Friday 5 February: The lack of a hard shoulder on smart motorways is already costing lives

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/02/05/letters-lack-hard-shoulder-smart-motorways-already-costing-lives/

823 thoughts on “Friday 5 February: The lack of a hard shoulder on smart motorways is already costing lives”

  1. CGTN accuses Ofcom of being ‘manipulated by anti-China forces’ after TV licence is revoked

    On Thursday, Ofcom revoked CGTN’s license after finding it was “ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist Party”, violating rules that require organisations broadcasting in the UK to exercise editorial oversight over programmes shown, and not to be controlled by political bodies.

    The decision can be challenged in British courts, though CGTN has not said whether it has plans to do so. While CGTN is being pulled from British airwaves, the organisation is still able to publish content on Western social media, and on its own website.

    Morning everyone. I’m opposed to this, not because I’m an admirer of the Chinese Communist Party (unlike the UK elites I was never a supporter of sending British jobs there, selling out Hong Kong, or ignoring the invasion of Tibet) but because I don’t like my news being censored. Anyone who has watched CNN recently will be aware that it no longer even poses as a News Channel but is an unremitting and untruthful Democrat (now government) propaganda mouthpiece. This is not of course to exclude the BBC that paragon of Woke lies and disinformation. If these are permitted to broadcast why not CGTN? In a West in which lies now predominate it is wise to get the widest possible views!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/05/beijing-accuses-ofcom-manipulated-anti-china-forces-tv-licence/

    2. I really disliked the woman with the curious hair-do who presented news and current affairs – always with a group of western dressed Chinese who went on and on about how great China is – supported by useful idiot western fellow-travellers.

      While I agree with you about censorship – the trouble is that many people believe every word the hear on telly, and are unable to distinguish truth from propaganda. (I know that applies to the Black Broadcasting Cowboys).

      1. While I agree with you about censorship – the trouble is that many people believe every word the hear on telly, and are unable to distinguish truth from propaganda.

        Morning Bill. This is of course true, but these people will believe whatever the Sun and Daily Mirror print anyway; it is the rest of us we must think of. I haven’t arrived at my present views by reading Russian propaganda (there is actually very little of it in volume terms) but the very opposite, the lies in the MSM in general, and the Salisbury business in particular was a seminal moment and I’ve trusted nothing since. That something so obviously faked would be accepted as truth tells you the parlous nature of the West. We must be left to make up our own minds!

      1. Diabolical indeed. The grab for the ‘secret sauce’ sounds like something out of a sub-007 plot.

        1. Something like the Russian envoys wearing crepe soled shoes when being shewn round Royces just after the war.
          The metal swarf picked up saved their metallurgists months of experimentation.

  3. ALF THE GREAT.

    As requested:
    Please repost the petition details.

    Good morning to you and VW.

  4. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Another brave and skilled wartime pilot has departed. This is a sobering thought: “Of the 30 pilots in training with him, only seven survived the war.”

    Flt Lt Arthur ‘Dickie’ Bird, won a DFC for low-level patrols and attacks in the Mosquito – obituary

    Bird once took General Patton in his Mosquito at low level along the south coast to see the troops assembling for the Normandy landings

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    4 February 2021 • 3:39pm

    Flight Lieutenant Arthur “Dickie” Bird, who has died aged 100, flew intruder missions over Germany to attack airfields and suppress the activities of the Luftwaffe; for his exploits he was awarded the DFC.

    Bird was an experienced night-fighter pilot when, in August 1943, together with his navigator Les Hodder, he joined 605 (County of Warwick) Squadron equipped with the Mosquito. During the next six months they flew 60 operations, some more than five hours long.

    The squadron’s role was to fly at night and patrol near enemy airfields in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany to attack Luftwaffe night fighters as they took off to intercept raids mounted by Bomber Command. No 605 employed numerous aircraft in succession over each target so as to catch returning enemy fighters.

    On January 28 1944, Bird and Hodder headed for the Baltic coast at low level to patrol over the airfield at Grieswald. They recorded activity before departing: by the time they landed they had been airborne for almost six hours and had barely sufficient fuel to reach their airfield in Essex.

    In February 1944 they shot down an enemy aircraft over an airfield in Belgium and a week later damaged another over Eindhoven.

