agreement, of course. China and India are both

    signatories to the accord – yet they are building 320 new airports in

    the next 10 years.

    https://www.thegwpf.com/forget-heathrow-china-and-india-to-build-320-new-airports/

    And this

    https://www.thegwpf.com/britains-economic-future-on-the-brink-as-climate-law-fare-threatens-most-infrastructure-projects/

  85. Boris Johnson’s ONE-word response to Barnier’s demands sends shockwaves to Brussels

    BORIS JOHNSON has vehemently shot down EU demands for a compromise, simply responding “no” when asked whether the UK would eventually cave to Michel Barnier’s pressure.

  86. Boris launches £10m crackdown on badly-behaved schoolchildren

    A long overdue measure. A big problem is you an be sure the left wing teachers will be obstructive to this

    BADLY-BEHAVED schoolchildren are to be targeted in a £10 million Government drive to improve discipline in the classroom, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has announced.

    Mr Williamson said he wanted schools with the worst behaviour to take a leaf out of the book of the those with best. And he warned naughty kids banning phones from classrooms and making students line up in silence were just two of the measures under consideration in his crackdown on unruliness. Mr Williamson said: “Visit some of the country’s best-performing schools, and you’ll notice that many of them have one thing in common: discipline.”

    2. 316695+ up ticks,
      BJ,
      Morning assembly, disarm them, then a good morning beating, regular.
      Personally I was lifted on my toes by my hair ( I had the longest hair in the class) knuckled in the back, made regular connections with black board chalk erasers, and caned , left school with sense of humour / respect for the staff intact, and no mental scars.

      1. Every morning, I was lifted to my toes by the old Lochaber nose-grip, punched in the face and thrashed within an inch of my life,

        And that was just for being late for breakfast. Things went downhill from there once I got to school.

        1. 316695+up ticks,
          Evening DM,
          You had breakfast ? I come second in the breakfast lottery once
          got to lick the plate four times, the third runner up got to polish it off.

    3. ‘banning phones from classrooms and making students line up in silence
      were just two of the measures under consideration in his crackdown on
      unruliness’

      In other words he’s threatening them with our normality. They aren’t ‘measures’.

      1. I have never understood as to why they have ever been allowed to take them into the classroom. They should be taken off of them at the start of schools and handed back at the end of school

        2. I’ve never understood why children and teenagers want their parents to have a device that keeps tabs on them.
          Cyber apron strings.

    4. 10,000 secondhand trainers from charity shops plus a wee law that says they can be used should do the trick – saving £9,990,000

  87. Boris launches £10m crackdown on badly-behaved schoolchildren

    A long overdue measure. A big problem is you an be sure the left wing teachers will be obstructive to this

    BADLY-BEHAVED schoolchildren are to be targeted in a £10 million Government drive to improve discipline in the classroom, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has announced.

    Mr Williamson said he wanted schools with the worst behaviour to take a leaf out of the book of the those with best. And he warned naughty kids banning phones from classrooms and making students line up in silence were just two of the measures under consideration in his crackdown on unruliness. Mr Williamson said: “Visit some of the country’s best-performing schools, and you’ll notice that many of them have one thing in common: discipline.”

  88. Brussels sends warning over British waters – ‘The fish are EVERYBODY’S’

    Brussels is or course wrong. WE have international law on our side. They are our waters and we will decide what if any access to our water EU countries get

    THE European Union has issued another furious warning to the UK over post-Brexit free trade deal talks, ramping up pressure on Boris Johnson to drop his red lines on not allowing EU fishermen access British waters

    1. And our fishermen can sell them to everybody.

      If the EU fishermen want access, they can pay for licences and quotas and they can land them in the UK to be inspected/processed.

      1. Or we could give them/sell them no quotas and no access. They would then have to buy their fish from us. We would be able to reinstate our fishing fleets, revive our fish processing facilities and allow the stocks to grow.
        We would make the profits and manage the industry. They would have to buy at our prices, or not. Of course they would buy. I don’t imagine that half the restaurants in France, Spain etc will decide to close down, or go vegan.

        1. 316695+ up ticks,
          Afternoon HP,
          “We” could do ALL those things if “we” had
          a 100% pro English / GB governance party in power.

