Friday 3 December: Compulsory vaccination looks most attractive to governments that the voters do not trust

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

670 thoughts on “Friday 3 December: Compulsory vaccination looks most attractive to governments that the voters do not trust”

    2. Congratulations, M’Lady! I am comparatively late today at 7.10 am) but a very good morning to all NoTTLers.

  2. 342387+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Friday 3 December: Compulsory vaccination looks most attractive to governments that the voters do not trust,

    Look no bloody further than the United Kingdom.

  6. My email to Mark Steyn which he read on air was thus:
    Dear Mr. Steyn, All this bleating about Christmas…for the information of this government- I shall kiss whomever I wish under the mistletoe. How are they going to stop me?
    Sincerely….

    1. Ditto, Minty. That’s a second day with just a brief initial post – are you suffering from Covid-its?

      1. There seems to be dearth of things to comment on Elsie. We have Covid and Ukraine which are bound to pall on a small stage like Nottl. I am looking to see if this is deliberate

  9. That Norse Legend

    So here we are in Valhalla, and the gods are awakening the night after a tremendous orgy.

    The god of thunder yawns, stretches himself, turns over and sees this pretty little Valkyrie sleeping next to him.

    Gently he shakes her awake. “Good morning,” he says, “I’m Thor.”

    “Tho am I,” she replies, “but I’m thatithfied!”

  10. I received an e-mail yesterday:

    You recently signed the petition “Require halal and kosher certified products be prominently labelled as such”:
    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/565002

    The Government is asking for people’s views on how different forms of labelling might improve standards of animal welfare. It wants to hear about how changes to labelling might impact farmers, businesses and consumers.

    Read a summary of the proposals, and share your views:
    https://consult.defra.gov.uk/animal-welfare-market-interventions-and-labelling/labelling-for-animal-welfare/

    The survey closes on 6 December. (as if we’ll take any notice -MY EDIT)

    Who is running the consultation?
    The consultation is being run by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), which is responsible for improving and protecting the environment. The Department also supports the food, farming and fishing industries.

    Find out more about DEFRA:
    https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs

    Thanks,
    The Petitions team
    UK Government and Parliament

    1. I got the same email, Tom, but I just ignored it. Consultation my foot! They’ll just decide that it is anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic to offend people by using labels.

    1. BTL comments:

      Nick Procter
      JUST NOW
      To see a thumping majority of 19000 in one of the safest Conservative seats in the country reduced to under 4500 is a poor result, by any standards and is more of a testimony to the respect that James Brokenshire was held in as a constituency MP than an endorsement of his replacement, or the present “leadership” of the party.
      Without the Brokenshire effect, they might well have lost this seat, which means there are now few others that are “off limits” for the opposition.

      Hugh Fraser
      3 MIN AGO
      So the majority voted for nobody, so what does that tell you?

    3. Tice was third, above the Greens. I can’t help feeling that had he been the only alternative for Conservatives, that more people might have been tempted out to vote for him.

      1. It may worry you, but it is my impression that the British are not the most stupid by a long way!

  14. Compulsory vaccination looks most attractive to governments that the voters do not trust.

    That’s all of them then.

    1. Morning Bob. I don’t think that there has ever been a European Ruling Class that so hates its own people!

  15. Compulsory vaccination looks most attractive to governments that the voters do not trust.

    That’s all of them then.

  16. Europe’s omicron panic has left the Continent in a very dark place. 3 December 2021.

    It may be tempting fate to say it, but Britain is perhaps the best place in Europe to spend this Christmas. Bavaria’s winter markets have closed, France’s bistros won’t let anyone in without a pass sanitaire, Belgium has banned private parties and Ireland’s pubs are all under curfew. But in Britain, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated can walk, work, eat and drink where they like. Unless the omicron variant changes everything, we may well see in the New Year having overcome the virus and upheld the basic values of liberty.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Graham Leighton. 8 HRS AGO

    A world-wide pandemic, so deadly…..that they have to keep reminding us that it is here .

    So deadly you need to take a test to know if you’ve got it
    .
    And vaccines so effective you need a new one every twelve weeks.

    And so profitable it just has to continue

    When will it end.

    Well there’s no way of saying Graham my old cock. Judging by the latest two years ahead purchase, no time soon!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/02/europes-omicron-panic-has-left-continent-dark-place/

    1. Well, janetjH, the headline tells us that we are all doomed (shades of John Laurie in Dad’s Army) but the second paragraph tells us that the experts don’t yet know what will happen. Do they think we are all stupid?

      1. From Guido:

        Amusing news from France as Michel Barnier has been knocked out of the Republican primary race in the first round, coming third with 23.8% of the vote:

        Eric Ciotti 25.59%
        Valerie Pecresse 25%
        Michel Barnier 23.83%
        Xavier Bertrand 22.46%
        Philippe Juvin 3.13%

        Maybe we should try voting again in the hope he gets the right result next time round?

      2. Recent voting results would indicate many many are.

        Good morning to you from murky Norf Zummerzet.

    2. Omicron will likely ‘dominate and overwhelm’ the world in 3-6 months, doctor says.

      Morning Janet. When the UK found itself in minor difficulties like WW1 and 2 it made considerable efforts to maintain morale and prevent opinions like this (which were classified as “spreading alarm and despondency) being broadcast to the Public. This is particularly true in this case because Omicron looks to be pretty harmless. Why the difference from now ? Well Alarm and Despondency, when there is no real threat, helps to bolster support for Government, increases respect for its Leaders and helps the implementation of doubtful policies! It also makes Government relevant since these things can only be dealt with on a National Scale. Climate change serves a similar function.

  18. Massive fraud, as expected by some of us, in Sunak’s hurried and ill thought out loans to businesses during Covid is being discovered. £billions, possibly a third of all loans, will not be recovered. BBC Radio 4 news this morning. Taxpayers losing out again.

  21. All you want to know to make your own analysis:

    OLD BEXLEY & SIDCUP BY-ELECTION RESULT
    Conservative 11,189 (51.48%)
    Labour 6,711 (30.88%)
    Reform 1,432 (6.59%)
    Green 830 (3.82%)
    Liberal Democrat 647 (2.98%)
    English Democrat 271 (1.25%)
    UKIP 184 (0.85%)
    Rejoin EU 151 (0.69%)
    Heritage 116 (0.53%)
    Christian 108 (0.50%)
    Monster Raving 94 (0.43%)
    TOTAL: 21,787
    TURNOUT: 33.6%
    CONSERVATIVE MAJORITY: 4,478

  22. Number of parties held at No 10 in run-up to last Christmas, Sky News understands. 3 December 2021.

    Following reports that a large party was held in late December, it has also emerged that Number 10 staff gathered after work and drank alcohol to wind down, despite rules stating that mixing between household bubbles was banned.

    In reality these people no more believe this rubbish than Nottlers do!

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/number-of-parties-held-at-no-10-in-run-up-to-last-christmas-sky-news-understands/ar-AARm3Rc

    1. I wonder when they decided what the best time would be to announce the arrival of the brand new Omicron virus?

      The timing was important and it was a fine call. About 4 weeks before Christmas Day was about right – a time designed not to terrify but to remind the lumpen proletariat that the PTB could ruin their plans and day to day lives at a whim.

      It is not enough for tyrants to be tyrannical and merciless – they have to be seen to be tyrannical and merciless

  23. Morning all

    Compulsory vaccination looks most attractive to governments that the voters do not trust
    SIR – As Olaf Scholz, the new chancellor of Germany, and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, propose mandatory vaccines, it has never been clearer that any such move highlights the failure of governments to create the case for voluntary compliance.

    The countries keenest to follow this path appear to be the ones with the least political accountability. EU countries with proportional representation and overshadowed by Brussels seem readiest to swap persuasion for authoritarianism.

    Paul Gaynor
    Windermere, Cumbria

    SIR – I think I can safely say that the Armed Forces personnel involved in the booster vaccination programme will carry out their duties efficiently and cheerfully with no reward other than the feeling that they are serving their country and making a contribution to the community.

    GPs, on the other hand, need to be bribed: £15 a throw, £20 on Sunday and £30 to administer to some poor soul who is housebound.

    The BMA and its greedy members should be ashamed of themselves.

    Colonel Mark Rayner (retd)
    Eastbourne, East Sussex

    SIR – If qualified medics are too busy to give booster jabs, why are volunteers not used? Administering an injection requires very little skill and, if a controlled environment is provided, could easily be done by volunteers.

    The Red Cross, St John Ambulance and Scouting movement have mature, trained first-aiders. Volunteers do not seek extra payment, they work evenings and weekends and are open to challenges and extra training. In past crises, volunteer organisations have been integral to a co-ordinated, efficient response; why not in this one?

    Michael A Fopp
    Soulbury, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – What on earth is going on? Our super-efficient vaccination centre in Bracknell is entirely staffed by volunteers – doctors, nurses and others doing it in their own time and for no reward.

    On my frequent visits with elderly patients the place is almost empty, with vaccinators waiting for patients.

    Now the Government proposes to pay doctors a bonus for administering the jab. How crazy is this?

    Duncan Rayner
    Sunningdale, Berkshire

    SIR – Why cannot those who had no ill effects from the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine be given that in the next round of jabs, saving millions of pounds and showing faith in our home-grown vaccination?

    Lois Mcgill
    Buxton, Derbyshire

    SIR – Peter H York (Letters, December 2) asks for a lockdown to solve the problem sooner. May I ask how long for? Lockdowns do not get rid of Covid; they reduce the infection rate among people. The last lockdown ended once we were all vaccinated. We had light at the end of the tunnel. What are we waiting for this time?

    And when the next variant arrives? We’ll be in perpetual lockdown.

    As Boris Johnson said, we have to live with Covid.

    Samantha Patrick
    Gravesend, Kent

    SIR – Victor Launert (Letters, November 30) likens mask scepticism to questioning turning lights off and closing curtains during the Blitz.