    Occasionally the aircraft carried bombs to drop on airfield installations but the Mosquito’s main weapon was the cannon. On missions when they failed to find enemy night fighters, Bird and Hodder attacked road and rail transports, and on a number of sorties they destroyed a locomotive and rolling stock.

    On March 30, the night that Bomber Command attacked Nuremburg and suffered its greatest wartime losses, Bird was patrolling over an airfield near Mainz. He was about to attack a Dornier aircraft when a Focke-Wulf 190 flashed passed him.

    He gave pursuit but was unable to engage the fighter. Instead he headed for Mainz railway station and attacked trains standing in a marshalling yard, destroying at least one locomotive.

    On May 6, flying from Manston in Kent, he took the US General George Patton for a flight in his Mosquito. Flying at low level along the south coast, Patton was able to see the troops assembling for the Normandy landings.

    Both Bird and Hodder completed their tour of operations in May when they received the DFC. The citation for Bird commented on his “skill and courage of a high order, setting an excellent example”.

    William Arthur Bird, known to his family as Arthur, but as “Dickie” in the RAF, was born on August 11 1920 at Appleby in Cumbria and educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith.

    In 1937 he joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve and learnt to fly at Carlisle. He was already mobilised when war broke out. Of the 30 pilots in training with him, only seven survived the war. After further training at Cranwell, he was commissioned and joined 23 Squadron at Ford in Sussex in November 1940.

    The squadron flew Blenheim fighters and was soon tasked with night intruder flights over enemy airfields. In April 1941 the squadron re-equipped with the American-built Havoc, a fighter derivative of a light bomber.

    On August 12, Bird was patrolling over the Dutch airfield at Gilze-Rijen when all the airfield lights were suddenly switched on. He saw numerous aircraft in the circuit and immediately engaged them.

    He attacked seven, and claimed two probably destroyed and five damaged, before the remaining aircraft doused their lights. To add to the confusion, he bombed the aircraft dispersal area.

    In December 1941 Bird transferred to an experimental unit, which was equipped with the Havoc. A searchlight was mounted in the nose of the aircraft so that the Havoc, given the name Turbinlite, could illuminate enemy aircraft and allow two accompanying Hurricane fighters to attack. The experiment had very limited success.

    After a series of appointments training night fighter pilots, Bird joined 605 Squadron. In September 1944 he joined a Ferry Unit at Pershore in Worcestershire. During this period he flew a wide variety of aircraft on delivery flights ranging from the Spitfire to the Halifax converted for transport duties. He left the RAF at the end of 1945.

    Bird returned to the family dairy farm near Penrith, where he spent the rest of his life. He never lost his love of flying and he flew gliders from nearby airfields at Kirkbride and Silloth. Later he flew the aircraft for the parachute club based at Cark.

    Always a countryman, he particularly enjoyed fishing for brown trout on a tributary of the River Eden, which flowed through his land. Fond of music, he sang in a local choir, and during the celebrations for his 100th birthday, he stood and gave a speech without reference to any notes.

    Arthur “Dickie” Bird married, in 1963, Hazel Lightburn, a music teacher, who survives him with their son and daughter.

    Arthur “Dickie” Bird, born August 11 1920, died December 28 2020

    1. It’s reported 21,000 are still arriving daily, but hey, as long as we are banned from golf or going to see family it’s all good.
      HMG, fcukwits all.

      1. 329095+ up ticks,
        Morning VVOF,
        I do agree but these are NOT political newcomers building a new party these are old hands in the main, if this is the case as you post what category does it put the electorate in then ?

        1. I think we know what the electorate are. I was on a bus prior to the 2017 GE and overheard a conversation where a woman stated she planned to vote for the Conservatives as “Mrs May always dresses nice”

          1. 329095+ up ticks,
            VVOF,
            Listened too young girl holding a baby being interviewed, she said granddad voted lab, dad voted lab, I voted lab, and this baby is voting lab.
            Read one comment, “make boris PM, he makes us laugh”.

            The party first whatever the consequences ( keep in / keep out) brigade are the real democracy killers.

      2. Morning Stormy, have a good day.

        Edited because I was half asleep. Apologies Stormy!