        2. Big problem there.
          Most of our fleet, most of our ports, and most of our facilities have shrunk too far to be able to take that approach immediately.

          Reinstating them is going to take time

          1. What an opportunity for fish stocks to regenerate,no fishing while we rebuild our fleet
            How Green {:^))

          3. It will take some time. However, time allows fish stocks to regenerate. Also there will be some nice modern trawlers for sale in France and Spain, very cheap. Some Scots boats employ Filipinos, and others.
            The UK Government could offer grants and soft loans to processors to reopen factories etc. (A fish factory in NE Scotland closed last week with the loss of 80 jobs. They could not get enough fishing order to remain viable.)

    2. Oh, dear. Sounds like the EU is really panicking now. Would they say that about another country’s national waters?

    7. They are Belgium’s fish the moment they swim into Belgium’s waters. Until then, they can stick with only mayonnaise with their chips.

    8. Isn’t it time our meddlesome Courts pointed out to the EU that, under UN law, fish within a country’s EEZ belong to that country?

      1. Do not bet on it. Spider-woman and her chums at the Supreme Court are entirely pro-European and will pass a judgement representing the precise opposite to the correct decision or what we might otherwise expect from our Law Lords.

    1. See that 4 minutes into that video, that chap gave a couple of dry coughs.

      I’m a wee bit worried – I just hope my computer’s anti-virus software is on the ball…..
      :¬(

      1. I’ve just given a couple of dry coughs myself a moment or two ago, but I’ve been flattened (and I mean flattened) by a dose of bronchitis or something of the sort all week, so I wouldn’t worry.

  90. ‘Morning, all.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c1f8c5e1885c9ecac668ef8b19d16d7276805bc1a8c5189a4f60f30ba4d95cc3.png

    David Mitchell makes a very good point. I remember 1979, when the PIRA murdered sixteen of our guys from 2 Para and two from the Queen’s Own Highlanders at Warrenpoint. Two massive IEDs were detonated, the second designed specifically to target a helo that had come to evacuate the survivors of the first blast.

    The anger that we all felt at this cowardly attack was palpable and it required no little restraint not to vent that anger on PIRA supporters who routinely threw stones and petrol bombs at us while we patrolled the streets, trying to maintain law and order in that benighted province. Army discipline ensured that no reprisals for Warrenpoint took place, but without that discipline, it could so easily have gone the other way.

    I wasn’t at Warrenpoint – not my battalion, I was 3 Para – but a mate, who was there, described the aftermath to me and it was horrific. Body parts were hanging from trees and scattered all round, that is, those bodies that hadn’t been vaporised in the explosions.

    From that day, I felt an overwhelming hatred towards Irish Fenians, one that smoulders on to this day, one that I shall probably carry to the grave.

    2. Maybe we should consider the James Bond defence over such veterans?

      If you give someone a licence to kill, then sometimes you expect him to do so, and trust his judgement when it is right. In the heat of battle, such judgements can be frayed and must be instant. There is a limit though to how far one can be trained to get it right all the time.

      If any blame can be apportioned for extrajudicial killings carried out during the Troubles, it should be with the Commanding Officer, who would no doubt explain to any court that it was a military necessity.

    4. In 2 Div Sigs, mid 80s, we had an RCT driver who had been driving a Saracen ambulance at Warrenpoint. What he saw that day was still haunting him then.

  92. I wonder if the game O’Grady Says in which you only obeyed instructions – no matter how ridiculous they were – given by O’Grady is still played in schools? If so O’Grady should now be replaced by Greta Thunberg Says.

    1. That crossing isn’t even in the same place as it was when they took the Abbey Road LP photo. It’s become just another lazy cliche and like all other cliches, it’s boring and unimaginative.

      I wish they’d just tarmac over it and build a footbridge and the locals (whom I admit to never having met) won’t have to put up with tossers getting in the way of the traffic day in day out.

      I have the LP. I will have nothing to do with anything else seeking to repeat the image.

      1. And getting ‘woke’ with an old rock star from before Harry could walk. How cool is that?

        That’ll really click with der yoof of today.