    But the early days of blackout led to needless deaths from poor lighting on the roads. The King’s surgeon wrote in the British Medical Journal that by “frightening the nation into blackout regulations, the Luftwaffe was able to kill 600 British citizens a month without ever taking to the air”.

    The point is the unintended consequences of such blanket policies. In a free and liberal society, especially during times of fear, asking “Why should I?” is more important than ever.

    Graham Parsons
    Bristol

  24. A dreich sort of day, now that I can (just about) see out

    Cloudy, grey, drizzle, windless.

  25. A dreich sort of day, now that I can (just about) see out

    Cloudy, grey, drizzle, windless.

  26. No power all week

    SIR – We have had no power since Storm Arwen took out the electricity at our farm. This means no boiler, and, as we rely on a well (like most remote properties here), no water either. Were it not for coal stoves and wood burners we would be in serious trouble, which is why most homes here have stoves as backup. Yet the Government wants to move us all to electric heating, so it is merrily taxing oil and coal.

    Northern Powergrid is struggling to reconnect thousands of homes. We’ve had no update, and I can’t help noticing the Government’s indifference.

    Charles Palmer

    Birtley, Northumberland

    2. This government doesn’t have a clue how we all live , they have no idea of the depth of our pockets ..

      So many people are just about getting by .

      No electricity means the cows stand still in the milking parlour mooing to each other , with full udders .

  27. Assisted dying

    SIR – I was diagnosed with a similar condition to Ray Illingworth’s oesophageal cancer (“Illingworth backs calls for assisted dying”, report, November 30). A consultant told me to get my affairs in order and take a good holiday, as I had six months to live.

    I got a second opinion from America, had major surgery, and recovered. But six months later I was diagnosed with bone cancer, and was again told that it was incurable. I went back to America, where the diagnosis was reversed.

    This was in 2002, 19 years ago. If assisted dying had been legal I might well have chosen it.

    Michael Parry

    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    3. At the golf Club where I played for 25 years there were three people I knew who were diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, one a dentist, one my brother in law and the third the guy P.W. who use to produce the Wogan radio show. The only survivor was my BiL He had extensive operations, suffered for about two years after, but is still with us. …..just. Now has Myocarditis.

      1. Both my Father and his first wife died of oesophegal cancer. They blamed that they worked at Harwell in the 40s and early 50s, playing with radiation (in fact, a jar of uranium was found unde the bed in their accommodation – abandoned by the previous occupant!)

        1. Interesting Obs my BiL was an officer in the Royal Navy and at the sites where the first atom bombs were exploded.
          It’s an horrendous ailment to have.

  28. Call for green hike on gas bills to meet global climate change targets. 3 December 2021.

    The UK must consider putting up the rate of VAT on gas to meet its international commitments to halt global warming, the government’s climate change advisers said yesterday.

    At present VAT on gas is 5 per cent for domestic users instead of the full rate of 20 per cent, and the committee on climate change said that this could be seen as a ‘subsidy’.

    What an evil scam! The rich would be largely unaffected by such a change! These people deserve no less than to be hanged!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10269977/Call-green-hike-gas-bills-meet-global-climate-change-targets.html

    1. ‘Morning, Minty. Stuff the ‘climate change advisors’! My gas and electricity provider went bust back in October, and I found out recently that it is now Shell. The unit cost of my electricity has increased by 32% and my gas by 38%. But obviously this isn’t anything like enough for our sanctimonious greenies as there will be further massive increases in April, on top of which they want the full VAT rate paid as well. Although world prices have obviously played a part, the absence of a sensible and coherent energy policy on the part of this wretched government has also stuffed us all. Not only will we be grossly overcharged as a result of their stupidity, the poorest amongst us will suffer badly. And gone will be any remaining competitiveness, thus damaging our prosperity.

      Let us hope that another bad by-election will finally jolt this lot out of its terminal complacency. Dumping Johnson (and his bonkers missus) would be a good start.

      1. Apart from Putin (obviously), I blame the Global Free Market Right at least as much as the Left for the way this huge price hike has wreaked havoc with the standard of living for little people.

        They played supply-and-demand, using the Chinese as the lever to push up prices, drive the small competitors out of business, and enable the big lobbyist-friendly corporates to corner the market and name their price. The Free Market people might well argue this is the only realistic way to get most people to consume less, and knowing human nature as cynically (and sadly as realistically) as they do, they may be right. It’s not very comforting though.

        What appalls me about the Left is that they seem to have given up on providing any alternative. Corbyn may have been thick and somewhat misguided, but at least he was radical. Starmer and his band of neo-Blairite returnees offer nothing other than more of the same, Their only complaint seems to be that it is not their people getting in on the action.

        Really, rather than spending hundreds of billions on handouts to lobbyist-friendly fraudsters, public money is better spent on keeping people warm using whatever better methods public engineers can create for us, other than keeping on with burning up fossil fuel. Public information about insulating and draught-proofing is a start. A course on knitting (with perhaps a Bake-Off series fronted by brain surgeon Harry Hill) to keep heads warm and tolerating turning down the thermostat five degrees. Likewise, all this sitting at home locked down has made us unfit and not eager to go out and do things. This might require a bit of military discipline to get us off our couches, but a sweetener of some social cultural activities that bring enjoyment to our bodily decreaking is something that cannot be done purely by the market.

        If only the New Statesman permitted BTL comments, the Left might actually come up with a few ideas of their own, but it seems they must dictate their policies from America these days.

  29. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/096406ef846707d233525fd96c977ddc905bc8c56d43052c49460496db92b791.png What an utterly scruffy sack of shit. Is this what passes for modern “man”? It looks like he would have benefitted from some military discipline; whereby he would have been taught how to have pride in himself by having his trousers cleaned and pressed, his shoes polished, and given lessons in how to tie his tie properly. If this is the future of Conservatism then I would have simply refused to vote.

    2. Body language, too. He looks a right arrogant shite, standing all entitled like that.

    3. Well said, Grizz. No, I most certainly wouldn’t buy a car from this scruffy spiv!

      Looking like this seems to be what many aim for these days, but I can’t understand why.

      2. Thanks, Hugh.

        If I had been there it would have been difficult for me not to tell him to look in the mirror, so that he could see what everyone else sees.

    4. “If this is the future of Conservatism then I would have simply refused to vote.”
      With only about 18% of the electorates’ votes winning the seat for him it looks like they did refuse.

    5. At the very first general election I voted in, on my 18th birthday, I saw through the “Safe Seat” system of representation, and voted Liberal then to attempt to do something about it. The Government was changed specifically because the outgoing PM refused to do so, and the result was two years of dogmatic Labour Government until reality forced them to cobble together some sort of repair mechanism with the Liberals until it all fell apart and Margaret Thatcher made hay from the wreckage.

      I have already lamented the loss of Shropshire’s Labour MEP David Hallam, who fell when he was unseated not because of his shortcomings, but because they adopted a Party List system that favoured Coventry lesbians.

      Not having learnt anything from history and the perversion of democracy, we suffered the entire 2019 debacle where Boris Johnson lost all authority to govern and yet was not allowed to take it to the country for six months. I put it down to the Parliament from 2015 to 2017, which crucially brought in the Brexit Referendum, failed to represent the feeling of the country in a brazen way, as regards leaving the EU. This Parliament, in my opinion had no remit to pass any measures over Brexit, and it should have been handed to a Royal Commission due to a serious breakdown of democratic accountability.

      Core to this was the fact that UKIP gained four million votes nationally, but in Parliament was represented in the Commons by just one flaky MP. This was compounded in the Lords by the preponderance of Single Issue Liberal Democrats, who had just been trounced at the polls and could claim no popular remit then. Furthermore, the electoral malpractice in 2015 that denied a seat even for its leader, and ultimately led to the disintegration of the party, went unaddressed. Not only did the perpetrators get off scot-free, they have governed the nation ever since.

      [edit – minor grammatical correction]

      1. Good morning Jeremy.

        I hope the singing is going well!

        I was born in 1946 and I had to wait until was 21 before I was entitled to vote. The voting age in British general elections was reduced to 18 in 1970 so your first vote was cast in 1974. One of my best friends managed to arrange a driving test on his 17th birthday. He passed the test and got a full driving licence on 15th August 1963.

        1. My birthday also has the dubious distinction of killing off half the regular cast of ‘Father Ted’.

    8. Looks like he’s got himself into the, “See you, you bitch.” mode.

      Not only scruffy but looks like a queer – is he?

    1. 342387+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      To keep up our high standard of sh!te a lab/lib/con
      coalition vote will also protect the party name and is very necessary Og.

  31. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Late on parade today so just a brief visit for now.

    A quick scan of the Letters BTLs revealed a familiar poster. Knowing that our Anne is probably too modest to repeat it here, I hope she won’t mind if I do:

    A Allan
    30 MIN AGO
    Since, understandably, there are no comments allowed on the killing of little Arthur L-H, I would like to put in a word of praise for the jury on this case. They have had to endure a gruelling eight weeks hearing evidence that must have been every decent person’s nightmare.
    Well done, but I do hope this awful event won’t sour the rest of your lives.

    * * *

    Hear, hear Annie. I could hardly believe my ears when I heard the report about this sickening case of vicious and sustained cruelty to a young child. May the perpetrators rot in hell.

        1. So did I.

          I cannot cope with horror , debauchery, cruelty and base instincts .

          Just so relieved I have never ever been called up for jury duty.

      2. Me too. Far too much preoccupation with “abuse” and far too little preoccupation with Love.

        What I find so dreadful about this case and all the others is that the hammer of the law comes down hard on totally innocent people, who are often blacklisted for life simply for saying something incorrect that may be deemed offensive, or even bending down to talk to a child when one belongs to a category that is automatically deemed either guilty of abuse or guilty of denial. Yet when the evidence is shouting at these correctly-trained and exclusive custodians of our young, they will do nothing about it. They are also far too fascinated with sex, and seem to be blind to violence. Perhaps, under influence from BLM and the rappers, they regard violence and gratuitous cruelty as a virtue?

        Maybe it’s just too hard to confront the guilty, when it’s so much easier getting the figures by scapegoating the innocent with some trumped-up charge founded on prejudice and officially approved presumptions?