  7. ‘Morning again,

    Probably the tip of the iceberg? Dodgy Dave and Little Osborne have a lot to answer for:

    Three Chinese spies posing as journalists expelled from the UK
    The revelation comes amid concerns in Government about Chinese economic espionage and intellectual property theft from UK institutions

    By
    Lucy Fisher,
    DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR
    4 February 2021 • 9:30pm

    Three Chinese spies who falsely posed as journalists have been expelled from Britain in the past year, The Telegraph can reveal.

    The trio are understood to be intelligence officers for Beijing’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) and arrived in the country on journalism visas under the fake pretext of working in the media.

    A senior Whitehall source confirmed that the three spies each purported to “work for three different Chinese media agencies”, which have not been named, and that they “all set foot in the UK” in the past 12 months.

    Their true identities were uncovered by MI5 and they have since been forced to return to China. It is thought likely that the Chinese media companies were integral to their cover stories were complicit in these plots.

    The Chinese Embassy has been contacted for comment.

    The revelation comes amid growing concerns in Government about Chinese economic espionage and intellectual property theft from British universities and companies.

    Downing Street is expected to introduce new legislation to tighten and update current laws on spying and the Official Secrets Act in the next parliamentary session, due to begin in May.

    Proposals are being examined for a US-style Foreign Agents Registration Act, which would force lobbyists who work on behalf of foreign governments to register or face sanctions including jail and deportation.

    This would aim to outlaw acts of malign interference and influence by foreign states that do not currently meet the threshold of illegality.

    The Government is looking at tabling a single “mega Bill” on national security to encompass all these elements, according to sources.

    British officials said it was common for Chinese intelligence officers working undercover and undeclared in the West to use the pretence of media work as a cloak for their true activities.

    Last year, Fraser Cameron, a former MI6 intelligence officer, was accused of selling secrets to two Belgium-based Chinese spies who were accredited in Brussels as journalists.

    Reports quoted Belgian security service sources saying the Chinese nationals worked for the MSS and the Chinese military.

    Mr Cameron denied the allegations against him and said they were “without foundation”.

    The MSS is China’s civilian intelligence and political security agency. It is a well-resourced agency and was established in 1983 as a merger of the units previously responsible for foreign intelligence, economic espionage, counterintelligence, political security and influence work, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank.

    The revelation that three Beijing operatives posing as journalists have been expelled from Britain comes after Ofcom on Thursday revoked the UK licence of the Chinese state-owned broadcaster CGTN.

    The broadcasting regulator found the English-language satellite news channel was not under the editorial control of its licence holder, breaching a requirement under British law.

    An application to transfer this licence to a new entity was rejected on the grounds that it would ultimately fall under the control of the Chinese Community Party. The Ofcom rules ban broadcasters from being controlled by political bodies.

    While CGTN will no longer be permitted to air programmes in Britain, it may continue to exist as a media company. Its employees are permitted to continue to live and work in the UK subject to the conditions of their visas, it is understood.

    Julian Knight, Tory chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, welcomed the watchdog’s decision to revoke its licence.

    “The ruling is confirmation that the Chinese Communist Party is the ultimate controller of its broadcasts which is not permitted under UK law,” he said.

    “CGTN had already breached broadcasting codes with a forced confession, and failure on impartiality over coverage of the Hong Kong protests.”

    In a statement on Friday, CGTN said Ofcom’s investigation was “manipulated by extreme right-wing organisations and anti-China forces”.

    In a separate decision last May, Ofcom found CGTN in “serious failure of compliance” by presenting biased coverage of pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong in 2019.

    A leading BTL comment:

    John Jackson
    4 Feb 2021 10:10PM
    China is a hostile, ruthless, cruel regime, entirely focussed on becoming the most powerful nation on Earth.

    They are committing genocide on muslim Uighurs, (those that survive the concentration camps).

    They illegally occupied Tibet and used forced marriage of Tibetan women to Chinese men to control the population.

    The Chinese have already broken the Hong Kong agreement and imprison dissenters who point this out in the media.

    They claim the South China Sea and it’s islands, in spite of internationally recognised ownership of the various islands by Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei… then threaten any foreign vessels in the S.China Sea with illegal force if they approach “their” islands where they are building a huge military presence.

    This appalling regime needs the world to recognise it for what it is, which is a militaristic dictatorship hellbent on world domination by any and all means possible.