          1. I was doing the shopping this morning, feeling less than perfect with the bronchitis still hanging on when ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ started belting out from the bloody loudspeakers. One of the most annoying songs known to man, yelled out by that same flamboyant songster.

            At that moment and for several minutes afterwards I would have cheerfully swapped my shopping for a machine pistol.

      1. You’ve heard the one about the Syrian guy who fell in love with a Greek girl on the island, then realised that she was a Lesbian ?

    2. Ignorant arrogant nigger. These fuckers knelt on their haunches smoking in the shade of a tree whilst their womenfolk fetched and carried for them for centuries. The joint wear on the skeletal remains of their ancestors are proof.

      1. And they sent the mothers of their children, with the children to queue up for hours for free hand outs because they couldn’t be bothered to work to support them.

      3. why use the n & f words? That’s simply offensive. Nobody can choose their parents or skin tone.

        1. Check out what they call folk like you!

          Edit: Negro for nigger and fornicator for fucker. Fornicating seems to be the only thing these beasts are capable of.

      1. After the great migration ~ 250,000 years ago.

        It left far too many of the thickos behind to breed.

      2. Decolonisation.

        Rhodesia vs. Zimbabwe.
        Prosperous food exporting country vs. broke country relying on international food shipments and bailouts.

        South Africa – same story, descending into lawlessness with collapse inevitable.

        There was good reason for it being called the white man’s burden.

      3. After the great migration ~ 250,000 years ago.

        It left far too many of the thickos behind to breed.

        1. Our distant ancestors, observing the burgeoning number of niggers in Africa, thought “There goes the neighbourhood….” and turning to face North, started out on the “Great Trudge” to the secluded groves of Europe.

    1. The BBC website has many articles which are on other websites. When you click on you get sent to the Worthington Chronicler, or similar, and have to cancel all their cookies. Saves the highly paid BBC “journalists” from having to do any work.

  97. Jum Ping the Chinese hacker is sending the page to the bottom every time I post or upvote.
    Is it just me or do you all have it ?

    2. Started doing it to me again the last couple of days. So as I head to the bottom of the page byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

  99. What’s in a name?
    Pet dog tests positive for low level COVID-19.

    The owner of the dog, Yvonne Chow Hau Yee, has also tested positive for the virus.

    2. Why would anyone test a dog and from whence comes the tests in the first place when the symptoms are so vague? It’s all very peculiar.

      1. Imagine a place like China which is in lock down, those people with pets have a few choices, feed the pet, eat the pet or release the pet. If it transfers readily from the human to the animal kingdom (yes Grizz, I know humans are just a type of animal) then control will be even more difficult to establish.

  100. One for Ogga

    Political indoctrination in the “Free World” has achieved a level of

    effectiveness that Stalin and Goebbels could only have dreamed of. The

    Powers That Be have all but implemented thought control, to the point

    where the majority of people affected by it don’t even know they’re

    being manipulated.

    Yet not everyone succumbs to the propaganda. If you’re reading this

    essay, chances are you haven’t been successfully brainwashed by the

    television. So what makes you different? Why are most of your

    colleagues, friends, and relatives in thrall to politically correct

    groupthink, while you escaped?

    I don’t know the answers to these or any of the other questions. I

    just know they’re the ones we should be asking. Instead of talking about

    deporting them all, or obsessing on Bernie Sanders.

    How are masses of people being so easily manipulated?

    And how can enough of them be unplugged from the Matrix to make a difference?

    https://gatesofvienna.net/2020/02/stop-me-before-i-vote-again/

    2. Political indoctrination in the “Free World” has achieved a level of
      effectiveness that Stalin and Goebbels could only have dreamed of.

      And having collectively paid billions for the privilege, they are all tagged. Mobile phones !