        My own instincts were to take this poor lad into my arms, to feed him, cheer him up and send him up a tree to climb or to make a den to explore. I wouldn’t be allowed to though, because as a discarded father, I am the wrong sort of person.

        1. You are right. if you don’t like your child you could give it away. There would be plenty of takers. It does not need a lot of thought. The social work industry spends a lot of time checking and analysing would-be adoptive parents. If our next door neighbours said, “the kid’s too much for us, could you take him/her”, we’d just say “yes, sure”. Casual? So it would seem. Our four children, all of independent mind, are now grown up. We’d know what we’d be getting into.
          Social workers have papers with tick boxes. They don’t have boots with steel toecaps. Even if they do decide that the front door has to be kicked in and the child made safe, they don’t do it. The police won’t do it, either. Lots of preliminary paperwork, and hearings, and meetings and discussions to be fitted into full diaries… while the only thing being kicked is the child.

    3. Good morning Hugh

      I couldn’t cope with the horror the little boy succumbed to , so I haven’t read about the terrible actions of the barbarian adults that the poor jury had to listen to.

      We all know that amongst us in society exists millions of bipeds who are sub human , ruthless , cold , calculating and manipulative monsters .

      2. I actually couldn’t listen, let alone watch it.
        MB was running that video on his lap top about a week ago, and I had to tell him to turn it off.
        I’m pretty bomb-proof, but that finished me.

        1. Whenever I see frail pale little children , I worry like mad, modern mothers are so similar to the fragile headscarfed, hairnetted poor creatures of long ago .

          Only these days , modern mothers seem to use their thirsty wailing offspring as accessories , they propel them along in pushchairs facing the wrong way , and usually have a younger child trailing behind them .

          Mothers constantly clutching the mobile phone ,and because push chairs are the way they are , there is no conversation between mum and babe .

          To be fair , I am always delighted and amused by proper daddy types who do the shopping with child in tow, and who chat away to their little ones .

          Problem families are slipping beneath the radar.

          2. The trick is to make cabbage appealing, e.g. Sweetheart cabbage with butter, a little salt & pepper, depending on the age of the child.

            I remember school dinner cabbage; it was always dark green & tasted disgusting. GOK what they did with it.

    4. Horrific. Why should the taxpayers have to pay to keep these excremental scum in prison. A length of rope or a bullet would be cheaper.

    1. Saying “Angela Rayner” and “Honourable Lady” in the same sentence is not only oxymoronic, it is an abomination.

      2. It’s just Parliamentary politeness, George, when lambasting one another.

        Small wonder that ‘Scum’ Rayner keeps her mask on – we can’t see the blood building up in her slimy gob.

  37. Richard Tice: Slashed Conservative majority in Old Bexley and Sidcup is proof Tory heartlands see Boris Johnson as a ‘liability not an asset’
    The Reform UK leader said the result showed a collapse in support for the Government ahead of the North Shropshire by-election on Dec 16
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/12/03/richard-tice-slashed-conservative-majority-old-bexley-sidcup/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    Unfortunately the slicing was not done by Richard Tice and it looks as if Reform, Reclaim, Renew, Repair, Regurgitate, Reconsider and all the other Re- parties are still a very long way from breaking the mould and throwing off the yoke of Lib/Lab/Con.

    Richard Tice, who was running in the seat for Reform UK, formerly the Brexit Party, picked up 1,432 votes – a 6.6 per cent share.

    These words from John Milton’s Samson Agonistes, which I have quoted before, remain as Relevant (name for another party?) as ever:

    “But what more oft in Nations grown corrupt,
    And by their vices brought to servitude,
    Then to love Bondage more then Liberty,
    Bondage with ease then strenuous liberty”.

    1. 342387+ up ticks,
      Morning R,
      Reform is brexit MK2, original brexit group turned out to be a, in many misguided cases, a marching troupe benefiting the fat turk.

      I personally would like to see no fake top up pro coalition party’s but a fringe outsider, a virgin in political treachery getting full on backing enough to put an patriotic voice in parliament.

      The only thing stopping that being achieved is…….
      the electorate.

    2. As I’ve said many times all those R parties and the F one should stop vote-splitting , amalgamate, agree a manifesto and give us an alternative to vote for, thus busting wide-open the current Lib/Lab/Con power-sharing triumvirate.

  38. 342387+ up ticks,

    Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election result: Tories win but with reduced majority
    Conservative lead slashed amid low turnout and allegations of sleaze in vote triggered by James Brokenshire’s death

    Expected, keeps the tory party (ino) ticking over and by their very vote shows that this is what the electorate want as in
    condoning Dover & mass illegal immigration, mass foreign paedophilia etc.etc,etc.

    2. And then you’re employing a geo surveyor complaining about the impact off aerial photography…. which their job exists to process.

      Truly, some people are dumb.

    3. The Sally Army will rue the day they went woke. As you write, a once beloved institution razed to the ground by going against their very own spirit.

  41. #CovidClownWorld

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f1cfbfa5e243fe36164be6eebbb998123316b9b3e3c3468f75a442ac98955b9a.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f4b54d2ce70267c944e0c3363e73e574ab2aeb59ca33496b9ef55215b1d05c68.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cd71c66d257095b6e01b1f6b0e7cbdd3bddc2c111fb54062a0e70aa8d993680a.jpg

    How Very Convenient…..

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/post-pandemic-stress-disorder-heart-conditions-covid-london-physicians-b969436.html

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/df578bab360462a028032961dc8d9d2d2e4778617469481633c6874105483b85.jpg

    Awkward…..

    https://twitter.com/BBlues50/status/1466331475209510913?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/14f3798945f308fbf0a42f682334d07993d11c17bccc320b7f0b520a6cba5d9d.jpg

    1. But were these reported effects caused by the vaccine? How do these numbers compare with the number expected from their general prevalence? How many people with Covid show these symptoms or die from them? Without context such reporting is just as bad as the Project Fear from government, ‘experts’ and media.

    1. The chase that said he was innocent. I am of the view that OJ Simpson was innocent of murder, but guilty of perverting the course of justice. He was protecting his son.

    3. 51 years ago today I was a woman who had just given birth! I’m still a woman, even if some bits no longer work.

    4. But men are Post Natal too. It means ‘after birth’, which applies equally to a new father as a new mother. In any case, we are all post natal, being a foetus before that.

      2. Wow, now I know why I get depressed. It’s not the worldwide death plague, it’s not the undemocratic imposition of draconian laws, it’s not the coercion to fake medication, it’s not the destruction of the energy infrastructure, or the horrendous rise in the cost of living. It’s just delayed onset post-natal depression. Phew!

    5. That is my birthday, Grizzly, and of course, FA’s.

      We share the same date.

      What on earth is going on , and what the hell is a trans man?

    6. Only a woman can have children. A man is not and never will be, a woman. Pretending otherwise is plain idiocy.

      1. It is that very idiocy that is rapidly taking over the planet and suppressing intelligence.

  45. The most-liked comment on the TL suggests that the press take their revenge on the gruesome twosome by reporting nothing on them.

    Just ignore them. The media won’t get sued, they get their privacy and, most importantly, we are spared their insulting drivel and narcissism. What’s not to like?

  47. Putin’s Approval Drops Amid Covid Surge, Partial Lockdown – Poll. 3 December 2021.

    President Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings have declined amid weeks of record Covid-19 infections and deaths capped by a partial lockdown, according to a new independent survey published Thursday.

    Russian respondents’ approval of the president’s job performance dropped to 63% in November from 67% in October, according to the Levada Center pollster.

    Wow! How will he manage? Lol!

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/12/02/putins-approval-drops-amid-covid-surge-partial-lockdown-poll-a75720

          1. Let me explain: I am not a member of the Our Vladimir Fan Club. Any public opinion poll carried out in fiefdom is even more suspect than a Yougov poll.

    2. A note for your diary…Thursday 23rd December.
      Vladimir’s annual Q and A with members of the World’s press and the Russian public.
      Usually lasts about 4 hours.
      It will be live on RT.

      1. Always worth watching and enlightening too. Perhaps the anti-Putin brigade should make the effort to watch and become a little more aware of the real Putin, not the stereotype created by the Anti-Russian warmongers in the West.

          1. Then why not watch and make your own mind up because they certainly don’t appear to be screened.

  49. Good morning, all. Struggling on – one has to make the best of things.

    Thank goodness I missed no news. The only story of interest (especially to the equestrian NoTTLers) is the jockey bullying story. I have an awful feeling that the lady is going to lose – thus making things worse for her.

    1. Good morning.

      There was another horsey story. A poorly looked after horse on a Hungarian stud farm. It was considered untrainable until a young lady bought it for one guinea.

      10 years later the horse is a master of dressage.

      Tuli, the ‘untrainable’ horse, sold for £1 and is now a dressage …

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk › news › article-10269711

      10 hours ago — Meet Tuli, the ‘untrainable’ horse sold for £1 who is now a dressage master… worth an estimated £10,000. By David Wilkes for the Daily …

    2. Good morning Bill

      The weather in your neck of the woods will improve, and hopefully you won’t feel so cold soon .

      I am always amazed to see how variable the temperature is from East to West.

      11c here and the rain has moved on .

      Be of good cheer and as you always say to me .. forget the news .

      1. Yes, that’s why I posted it. It illustrates superbly the insanity of the Covid farce.

    2. It isn’t a continuum of violence, you stupid woman.

      There’s no violence here at all. It’s offensive, and wrong, and an invasion of privacy and shouldn’t be condoned but it is NOT violent. I’d even allow violating.

    3. You never get ‘upskirting’ up here Grizz because women always wear slacks – you never see a pair of legs

  52. I see that Epstein was a frequent visitor to Clinton’s White House. I wonder whether he procured a certain “messy” dress wearer?