    And yes, our previous government awarded our new nuclear power station building contract to Chinese government-controlled firms and our new 5G infrastructure building contract to Huawei – another dubious company believed to be in the pocket of the CCP and military. Are we raving mad?

    1. The trio are understood to be intelligence officers for Beijing’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) and arrived in the country on journalism visas under the fake pretext of working in the media.

      Pretty well all Foreign Journalists of whatever nationality are Intelligence Agents in one form or another.

      1. I find it funny that when one of our journalists is accused of spying there is outrage. It has long been known that journalists and Embassy staff have been used as spies.

      1. Have you recovered, Phil? Did you see the news from Eastleigh about the funeral of an Italian ice-cream vendor? I wondered if anyone played a cornet solo in the service.

        1. Just the one?

          Meds have kicked in and i am feeling a little improvement. At least i had a full sleep.

    3. Those whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad.

      Looking at all areas of Government policy the answer is that we are. Stark raving mad.

  8. ‘Morning again,

    Probably the tip of the iceberg? Dodgy Dave and Little Osborne have a lot to answer for:

    Three Chinese spies posing as journalists expelled from the UK
    The revelation comes amid concerns in Government about Chinese economic espionage and intellectual property theft from UK institutions

    By
    Lucy Fisher,
    DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR
    4 February 2021 • 9:30pm

    Three Chinese spies who falsely posed as journalists have been expelled from Britain in the past year, The Telegraph can reveal.

    The trio are understood to be intelligence officers for Beijing’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) and arrived in the country on journalism visas under the fake pretext of working in the media.

    A senior Whitehall source confirmed that the three spies each purported to “work for three different Chinese media agencies”, which have not been named, and that they “all set foot in the UK” in the past 12 months.

    Their true identities were uncovered by MI5 and they have since been forced to return to China. It is thought likely that the Chinese media companies were integral to their cover stories were complicit in these plots.

    The Chinese Embassy has been contacted for comment.

    The revelation comes amid growing concerns in Government about Chinese economic espionage and intellectual property theft from British universities and companies.

    Downing Street is expected to introduce new legislation to tighten and update current laws on spying and the Official Secrets Act in the next parliamentary session, due to begin in May.

    Proposals are being examined for a US-style Foreign Agents Registration Act, which would force lobbyists who work on behalf of foreign governments to register or face sanctions including jail and deportation.

    This would aim to outlaw acts of malign interference and influence by foreign states that do not currently meet the threshold of illegality.

    The Government is looking at tabling a single “mega Bill” on national security to encompass all these elements, according to sources.

    British officials said it was common for Chinese intelligence officers working undercover and undeclared in the West to use the pretence of media work as a cloak for their true activities.

    Last year, Fraser Cameron, a former MI6 intelligence officer, was accused of selling secrets to two Belgium-based Chinese spies who were accredited in Brussels as journalists.

    Reports quoted Belgian security service sources saying the Chinese nationals worked for the MSS and the Chinese military.

    Mr Cameron denied the allegations against him and said they were “without foundation”.

    The MSS is China’s civilian intelligence and political security agency. It is a well-resourced agency and was established in 1983 as a merger of the units previously responsible for foreign intelligence, economic espionage, counterintelligence, political security and influence work, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank.

    The revelation that three Beijing operatives posing as journalists have been expelled from Britain comes after Ofcom on Thursday revoked the UK licence of the Chinese state-owned broadcaster CGTN.

    The broadcasting regulator found the English-language satellite news channel was not under the editorial control of its licence holder, breaching a requirement under British law.

    An application to transfer this licence to a new entity was rejected on the grounds that it would ultimately fall under the control of the Chinese Community Party. The Ofcom rules ban broadcasters from being controlled by political bodies.

    While CGTN will no longer be permitted to air programmes in Britain, it may continue to exist as a media company. Its employees are permitted to continue to live and work in the UK subject to the conditions of their visas, it is understood.

    Julian Knight, Tory chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, welcomed the watchdog’s decision to revoke its licence.

    “The ruling is confirmation that the Chinese Communist Party is the ultimate controller of its broadcasts which is not permitted under UK law,” he said.

    “CGTN had already breached broadcasting codes with a forced confession, and failure on impartiality over coverage of the Hong Kong protests.”