    3. 316695+ up ticks,
      Afternoon Rik,
      What I cannot get my head around is how a nations electorate be so dumb ?
      They religiously follow the same voting pattern GE after GE & repeatedly give power to the same ilk of political tripe.
      Reshuffled maybe but the same.
      Many vote on the strength of the party’s manifesto, guaranteed to be a tissue of lies, many holding their noses,others voting for the best of the worst that is to say the best of the worst from three proven PRO EU PARTIES, then they whinge.
      What really brought it home to me was that these mass uncontrolled immigration parties were jointly responsible for the odious rotherham issue & the Jay report never caused a ripple in the voting pattern.
      The animal kingdom protect their young first & foremost.
      I am a UKIP member the party at the moment is in dire straights due to it’s treacherous NEc, many a person says
      UKIP is finished, what I am asking is why is UKIP in the process of being
      politically murdered, why, why when at times it was making good it was suppressed, why ?

      I predict that “Hearts of Oak” will make itself be heard, for the sake & protection of the kids alone, a good thing. also bring to the attention of many an idiot that
      submission, PCism, Appeasement,
      condones evil issues, assures one that their mental scars are for life & kills.

  101. Bu**er ! It’s back again.

    “Darn it!

    Something went wrong while trying to load this feed. Try again in a little while.

    Please visit Discuss Disqus to learn more.”

  103. 316695+ up ticks,
    Has any pressure or is any pressure needed for boris to join the EUs PPDF to send units to
    Greece via brussels ?
    PPDF = Peoples put down force.

      1. 316695+ upticks,
        T,
        There is no such word as can’t
        especially when dealing with the eu.
        Whats in the small print of the already IMO, done deal ?

    1. I’m sure all those emissions from the burning scooters will make Greta and her ‘woke’ disciples very cross indeed.

  105. Little Cat has captured someone’s sock & brought it home… Bugger! Wonder whose it is?

  108. 316695+ up ticks,
    May one ask,
    Hoo will be the truthsayers,
    Hoo will shine a light on concealed political sh!te.
    Hoo will return self respect, lost time & again, via the polling booth.
    You may well ask,Hoo ?

    1. Yer Greeks don’t mess about.

      I recall getting through a police cordon in Athens just as a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the line. The blast of heat was startling, to say the least.

        1. Indeed.
          Not an experience I wish to repeat.
          Particularly as some bastard stole my wallet in the confusion.

          1. In my lifetime Greeks and Turks have never got along too well. We might have some serious problems ahead when the two countries dispute their territorial waters and the resources known to exist beneath them.

    3. Pink seems to have tartar on his teeth which needs removing, but what a wonderful performance.

      1. I’m not a lover of domestic animals but think this video is marvellous. It’s evident the dog really enjoys the run.

      2. My apologies to Pink his teeth are in good nick. The discolouring on the picture was on the skin of his underjaw.
        Border collies are supreme at this outstanding sport and Pink is the best one I have seen.

    1. I suggest they halt the Henley Regatta immediately. Just think of all that exhaled CO2 not to mention all the exhaust emissions from Range Rover and Porche drivers’ cars arriving for the event. What that can’t happen? Then it ain’t a “climate emergency”!

      2. All bad weather will gravitate towards Henley-on-Thames.
        Leander will be furious if flooding stops the rowing.
        I think the decision is a disaster.

    3. Presumably that means more taxes wherever they can slap them…. and more powers to call areas ‘pollution free zones’…. and more cameras, more surveillance – it doesn’t have to be climate related! although I am sure they would argue a link if necessary and pushed. Lord save us from these virtue signallers.

  112. There is a good comment about the Doomgoblin in Bristol
    jose39, lima,

    “I thought we had it bad with the threat of coronavirus coming here – didnt realise it could get worse.”

    1. Macbeth: “Who are you?”

      The Three Witches: “We are the Three Witches. Yes, we can.”

      Macbeth: “Can you foretell the future? Oh, I say, that’s clever.”

  114. Oh dear.

    However, there is the get out of jail card available to the Commission and the Italians.

    EU humiliated: As Barnier lectures UK on state aid EC admits Italy £350M Alitalia bung.

    A statement issued by the Commission confirmed the “in-depth” investigation had been launched, while stressed it was a “standard step” which did not “prejudge” the outcome. Regulators will consider whether the loan constituted state aid or whether it complied with EU rules on helping companies in difficulty.