    1. I’d just like the same publicity to have been put on the Pakistani Muslim paedophile rapists.

    2. Speaking of which, I have been watching ‘Impeacment’, a dramatised version of the Clinton and Lewinsky affair. Having made allowance for its American production, it is still turning out to be a fascinating series (of 10 episodes). Lewinsky was involved in the making, so it might be argued that there was a certain element of self-justification on her part, but even if this is so it is still very watchable. The only disappointment is Hillary’s lack of anger (so far) and her failure to kick him where it hurts. Perhaps she was not surprised by his conduct following the time when he was Governor of Arkansas and was resigned to the inevitable when he made it to the White House.

      2. I watched & enjoyed the first 3 episodes, but the sound quality was irritating. Why does the BBC muffle so many programmes (incl TOTP)?

    3. When it was shown on TV that Epstein had committed suicide in jail, my immediate reaction was yeah right ! With all his friends in high places and with all his money, why would he do that. Then they showed brief footage of ‘the body’ being taken out of the jail, but it really didn’t look like him at all. And why even if by accident would the face be visible ? Funny that eh.
      Where ever he is now I expect he’s loving it.

  53. It seems Twatter users are getting their knickers in a knot over “Nazi” comparisons about forced vaccination and Covid camps
    It is worth pointing out Dachau opened in 1933 as a camp to punish dissenters from the regime a full nine years before the Wannsee Conference……….
    Isn’t history taught any more…………..
    Edit forgot this
    https://twitter.com/1BJDJ/status/1466469127502061588?s=20

    1. Old mother Hubbard went to the cupboard
      to get her poor dog a bone.
      But when she bent over,
      Rover took over, and gave her a bone of his own.

  56. A ‘friend’ phoned last night, she’s a staunch feminist and asked if I could recommend a plumber. I asked what the problem was……A leaking tap!
    My helpful DIY hint of a new washer ……..was followed by silence.

    You wanted equality sister…..you got it.

    Fix it yourself.

    2. Not always so simple when you have these shared hot/cold joint taps. Quite a few doodads inside.

  57. 342387+ up ticks,

    Telegraph News Politics
    Live Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election latest: Tories fear time is running out to shore up next test in North Shropshire

    Could be near time for triggering the old brexit party aka the reform party as these peoples have proved to be an asset last time they were given an airing, marching up hill aside.

      1. Great Dylan song and a lovely rendition – but Joanie is now a fully paid up member of the Fauci fan club. Her portrait painting of him is technically very good but the accompanying open letter of worship is quite sickening.

        1. Sadly a lot of good musicians have bad politics!

          My friend Jeremy Taylor, who was in Wait A Minim with my cousins in the 1960s, started rather to the left and then moved steadily to the right as he grew older and wiser.

          He wrote a good song, Viva the New South Africa, about post-apartheid South Arica with the final chorus:

          Viva the Old South Africa
          Though at times it may have irked
          Viva the Old South Africa – it was not fair, it was not just
          But at least it bleary worked          .

      2. I met & spoke with Joan B. in Lindos. Later in the evening she sang impromptu in our taverna. An amazing experience.

        1. Good afternoon, Peter

          Beautiful. I also think her interpretation of Love is Just a Four Letter Word is memorable but her version of Don’t Think Twice is one of the best. I came across this rendition last year. Josh Turner (on the guitar in this clip) is an exceptionally talented musician. I wish I was as competent on the instrument as he is!

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxwlmo0Dy1c

  60. A Mean Dig

    Those who have been reading the Telegraph Letters BTL comments for some time will be familiar with the annoying person (entity?) called Am Fag-ash or similar. He/she/it seems to have adopted a new alias called A’mhaighdean (Gaelic name of ‘The Maiden’, one of the Munros – hills in Scotland over 3,000 feet high).

    Being keen on anagrams, I found that this new entity has as its alternate: “Hah! A mean dig!” which seems quite appropriate for his/her/its snide and superior comments.

  61. Good morning. While the view about Commissioner Dick may not scintillate with enthusiasm among us, she is nevertheless leading the capital’s policing and for that reason I sent the lady a letter yesterday.

    If anyone else here felt able to send a similar letter recorded delivery it might conceivably have at least the effect of putting the establishment on notice that delivering the injectate is now in the same range of acts as firing a gun at someone.

    https://www.tarableu.com/my-letter-to-the-commissioner-of-the-metropolitan-police-in-london/

  62. It could be in our best interests to make Christmas full on party time and snog abandonly.
    Here’s why:

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-strain-may-be-storm-in-a-teacup-32cdt7mx6

    This is backed up by an early anecdotal report from South Africa that being double jabbed doesn’t stop you getting Omicron and if you should catch it the effects will anyway be similar to having a wild snogging party the night before:

    https://youtu.be/GvrHLg53nBA

    1. If the omicron variant of Covid gives you immunity from all other Covid infections then the problem will soon be over: get the omicron variant and don’t take the vaccine – that would be the obvious thing to do.

      But just imagine if that proved to be the case?

      Does anyone seriously believe that Big Pharma and all those with a vested financial interest in Covid would want such truth to emerge. No, they would suppress it just as they have effectively got both Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine or Chloroquine banned.

  63. There are still people cut off without power a week after Storm A. Much of the damage to power lines has been caused by falling trees.

    Is there a case for the prophylactic felling of large trees which are with ‘reach’ of the p-lines & could bring them down & replacing them with smaller-growing species, which would not reach said lines?

    1. That was certainly normal for a while. However power supply companies are businesses, not nationalised utilities. Their function is to make money. Tree management is expensive and so they do not do it. They are chancing their arm, of course. Big events like Storm Arlen are infrequent. The management hope that they can get away with it, that they can retire and that the event will occur on someone else’s watch.

    2. Where I lived in NC the trees were cut back every spring. Mainly long leaf pines. It occurred about the same time as the info leaflets were sent out with all the phone numbers etc in case of a hurricane.
      CT which is nearly all forest had no such scheme and consequently, if there was a bad storm of any kind, the power lines came down. After a nasty ice storm I was without power for 5 days and that meant no showers, loo flushing, heat etc. The town hall had been opened as a shelter and I had a shower there.
      A crew from Boston, Mass turned us back on and everyone lined the street and cheered them.

    4. We got rid of 4 big(60 ft) Spruce and 4 big Birch last year for that very reason.They had engulfed the telephone cable.

  64. We have fought communism for 100 years, led by the capitalists. Now that is all over. Having seen soviet Russia with the Zil lanes for the bosses, the plutocrats are going for it now.
    There will be a 2-tier system. Those and such as those will own everything and we will own nothing. What we get will be at their whim, even life. Songs such as the attached will be banned, of course.

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

    1. Good afternoon, Paul

      The truth is that Boris and the Bumblers would prefer you to die of Covid fully vaccinated than for you to recover having used Ivermectin.

      And of course full details of the vaccine gene therapy is being kept secret for 50 years so that everyone involved today will have retired by then and, they hope, will escape prosecution. Boris himself will be over 100 years old.

      1. I have to agree Richard, but as i mentioned yesterday if so many people have had adverse reactions to the Injections why not a percentage of politicians Medics and the senior civil service. Slowly but surely things don’t really seem to add up.
        Our friend who recently died of a stroke worked in the pharmaceutical industry for many years. I cant be sure of course but Quite possibly soon after the Booster. Another friend also had a more minor stroke soon after his first jab. And i have heard of other people locally who have had problems with their heart after the jabs. Including myself and my BiL. My GP admitted to me that perhaps I should not have the booster.
        I once had a discussion with the friend who died last week about an Australian Dr Barry Marshall who discovered a much cheaper, off the shelf alternative that BIG Pharma a were trying to push that reduced helicobacter pylori and cured stomach ulcers. Now a professor he was severely ridiculed and put down by the industry, but in the end it was proven he was correct in his findings.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Marshall

        1. I had a minor stroke ten years ago and have been on medication ever since. That is why my doctor has advised me strongly NOT to have the gene therapy.

          2. Apparently the case is under review. She is extremely popular and well-loved by her patients and there have been demonstrations in her support in Dinan.

    1. I know how the little chap feels, I can swim but never really enjoyed it much. I nearly drowned in a scuba training tank.

      1. 342387+ up ticks,
        Afternoon RE,
        I nearly drowned in a Guinness vat after getting out four times for a wee.

      2. Forgive me here, but I don’t really understand why people ‘cannot’ swim. Staying afloat isn’t difficult, nor is pushing in a direction.

        Yes, ok, I’m a strong swimmer, but really, it seems almost intentional to not ‘swim’.

        2. Stanley Holloway reported that young Albert suffered a certain amount of ennui when he and his parents went to Blackpool because there were no wrecks and nobody drownded.

        3. I have noticed when I was a skinny teenager and twenties I found it difficult to stay afloat, and to swim but now, being ah, late middle-aged, I have a little more flesh on my bones and buoyancy is easier to achieve.

        5. It all depends on how much you might panic lets say just out of your depth no problem boat capsizes land out of site,…… shit………….😨
          In the bottom of the 15 feet deep tank we had to take our masks off keep breathing through the mouth piece and replace the mask then clear it with air from our noses. I snorted and started to choke. The instructor help me to the surface I had to let the air out of my lungs on the way up as well. I passed the written tests, but was never brave enough to venture back into the tank. But I did quite a lot of snorkelling. Until I was barged into and rolled over by something large but unidentified of the southern coast of South Australia.

          2. Mid 50s We were taken by coach to Mill Hill Out door pool close to opening day in May. The water was not far above freezing. The instructor placed a bamboo cane across the surface of the water in the 2ft 6″ end and said, right get under that or get out. His name was Ernie Eldredge.
            Funny how I can remember that more than 65 years later.
            At secondary school we went indoor to Swiss Cottage pool.

    2. It is (mask central). I was there an hour or so ago. I got accosted twice, I got told to put a mask on. Probably husband and wife team, same age as myself. The first time I have been accosted. However, it was ‘use both doorways’ and no stasi on the door. This set me thinking, does govt want us to catch something, is this going to be a cover for something else? Large numbers of heart attacks attributed to ‘moronic’?

      NB (I have seen anagrammed ‘delta omnicrom’ as ‘media control’.)

  68. 342387+ up ticks,

    Then the NY times must be BIG johnson / tory (ino) fans,

    breitbart,

    NYTimes Slams France for Favoring French People Above Migrants

    1. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
      We live in the middle of other houses, and they can’t find us!! Unfortunately, neither can DPD, Amazon or anyone else! Eeh! and the lies they tell about delivery!

        1. Thanks tim! Nah! We enjoy the game!
          We are literally 500 yards from the Glasgow road…

        2. Thanks tim! Nah! We enjoy the game!
          We are literally 500 yards from the Glasgow road…

      2. Le Grand Osier does not show up on GPS so we have to give directions to those trying to make deliveries to us.

          1. Adlard Coles wrote several pilot books for people sailing around the coasts of Britain, Normandy and Brittany. He used to refer to things like trees and buildings which, if you got them in transit, would give you a safe passage into harbour. This was all very well until they painted black the white building described in the pilotage notes or cut down a tall tree with which the building had to be kept in line!

            On one occasion many years ago we were sailing into Keyhaven which has at its entrance a sand bar which shifts slightly every year. A friend of my father’s, the local bank manager, was aground and so my father teasingly called out: “You ought to have a copy of Adlard Coles aboard.

            To which the bank manager’s crew stood up and said: “But I am Adlard Coles.”

    2. I use to live near their HQ in Mill Hill they knocked on the door nearly every Sunday.
      I heard they are moving on and have sold the land to developers. More bloody doors.
      As a youngster there was a derelict building on the land and vast gardens with a large brick and concrete pool and wonderful woodland to play in.

      1. My late – and much missed – former neighbour, a Canon of the CoE – used to open the door to them and say, “Jehovah’s Witnesses? How delightful – do come in and join my prayer group.”

        Worked a treat!

      2. I remember a visit from them when my Chilean cousin was here. He answered the door &, surprisingly, he recognized them for what they were & spoke only Spanish to them. The woman reassured him & said she would come back shortly with a Spanish-speaker. He told me straightaway, so I said let me open the door & I shall speak only Swedish. My Swedish Golf with Swedish plates was parked on the forecourt. Disappointingly they never came back.
        I speak only Swedish to importunate Big Issue sellers in Cambridge.

        1. Was never bothered by them in NC, the Southern Baptists were the pains there. In CT though, they were always at the door. I lost my temper once and yelled at them that if I followed their beliefs, my (then) husband and my son would be dead. They don’t believe in blood transfusions.

          1. I’ve got one of their advent calendars – behind every door is a notice saying “F*ck off”

          3. The main Bad Thing is that their philosophy is anti-gay, although curiously they happen to have a male hierarchy. They are rumoured to have very occasionally (almost never) used a ‘honey trap’ approach on single men. On the other hand, they are quite successful at keeping antisocial people out of harm’s way.

        2. Speaking of languages.
          I had just come round from my hip resurfacing op and I could hear the nurses talking in the recovery room.
          I recognised one of the accents and the nurse noticed I had come round she came over and before she could speak I greeted her in Xhosa saying hello and asked how she was. She loved it and started dancing around saying… “oh he speaks my language, he speaks my language”. And came to see me a few times on the ward.
          Just a chance encounter.
          But I find that most of the people offering The Big Issue out side Waitrose at WGC, don’t speak English any way. So you might be lucky one day Peddy 😄

          1. I had a similar experience with a nurse from Kenya, when I was in Addenbrookes. Having asked her origin, I spoke to her in Swahili. She was delighted & every time I said ‘kwa heri’ (goodbye), she would wiggle her buttocks as she left.

      1. No, he’s Ed’s brother.

        In Yankland (where the locals have a speech impediment) he’s called “Ed Cedera”.

    2. They should have been very slowly strangled. They had options, that poor child had none.
      I can deal with most ghastly stuff, but this case, and Baby P make me want to shoot these bastards.

      1. I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes when she isn’t protected from other prisoners, no doubt most of them mothers.

        1. The sentences were not nearly long enough. Anyone who deliberately slaughters a child deserves NEVER to come out of chokey.

          2. The 29 years is before she can even be considered for parole.
            The intention is that she dies in prison.
            (Personally, in cases like this, I’m in favour of a couple of weeks maximum and then a short walk; that sort of dying in prison.)

        2. They both should be crushed slowly, the way torture happened as it did in Henry’s time ( Remember Wolf Hall)

          Crushed slowly flat under a heavy door, with nails .. and no mercy…… and fed salt .. Be done by as you did ( From the Water babies }

          1. In Salem, Mass, the home of the witch trials, there is a museum all about it. It has moving figures and is generally quite good. But one exhibit had the opposite effect to what was intended. One “witch” was a man and he was tortured and put to death by being crushed with a large slab of stone. There were sound effects and it was this man moaning in pain. Unfortunately, the sounds were very hammy and instead of the visitors being shocked, we were all laughing.

    3. Put them in the same cell and feed them on bread and water and allow them no contact with any other human beings.

      They are unforgivable and beyond reformation.

      I would be interested to know what the current Archbishop of Canterbury thinks? Conventionally Christians are supposed to believe in redemption and the remission of sins – but this is dependent of true repentance: there must be a forgivee as well as a forgiver.

      1. That, Rastus, is assuming that the AoC is a Christian! He isn’t and never has been. A Blair poseur, and over promoted!

        1. But wasn’t it Cameron who selected him?

          Of course Blair is hardly a very sincere or genuine Christian. Just as Henry IV of France was reported as saying ‘Paris is worth a mass’ to justify his pragmatic opportunism Blair waited until he was no longer prime minister before converting to Roman Catholicism. Also when the Labour Party decided to back abortion Blair said that although he did not believe in aboortion for religious reasons he would follow the party line when he voted on the matter.

          Of course a certain archbishop when Henry II was King of England was faced with a similar choice – to obey the King or to obey God. Becket chose God – Blair chose political expediency over God.

      2. The murders of children are always particularly horrible because they are not only those of the strong against the weak and the betrayal of a trust that is programmed into our very genes, but because they seem to deny nature itself. That the Young should perish before the Old or the Father bury his Son is a denial of the Natural order of Life itself!

    1. Now that is interesting, and very apt for our times.
      Reading the speech again, it’s funny that Churchill singled out “perverted science” – that was surely not the most obvious thing at that time about the Nazi regime?

      1. Quite. Churchill hated the Nazi obsession with the occult, and I think that may have been in his mind. There is a story about how Aleister Crowley (who WC also detested but decided to use) helped use a small army team to create an occult device in the forest of East Sussex to amuse the enemy which resulted in the defection of Hess. Crowley and Churchill parted after the event on terms of mutual dislike!

      1. Not cynical, Belle. My grandfather, who was born in 1890, would have been horrified. He was a lancer in WW1 and would no recognise what he and my other grandfather fought for. It is a terrible indictment of what we have become.

  75. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfY4b1NszpY&list=WL&index=50

    They said there’ll be snow at Christmas
    They said there’ll be peace on earth
    But instead, it just kept on raining
    A veil of tears for the virgin birth
    I remember one Christmas morning
    A winter’s light and a distant choir
    And the peal of a bell and that Christmas tree smell
    And their eyes full of tinsel and fire

    They sold me a dream of Christmas
    They sold me a silent night
    And they told me a fairy story
    ‘Till I believed in the Israelite
    And I believed in Father Christmas
    And I looked to the sky with excited eyes
    ‘Till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
    And I saw him and through his disguise

    I wish you a hopeful Christmas
    I wish you a brave new year
    All anguish, pain and sadness
    Leave your heart and let your road be clear
    They said there’ll be snow at Christmas
    They said there’ll be peace on earth
    Hallelujah, Noel be it heaven or hell
    The Christmas we get we deserve

    1. We told our sons that Father Christmas only delivers presents to those who believe in him. They are not stupid or gullible so I cannot understand why they still believe in him.

    2. Oh Grizz! My favourite band ever! And only Carl Palmer left! I’m going to see him in Kinross in April! It has been much postponed and We last saw him at the Ferry on the Clyde about 5 years ago!
      I’m not entirely sure that we deserve this Christmas! We caved to a disastrous government and they have wrecked our lives and our spirit. For a fairly innocuous cold variant. I despair!

  76. OK! Here is my quiz for Friday afternoon!
    Does any Nottler recognise this man?
    I appreciate that most of you aren’t into wendyball, but he was at our daughters wedding, and the small boy in the suit is his son. The other small boy is one of our twin grandsons! He has no bruise on his forehead! so he is Stefan!
    His partner is our son-in-laws daughter.
    Answers to Question of Sport!

          10. Vic and Simon’s mad Cockapoo Harry!The people who looked after him and brought him to the photos, took this pic!

          11. Not sure i will be going there lol.

            What a magnificent photo ! You all look so incredibly happy. How proud you must be.

          18. “The wines were too various. It was neither the quality nor the quantity that was at fault – it was the mixture. Grasp that and you have the very root of the matter. To understand all is to forgive all.” (Brideshead Revisited).

            ,

          23. Lovely photo. The kilts! and the dog!
            I always feel that the men outshine the women at Scottish weddings.
            That’s a photo to treasure.

  77. Wicked dad and stepmum who tortured and killed Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, 6, jailed. 3 December 2021.

    Judge Mark Wall QC also found that Tustin had an intent to kill, citing the level of force required to cause Arthur’s injuries, the comment she made the previous day that it would be ‘the last time he will bite me’, the significant amount of salt Arthur consumed in an hour or two before his death and the fact that Tustin sought to ‘cover up’ what had happened after rather than help Arthur.

    She was force feeding him salt. God in Heaven!

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-wicked-dad-stepmum-who-25606527

        1. She didn’t have to like the child, after all he was not hers………… but to ill treat him in that way was more than disgusting.

          1. She found someone she could hurt and she hurt them.

            I imagine they attracted one another with their mutual love of causing pain. To them the child was ‘an object’.

            Sadly such people delight in hurting others. They’re broken inside. What’s surprising is that the state missed their propensity for causing pain so easily when it was so obvious.