    Daily Express – Italian Support for Alitalia of £350 million

    2. Why that’s nothing like the hundreds of millions the UK Government poured into modernising and updating our shipyards so that they could compete with the illegally State-aided shipyards in Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland and France, is it?

      Oh hang on, I stepped into another Universe for moment.

    3. Why that’s nothing like the hundreds of millions the UK Government poured into modernising and updating our shipyards so that they could compete with the illegally State-aided shipyards in Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland and France, is it?

      Oh hang on, I stepped into another Universe for moment.

      1. HP, for your safety you must avoid those Einstein-Rosen wormholes; you were lucky this time around.

  115. “The British government has a duty of care towards the royal family.”
    “Call me Harry’ has removed himself from the royal family. The British government has no duty of care towards him – particularly at the taxpayers’ expense.
    Maybe the glittery ‘friends’ can fork out for the poor little waifs.

    1. I think we poor saps will have to pay for the security in Canada. The pair of them are a liability.

          1. There was a Captain Hewitt who was an officer and not quite a gentleman. I wonder if there is any connection here?

    2. I think we poor saps will have to pay for the security in Canada. The pair of them are a liability.

    3. I think George Clooney ought to be given the responsibility of providing and paying for the nasty couple’s security.

      1. 316695+ up ticks,
        Afternoon M,
        Along the lines of having CD plates, in their case submission,PCism, Appeasement establishment tools, has
        them covered.

    2. I think the penalty for stealing in Islam is fairly severe. These bar stewards need to be caught given a proper taste of Islam and then deported.

      1. 316695+ up ticks,
        Afternoon S,
        Trouble being they I would believe, come under the protection of the Submissive,PCism,Appeasement umbrella as spread by the governance parties.

      2. 316695+up ticks,
        S,
        From each other no doubt, loss of a hand, from real indigenous
        English / GBiens I believe they are awarded an extra arm transplant, to become extra efficient at the rip off game.

  122. Border Force taxi Service

    To help better assist those arriving by dinghy a new phone number has been set up so that you may call the Border force to assist you to get to shore safely . The Telephone number is 14562-DINGHY

  123. World Health Organisation chief raises threat to emergency level

    The problem is countries have been doing nothing sensible to stop the spread. Everyone entering the UK needs to be screened before entering the UK

    I suspect though that it is now to let to stop it spreading throughout the UK

      1. It’ll probably reach a point where they can’t stop it. The incubation period is too long, allowing carriers to infect a lot of people before showing signs of being ill. It’s already travelled around the world. It’s also believed to be more infectious than normal flu.

        1. Well according to Chinese reports there’s only been 3,500 new cases there in the last week. Do we believe them?

      2. The sooner the better and it will become just another one of those things out there that might cause our demise; joining heart attacks, cancer, strokes, falls from high places, being hit by a bus, blown up at a pop concert and all the other things that are part and parcel of life in the modern world and which we can do bugger all about.

        1. 316695+up ticks,
          Afternoon B,
          Supporting / voting for
          mass uncontrolled immigration parties time & time again seems to
          say that many peoples are satisfied with the status quo.

    3. All it takes is for a few dozen MPs to contract the virus then they might act, albeit belatedly. It was much the same when the IRA targeted the Brighton Hotel and eventually Downing Street.

  125. Rik posted a Tweet with a brief video of a new Chinese railway for the transport of coal. Here’s a video of the Sandaoling operation, a vast open cast mine from the which the coal is flogged a few miles uphill to a mainline railhead for transport elsewhere. It’s due to close this year.

    All that unburnt coal going up the chimney. Churchward, Gresley and that, er, LMS bloke wouldn’t have liked it!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8grHpQAB1jA

    1. They need to get their sizing at the screens sorted out. A tender full of large and cobbles is what they want. Half the firebox is going through the blastpipe.

      That must be really shite coal they are mining.

      1. I don’t think they’ve ever been the slightest bit bothered. It’s just a giant colliery railway. Economy is of no consequence. The locos have been flogged to death and their numbers have declined from more than 30 to, probably, single figures today. More than 1,900 were built.

  127. What is a “coup d’etat” ?

    How is it, in effect, different from “leveraging policy” through “strong relationships with officials, politicians, NGOs and other actors” ?

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