          2. This horrific case has come to light. One wonders how many other vulnerable children are in peril because of the stupid restrictions put in place by this so-called pandemic.

        2. She will, probably be stored in isolation to protect her from justice. A pity they don’t have the American hard prisons and life really means life terms.

          There are a couple of really bad murderers serving life without parole over here, they are still legally entitled to bail hearings before being told to go back and rot. An acquaintance has had to review some of the the cases, she goes quiet for a few weeks after being reminded of the horrors.

  78. Just back from shopping in Morrisons – I saw three other unmasked shoppers and a couple of staff members too. Nobody on the desk at the door, I wasn’t challenged at all for not wearing one.

    1. I don’t think the staff are challenging, both entrances were in use in Waitrose and no stasi on the doors (the suspicious element in me wonders what are they up to now? What are they trying to nudge into providing a cover?) – I was accosted by two members of the public (get a mask on!) a husband and wife team, I think, but separately. But that is Cambridge for you, virtue signallers all of them. I was the only one without a mask. And poppiesdad, who got them both as well.

      1. Oh – Cambridge – they are all Full Covidians there. Goes with the leftie, remainiac views.

      2. Do a deal with them…
        “I’ll pretend your mask works if you pretend i’m wearing one”

    2. MB and I went to ASDA this afternoon. Most were masked, but we – unmasked – were not challenged or even give significant looks.

  79. Just back from shopping in Morrisons – I saw three other unmasked shoppers and a couple of staff members too. Nobody on the desk at the door, I wasn’t challenged at all for not wearing one.

  80. Just back from shopping in Morrisons – I saw three other unmasked shoppers and a couple of staff members too. Nobody on the desk at the door, I wasn’t challenged at all for not wearing one.

  81. Invasion is postponed…

    Russia may stage a large-scale military intervention in the Ukrainian region of Donbass at the end of January, and it could involve around 94,300 troops, Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov claimed on Friday.
    Speaking to parliament in Kiev, Reznikov said that his estimation of the time Russian forces could “reach escalation readiness” is the first month of next year and dubbed a military intervention a “likely scenario.”

    The defense minister’s comments come amid increasing fears over an alleged military buildup on the Russia-Ukraine border. Suggestions of a possible armed conflict have been pushed by a number of Western media outlets, including America’s CBS News, which reported that a military incursion is increasing in likelihood “as the weather gets colder.”

    “There are now 41 battalion-tactical groups around Ukraine and in the temporarily occupied Crimea,” Reznikov told parliament. “The total number of troops that can be used for escalation on the territory of Russia, as well as in the temporarily occupied territories, is currently estimated at 94,300.”

      1. I really hope they’re smarter than that…would you take on a broken country with half the population living in poverty and the other half trying to kill each other.

    3. I thought that they were supposed to invade before Christmas, or at least that was the original story.

      If the Russians get uppity, odds on the Chinese going for Taiwan at the same time.

    1. I noticed on yesterday’s 18.00 News BBC1 that our Laura used the word ‘snog’ twice in relation to the mistletoe advice.

        2. Just showing how uncouth they are.

          A chaste kiss is more appropriate. It has nothing to do with foreplay !

          1. When I was teaching in Manchester, we in the English dept. decided to give names to the 4th years as they began CSE or O level Lit. courses,instead of their streaming numbers. We had Four Novel, Four Poem, Four Story but when we got to Four Play we realised it might be a problem. We stuck with the streaming numbers.

      2. “You must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss….”
        In my email to Mark Steyn last night I used kiss as opposed to snog.

        3. Horrible word,

          Reminds me of a story:

          A young groom was going on his honeymoon and he asked a friend :

          “What word did you use for those intimate moments with your bride? The coarse, vulgar words for this beautiful act of love are not at all appropriate and the biological, medical terms are clinical, cold and completely unromantic.”

          “His friend replied: ” My wife and I use the word concert because the metaphor of harmony building in to an explosive crescendo is so very apt.”

          “Thank you,” said the groom, “That is the term I shall use.”

          When the groom returned from his honeymoon his friend asked how the honeymoon went.

          The groom replied: “It was fantastic. After the wedding reception we went to the hotel and had three concerts before falling asleep in each others arms; we had another concert as soon as we woke up. We then rang for room service and ordered a grand breakfast with fried eggs, bacon, sausages, tomato, fried bread and black pudding. We stayed in bed for the rest of the morning but before we went down to lunch we had another concert followed by a rehearsal.”

          “A rehearsal? What’s that?”

          “Oh, a rehearsal is just the same as a concert but nobody comes.”

  83. I see that Antony Sher has died today.

    He first came to the public’s attention with the television version of The History Man, based on Malcolm Bradbury’s novel, in which he played the completely odious Howard Kirk, a university lecturer.

    Malcolm Bradbury set up the Creative Writing course at the University of East Anglia with Angus Wilson and the university upon which The History Man was based was UEA so my friends who were also at UEA were interested to see if we could identify the real characters at UEA upon whom Bradbury based his fictional ones.

    I wonder if Bill Thomas, his MR and Grizzly – all of whom have connections with Norwich from the 1970s have any views on Malcolm Bradbury?

    Incidentally, the UEA Creative Writing Course has produced several well known modern novelists such as Ian Mc Ewan, Kazuo Ishiguro and Rose Tremain.

    1. That is indeed sad news, Rastus.

      Last year I obtained (at long last) the DVD version of Malcolm Bradbury’s superb TV drama, The History Man (1981), starring a young Sher and a delicious Isla Blair. The writing and the acting are beyond peer.

      The History Man was, indeed, based on events and characters at UEA, but did you know that the TV drama was actually filmed on the campus at Lancaster University?

      2. Thanks to Covid we have not yet been able to visit Lancaster where our Henry has bought a flat with his fiancée who is doing a Ph.D. at the university.

        1. I visited Lancaster quite a lot in the early 1980s (my ex-wife was living there when I met her). It is a small but very charming city and some of the countryside and smaller towns in the area are well worth a visit.

    2. I enjoyed the History Man – both on the telly and the book, but some of his other books were quite tedious.

      Anthoy Sher was good.

    1. ‘Old it, flash, bang, wallop, what a picture
      What a picture, what a photograph
      Poor old soul, blimey, what a joke
      Hat blown off in a cloud of smoke
      Clap ‘ands, stamp yer feet
      Bangin’ on the big bass drum
      What a picture, what a picture
      Um-tiddly-um-pum-um-pum-pum
      Stick it in your fam’ly album

    2. Tommy Steele used to be quite a good squash player. I met him once when I was playing with my friend Jeremy Taylor at the Richmond Club. Jeremy thrashed me – and he said that he was thrashed when he played Tommy Steele.

      2. Squash, like badminton, only needs a small difference in skill for it to be very one-sided.

        2. One Christmas, when I was in my 20s an old friend of my parents came to stay with us at Christmas. She brought with her her son who was a very seedy plump chap who looked completely out of condition and was over-fond on the booze. Wehn he discovered that in the village there was the Milford-on-Sea tennis and squash club he suggested we might have a game.

          He said he didn’t play much any more and wasn’t very good and looking at him encouraged me to think I would not even have to break sweat so I booked a court.

          He thrashed me 9-0, 9-0, 9,0 and never had to move from the T in the middle of the court. Then the sod told me he had got a Blue at Oxford and was at one time No 1 in the Middlesex County Squash Team.

          1. I spent years thinking I must be the world’s worst. I managed to score a few points and win the odd game, but never a match. It was only when I volunteered to make up numbers for my Round Table team that I discovered there were huge numbers of people much worse than I.

    3. Used to go past his ‘big hoose’ at Petersham everyday on the double decker bus to and from school.

      1. I think he lived in Catford south London for a while- at least my dad said so. His cousin Theresa Hicks went to my grammar school.

      2. I was told he bought the house in Petersham with the proceeds of his early records because his grandmother had worked in the previous owners’ biscuit factory all her life. I believe it was Carr’s Biscuits.

        1. Crumbs. I remember when part of the garden wall was badly damaged by a lorry or a bus and they moved the wall closer to the house making the corner a little less tight for traffic.

          1. Know, or knew it fairly well, that would have been a nice walk there and back with a few other pubs en route. Stayed the odd night at the Old Palace itself. Or rather the gatehouse, which is all that remains of the old palace. The Cricketers and the Prince’s Head (?) on the Green itself. Lots of decent pubs in Richmond.

      4. Mola, we had an illustrated dialogue in reply to your post 5 hours ago; where has it gone ?

    5. The first ever gramophone record I bought was the Tommy the Toreador EP. Cost me half a guinea in 1959.

    2. They might as well just shut it down completely. What will come out of this will have nothing to do with the traditions of Yorkshire Cricket!

      1. By sacking them, they’ve effectively accused them all of being racists, which in Britain is considered to be worse than gang rape and murder, and sentenced them too.
        How will they ever clear their names?

    3. That Azeem Rafiq must have been very thin skinned to have taken so much offence, he certainly wasn’t a pakiderm.

  89. BBC Radio 4 news headline:
    “Scientists monitoring the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant in South Africa have reported a surge in the number of people being reinfected with Covid19. It’s the first real world evidence suggesting the new variant may evade our immune defences.”

    It’s also evaded the vaccines!

    1. According to Dr Peter McCulloch, there are no known cases of people who had significant symptoms getting reinfected (implying that if you have it lightly, you can get it again?).
      He also said that people who had SARS Covid-1 still have immunity 17 years later.
      I am not an expert in the immune system, but he is, so I hope I understood what he said correctly.

      1. I was curious about the use of the word ‘immune’ in this way. It’s not often heard on the BBC, at least not in the sense that there might be significant natural immunity to Covid in a large part of the population. It’s almost as though discussion of the failure of vaccines must be deflected.

        1. We’re all supposed to believe that our human immune systems are powerless before the Terrible Deadly Plague, whereas the truth is that only a minority actually need the injections to reduce their risk.

    2. Of course it will evade our immune defences. Once you have been injected any likelihood of having an immune system/defences is negligible.

      1. The majority aren’t jabbed in SA though. But to be honest, I take all these reports with a pinch of salt, as they always seem to end up pointing you in the direction of believing what the government wants you to believe.

  90. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6705378cbf8c9df1278862db6f67d2aecdc9e855978b9f181d4cf550a4d9d373.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8863ca7c2deb73cd1e753af2275ad122d7f4fae4f5bc5a8c62f0cdb3586d4b4f.jpg In a world of ever-dwindling resources it seems that the depletion of those resources is inversely proportional to the accelerating stupidity of the species.

    Here (pictured) are two cardboard boxes that I received through the post in the past couple of weeks. Shown inside them are the sole contents of those massive boxes. Mankind is in ever more rapid decline methinks.

    2. Boxing clever eh ?
      I have an awkward friend who removes surplus packaging at the checkout in the supermarket, after he’s paid he leaves it behind on the counter.

    3. It is all to do with stackable modular packet or box sizes although your examples do seem ridiculous.

      Many companies have standardised their product packaging for the shipment of parts between parts suppliers and facilities. Hundreds of box configurations were reduced to tens with common inserts that provide packaging flexibility.

      Box sizes allow for ease of stacking on pallets in warehouses and for different sized boxes to stack and fit together.

      1. I understand the need for stackable modular boxes and the efficiency such a system brings. I do, though, have (or have had) a large collection of boxes of every size and shape imaginable. Some I keep for sending parcels or presents in, others I either store for a multitude of uses or simply take to the cardboard skips.

        Surely, in a modular system, you would think there would be some boxes of a suitable size for sending a cycle seat stem of a mere 8·6mm diameter and 350mm long rather than the cavernous container it was sent in (which was padded out with reams of brown paper!).

  91. 342387+ up ticks,

    They deal in hate, I have a strong feeling they are going to sample some of their own odious wares.

    Dt,
    Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: Emma Tustin sentenced to life and Thomas Hughes 21 years for torturing and killing six-year-old
    Arthur’s stepmother, Emma Tustin, refused to come up from the cells for the sentencing hearing at Coventry Crown Court

    1. I hope so. Both of them. I’m avoiding the Mail until this case is out of it, it is too upsetting.

  92. I have avoided the detailed story of the latest child murderers,I don’t need those images in my head however while I totally agree the death sentence is the only appropriate punishment it should be the swift drop and a quick end.
    Suggestions of torture no matter how deserved are abhorrent and beneath us,we are better than that or at least I damn well hope so

    1. We are indeed Rik. However, we react to disgusting and dreadful murder, as parents, brothers, sisters and human beings. These people are inhuman, and deserve every pain and torture they inflicted on that tiny boy. I hope they rot in their guilt.

    2. It’s also wrong to delegate the meting out of justice to prisoners.
      In this case, I can’t not hope that they get what they deserve though.

  93. Ridiculouserer

    COVID-19 vaccine now mandatory to get euthanized in Germany:

    Amid rising COVID infections and the looming possibility of mandatory vaccination across Europe, the German Euthanasia Association Verein Sterbehilfe is ahead of the curve. In a statement made this week, the organization declared it will only euthanize those who have been vaccinated or recovered from the disease.
    “Euthanasia and the preparatory examination of the voluntary responsibility of our members willing to die require human closeness,” they said. “Human closeness, however, is a prerequisite and breeding ground for coronavirus transmission. As of today, the 2G rule applies in our association, supplemented by situation-related measures, such as quick tests before encounters in closed rooms.”

    https://nationalpost.com/news/covid-19-vaccine-now-mandatory-to-get-euthanized-in-germany

    1. This came out a couple of days ago – I guess it takes that long to go round the world!
      It shows that health is not in it, only a show of compliance.

  94. That’s me for the day. No snow – no frost. Just damp gloom. They say it’ll be sunny tomorrow. Hmph.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain. DV.

          3. Don’t let the b*ggers get to you, pm! You are your own person and they don’t matter in your life.

          4. You have no idea how much I wanted to punch her in the face and pull her straggly academic grey hair. Playground stuff, that’s what all of this is. All of it. I could have been in tomorrow’s DM!

            Thanks for words of support.

          6. I do get the odd person looking askance at me. I had one yesterday in Home Bargains. She was much younger than me (most people are!) wearing harem pants and an anorak (not a good look) and trailing a shopping trolley! She blocked me in one aisle, then dragged her trolley over my toe in the next! Then glared at me as if I was dirt! I asked her if she was feeling OK? Cue angry muttering and rattling of trolley! Very satisfying!

          7. I went into Argos mask less earlier on this evening. Staff all masked, but 5 out of 6 customers unmasked. Then I went to Aldi – about 50/50 including staff.

          8. That is good tally, it must be better than Lockdowns l & ll. There is hope but it is slow.

          9. Don’t let the b*ggers get to you, pm! You are your own person and they don’t matter in your life.

  95. Just watching the Bbc News. They are reporting on the power outages from Storm Arwen. One women says she is so fed up she is going to ‘rip her electric heater out and replace it with a log burner and gas’. Suck it up Carrie and Greta.

    1. It was me. I haven’t read the book yet but he got the Arthur C Clarke award.

      Please don’t tell me it’s wokey.

      1. Children of Time? No, haven’t read it, just wondered if it was any good. Just joined ‘World of Books’ and was browsing.

        1. No it was ‘Shards of Earth’. It was one of 4 or 5 on the Guardian list of new space opera. The others looked like shit.

          I find Abe Books quite a good place to buy new and second hand. Good prices and never had a problem with them.

          2. Announced as a breakthrough author. We shall see.

            Other authors i have enjoyed very much are Peter F Hamilton and Alistair Reynolds.

            I particularly liked ‘Excession’. Probably the best Space Opera i have ever read.

            Followed closely by ‘The Reality Dysfunction’.

          3. Good books. Read The Reality Dysfunction several times, and the rest of that Hamilton trilogy. Iain M Banks was a genius SF author.

          5. I’ve used lots of these book companies and they do seem usually good. World of Books do free delivery in UK so the price is what you see, not this 99p book with £4.50 postage.

      3. I like his Shadows of the Apt books. It could be argued the series goes on a book too long, but they do have an inventive twist.

  97. As I was shutting down, I spotted this encouraging headline in The Grimes:

    “NHS will be plagued by Covid ‘for at least five years”

    Just ha to share it with you. To brighten your evening…

    1. At the end of the five years, the House of Commons will award the government another decade of emergency powers without a vote. By this time they will be 1000000 pounds richer each, for having done no work.

      You’re welcome.

    2. As long as we don’t get a plague of Frogs directly afterwards, already enough crap coming across the Channel.

  98. The BBC has just used the expression “black humour”, let’s all complain to OFCOM and get them shut down.

  99. Oh my Gawd, there are 59 cases of Omicron in the UK.
    Fewer than 1 in a 1,000,000.
    Quick, shut the economy down NOW.

    3. As early reports tend to indicate that this variant is much less severe than earlier ones, bring it on, I say.

        1. Governments don’t recognise the long-lasting immunity from getting infected though, so it doesn’t exist. It’s as though our immune systems have been extracted and must be replaced with an endless series of artificial replacements.

    2. Hebrews 13:2.
      “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

      1. Of course it’s subjective but my three favourites of hers are:

        Downtown – I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love – Don’t Sleep In The Subway

  102. From Telegram:
    From Germany: [21.11.2021 08:15] Dear friends,
    I think it was a shock for many of us when the news of compulsory vaccination came today from our neighbouring country Austria.
    Of course, it was clear to everyone that this was the perfect plan for Germany, and as was to be expected, our beloved Södolf also jumped on this bandwagon and demanded mandatory vaccination in our country as well, just minutes after the announcement.
    But after the first short shock, when the brain can think clearly again, one thing struck me….
    Why on earth does this compulsory vaccination only start on 1 February 2022????
    If these tyrants are already planning to implement it, there is nothing in the world that can stop them from doing it tomorrow. No one could stop them anyway. But then why wait so long?
    There is only one logical explanation to this question. The psychological pressure on the population will be massively intensified during these two and a half months. In other words, the masses of hitherto indomitable vaccine opponents will be forced to run “voluntarily” into the syringe. But why is this “voluntarism” so important to you?
    The answer is very simple. As long as a person does something “voluntarily,” he bears the responsibility and liability for it. The second it really happens by official state coercion, the one who issued the order bears the legal responsibility. Legally, this is an incredibly big difference and, in the light of the possible threat of Nuremberg Trials 2.0, possibly life-changing.
    So whether this compulsory vaccination actually comes to Austria in February or not, God knows. The tyrants, however, are only interested in forcing as many people as possible to be injected without responsibility.
    We are in the endgame and it is only a matter of holding out until the whole sham collapses. Which will undoubtedly happen because the combination of “vaccine breakthrough” and vaccine damage can no longer be kept secret, and even the lying and corrupt mass media will no longer help. With this knowledge in mind, the criminal elites have no choice but to go full throttle. Hang in there and don’t give up is the motto now! It’s them who are running out of time, not us…
    Please share this text everywhere, because ignorance and panic among the population are the elites’ most powerful weapons. We have backbone and perseverance. If we stand firm and do not give in, this entire criminal system will fall globally. And it should have been done a long time ago.

      1. Aye they won’t. The political class have made the producers immune, I imagine in the same law they’ve done same for themselves. The idea of responsibility and consequence have lost all meaning these days.

        1. Crimes against humanity are quite simply crimes against humanity.

          Such crimes cannot be ignored. There is already sufficient evidence to bury the globalist cabal, their political place-men and their bankers and funders.

  103. Julie Burchill has just “followed me back” as the Twitter jargon goes. Most slebby people don’t do that but her following and followers numbers are fairly equal. Nice Julie.

    1. Tell her you’ll always pull her files first, with full cross reference, but only the favourable ones.

  105. Back now from the Goodwill Evening in Stroud – I wasn’t looking forward to it but we had a fun evening! Never seen so many people in Stroud – families out to enjoy the atmosphere – all the shops open and plenty of street food. Annie got rather warm in the Hedgehog suit – and we ended up in the pub for a glass of mulled wine.

    Extinction Rebellion were out in force, with their banners and the drumbeat of doom, but apart from them it was a very jolly atmoshere. We even collected a bit of money for the hedgehogs, too.

      2. Got some photos on my phone but I don’t know how to get them from the phone to here. Will put some on my Fb page and share from there later.

    2. Well done Ndovu! Can’t imagine a lot of goodwill with ER about the place. Ghastly oiks!

  108. I came across this in my archive. It’s pertinent in this age of disputed science and false reporting.

    The left’s own war on science

    The witch hunt against Napoleon Chagnon shows us what happens if scientists challenge the core beliefs of ‘progressives’

    TOBY YOUNG

    From The Spectator website, 9th January 2016

    How much longer can the liberal left survive in the face of growing scientific evidence that many of its core beliefs are false? I’m thinking in particular of the conviction that all human beings are born with the same capacities, particularly the capacity for good, and that all mankind’s sins can be laid at the door of the capitalist societies of the West. For the sake of brevity, let’s call this the myth of the noble savage. This romanticism underpins all progressive movements, from the socialism of Jeremy Corbyn to the environmentalism of Caroline Lucas, and nearly every scientist who challenges it provokes an irrational hostility, often accompanied by a trashing of their professional reputations. Indeed, the reaction of so-called free thinkers to purveyors of inconvenient truths is reminiscent of the reaction of fundamentalist Christians to scientists who challenged their core beliefs.

    One such Charles Darwin figure is the American anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon. He has devoted his life to studying the Yanomamö, indigenous people of the Amazonian rain forest on the Brazilian-Venezuelan border, and his conclusions directly challenge the myth of the noble savage. ‘Real Indians sweat, they smell bad, they take hallucinogenic drugs, they belch after they eat, they covet and at times steal their neighbour’s wife, they fornicate, and they make war,’ Chagnon told a Brazilian journalist. His view of the Yanomamö people is summed up by the title he gave to his masterwork on the subject: The Fierce People.

    Chagnon is a key figure in a new book by Alice Dreger, an American academic who has spent the last few years investigating attacks on heretical scientists by the grand inquisitors of the left. Dreger used to be something of a Torquemada herself. To defend the interests of people born with both male and female genitalia, she used many of the same questionable techniques to discredit opponents in the medical establishment. Then, in her words, she became ‘an aide-de-camp to -scientists who found themselves the target of activists like me’.

    In 2000, in a book called Darkness in El Dorado, the journalist Patrick Tierney accused Chagnon and his collaborator James Neel of fomenting wars among rival tribes, aiding and abetting illegal gold miners, deliberately infecting the Yanomamö with measles and paying subjects to kill each other. Shockingly, these charges were taken at face value and widely reported in liberal publications like the New Yorker and the New York Times. (A headline in the Guardian read ‘Scientist “killed Amazon Indians to test race theory”.’) Many of Chagnon’s colleagues turned on him, including the American Anthropological Association, which set up a task force to investigate. Chagnon was not allowed to defend himself and this task force published a report ‘confirming’ several allegations. As a result, Chagnon was forced into early retirement. In her book, Dreger summarises the thought crime that turned him into such a plump target: ‘Chagnon saw and represented in the Yanomamö a somewhat shocking image of evolved “human nature” – one featuring males fighting violently over fertile females, domestic brutality, ritualised drug use and ecological indifference. Not your standard liberal image of the unjustly oppressed, naturally peaceful, environmentally gentle rainforest Indian family.’

    In a 50,000-word article published in 2011 in a peer-reviewed journal, she painstakingly rebutted all the charges against Chagnon, detailing the various ways in which Tierney had fabricated and misrepresented the evidence. Chagnon has now been exonerated and resumed his career.

    Dreger has not abandoned her own liberal convictions. She believes the search for scientific truth and social justice go hand in hand and ends her book with a plea to academic colleagues to defend freedom of thought. But her title, Galileo’s Middle Finger, suggests the progressive left may not survive these clashes with heretical scientists. In comparing Chagnon to the Italian astronomer, she implies that the church of progressive opinion will face the same fate as the theologians who insisted the Earth was the centre of the universe. Eventually, the truth may prove too much. I recently interviewed Steven Pinker, the Harvard psychologist, and he’s confident that the liberal left can survive without the myth of the noble savage. I’m not so sure.

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/the-lefts-own-war-on-science/

    BTL:
    Geokstr

    There are some important distinctions between the political policies and beliefs of left and right.

    The right are realists, believing that human nature is what it is and base their policies on reigning in the darker animalistic side with negative reinforcement (punishment), checks and balances on the accumulation of government power, rewarding success through competition and the free exchange of ideas, and even by turning part of it in a productive direction as capitalism does with greed and self-interest. The actual results have been the greatest economic expansion in history, the technological explosion, the wholesale reduction of poverty and the phenomenal growth of the middle class.

    In contrast, the left believes in hopes, dreams and myths; the inherent goodness of human beings (except in their opponents, whom they consider evil incarnate), the belief that human nature is not immutable and can be sculpted for the better if the left is in charge (encouraging self-esteem without accomplishment, political correctness, NewSpeak, brain-washing, hate/offense/thoughtcrimes), that people will voluntarily work hard, take risks and share everything they produce beyond their own needs with those who choose to do nothing. Their results, everywhere it’s been tried? Abject poverty for all except the nomenklatura, who live in luxury, the loss of all individual rights and freedoms, and the horrific slaughter of 100 million of their own citizens, innocents except for their refusal to conform in thought and deed.

    I’ll take Door #1, thank you very much.

    1. For me it was a pork chop, fried tomato and mushrooms, followed by a small portion of plum crumble with double cream, Peter. And a very good night to you, and to all NoTTLers.

      3. “Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

        Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

        Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,

        Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,–

        For a charm of powerful trouble,

        Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”

  110. A liar and a hypocrite.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CXBydC0tjbB/?utm_medium=share_sheet

    You cannot inject a person with the blue safety cap on the vaccinator syringe. The fat git takes us for fools. They might at least have injected saline fluid. It would have been more honest.

    Johnson should be ashamed of himself posing for such stunts. He has by the ‘stunt’ reckoning now received a half dozen ‘shots’ or more.

    Unfortunately, because this is all fake and the bastard was never injected with the poison, the fat git will not experience the adverse reactions to the vaccines as others have experienced. Otherwise Fataturk would be a front runner in the cardiac arrest stakes.

  111. Is it just me? All the photos I have seen of that poor little chap who was murdered…he looks so anxious and almost as if someone said to smile or I’ll belt you one. My heart broke over this child. God rot those buggers who put him through this.

    1. He looked to be a beautiful child – heartbreaking – I didn’t read all the details in the DM.

      1. Neither did I but what an appalling thing to happen. It was just looking at that little face that got to me.

    1. When I was a kid in south London, we used to have a hedgehog come round by the back door. Put out a bowl of bread and milk which was eaten. Named the hedgehog Spike which was wrong as Mrs. Spike came a couple of days later with a small number of little Spikes.

      2. When I lived in Worthing, we had a family of hedgehogs. They made so much noise rutting in the flowerbeds…

        I’ll tell you about the frogs another time.

        1. The tree frogs in NC were awful. They have a very high pitched chirp, for want of a better word, and if lots of them were going at once, blimey, it was terrible.

          1. Ok, I felt so sorry for this frog. We had a couple of cats at the time, and a small patio enclosed by a low wall. One night the frog appeared on the patio, and the cats spotted him and cornered him.

            I promise you, the frog put his hands over his eyes and squealed. Seriously. The most pathetic, heartwarming thing I’ve ever seen, and I’ve never forgotten it.

            I shooed the cats away, and the frog hopped off into the flowerbeds.

          6. Yes, much better tonight, thank you for asking. Suspect I had food poisoning earlier this week which kind of explains the grumps and the moaning and groaning.
            Pop is not my type of music- I prefer Baroque and classical. However, I do like Motown and some blues- also jazz.

          7. Good, glad you’re feeling better. Let’s not argue about music, we like what we like and the world is a better place for it.

          8. I never argue about music, literature, art etc. It is all personal taste. As you say, we like what we like.

          9. What do you argue about?

            Edit – Actually, go on to YouTube and find Shape of my Heart by Sting

            Another edit – And listen to the words.

          10. How long have you got? ;-))
            I will argue about politics to some extent. I will argue about English history and support the men and women I think have been treated unfairly down the years.
            I will also argue about Lit. when people, in my view, get it wrong. Example: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. It is always portrayed as a love story- it is not. It is about revenge.

          11. Not long!

            Arguing is nothing unless it has an outcome. Bitch away to your heart’s content, no-one will pay a blind bit of notice. If you want to make a difference put yourself front and centre.

            It’s as simple as that. I’m still struggling with my penultimate, penultimate sentence.

            Edit – Goodnight, A.

          12. I do argue it online on various history sites and Lit sites.
            Anyway, sounds like Mr. Prez is sleepy. Goodnight, friend.

          15. Not long!

            Arguing is nothing unless it has an outcome. Bitch away to your heart’s content, no-one will pay a blind bit of notice. If you want to make a difference put yourself front and centre.

            It’s as simple as that. I’m still struggling with my penultimate, penultimate sentence.

            Edit – Goodnight, A.

          18. We got two young cats in 2002 – one morning they caught a frog and brought it in through the cat flap. there was blood on the kitchen floor. I picked it up and put it on a plastic tray.
            When OH came home from work I was upset and told him they’d killed the frog. While he was getting changed, it started to move…………first one leg, then the other………. it seemed pretty unharmed so he took it ourside and put it by the pond – it said thanks and jumped in.

  113. Goodnight Y’all. Some nice chatting today.
    Stig made me laugh so hard I spat out a mouthful of wine….eye of newt etc- ah school dinners.
    Thank you all, am feeling so much better this evening; worries not gone but my mood is better.

Comments are closed.