    In a statement on Friday, CGTN said Ofcom’s investigation was “manipulated by extreme right-wing organisations and anti-China forces”.

    In a separate decision last May, Ofcom found CGTN in “serious failure of compliance” by presenting biased coverage of pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong in 2019.

    A leading BTL comment:

    John Jackson
    4 Feb 2021 10:10PM
    China is a hostile, ruthless, cruel regime, entirely focussed on becoming the most powerful nation on Earth.

    They are committing genocide on muslim Uighurs, (those that survive the concentration camps).

    They illegally occupied Tibet and used forced marriage of Tibetan women to Chinese men to control the population.

    The Chinese have already broken the Hong Kong agreement and imprison dissenters who point this out in the media.

    They claim the South China Sea and it’s islands, in spite of internationally recognised ownership of the various islands by Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei… then threaten any foreign vessels in the S.China Sea with illegal force if they approach “their” islands where they are building a huge military presence.

    This appalling regime needs the world to recognise it for what it is, which is a militaristic dictatorship hellbent on world domination by any and all means possible.

    And yes, our previous government awarded our new nuclear power station building contract to Chinese government-controlled firms and our new 5G infrastructure building contract to Huawei – another dubious company believed to be in the pocket of the CCP and military. Are we raving mad?

          4. I have The Inkspots’ Greatest Hits LP.

            Fifteen songs with the same repeated four-note intro pattern.

          1. Really?
            How high is the river around you?
            In some areas near here riverside fields are under water. Certainly some of the highest levels and most flooding that we’ve seen over the last few years

          2. Yes, plenty of rain and the river is all over the place. Beynac closed due to flooding and a rockfall. Many roads closed by floodwater, but the levels are now receding and it hasn’t rained for a day or two.

          4. Nothing significant since 1/1/21, however the longer term closure of restaurants/bars etc has made life less interesting. The only change since 1/1/21 is the inability to import UK meats, cheese etc.

        1. It’s odd, I always thought that phrase ( zip or pi*s ) referred to acerbic and bitter person, now I find that it means “To have an abundance or excessive amount of boisterous, youthful energy, enthusiasm, or rowdiness” – what other delusions have I been labouring under for the last 70 years and betimes making a fool of myself I wonder.

    2. “no longer track“?????? I didn’t think the Government ever knew how many migrants were arriving!

      1. Fear not. Priti Awful has announced (yesterday) that she is going to tackle the cross-channel illegal traffic.

        But then she said the same thing 18 months ago when she became Home Secretary…..

        2. I’m sure she puts a note in her diary to say it every 4-6 weeks and then, as ever, does absolutely sfa about it.

  15. Good morning all, I posted this last night and here it is again for those who may have missed it.

    Don’t know if this has already been posted but it’s a petition to invoke Article 16 of the Withdrawal Agreement to allow free trade between GB and. NI. 70,000 votes and rising so far

    https://petition.parliament…

  16. Joe Biden tells Vladimir Putin US won’t ‘roll over’ for Russia anymore. 4 February 2021.

    In a speech at the State Department, Mr Biden said: “America is back. Diplomacy is back.”

    The president said that during his call with Mr Putin last month he brought up subjects such as election interference, alleged Russian bounties offered to Taliban fighters to kill US troops, and the poisoning of Alexei Navalny.

    “I made it clear to President Putin in a manner very different from my predecessor, that the days the United States rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions, interfering with our elections, cyber attacks, poisoning citizens are over,” Mr Biden said.

    I watched part of this speech (it was on every news channel) which was remarkable only for its predictability, monotonic delivery and Biden’s difficulties reading the autocue. What Vlad thought of being lectured by a profoundly corrupt, senile sex pervert, about a series of fictitious accusations, we don’t know, but it must have alarmed him.

    https://news.sky.com/story/joe-biden-to-withdraw-us-support-for-saudi-led-coalition-in-yemen-12208808

    1. The people to feel sorry for are the poor sods who will be used as America’s proxies to interfere in Russia’s spheres of influence or to make mischief elsewhere.

      Europe, prepare for further invasions of displaced persons and economic migrants.

      1. Morning Sos. Yes they have already backtracked on getting out of Afghanistan and we must expect the war against the Syrian Government to be ramped up!

      2. Morning Sos. Yes they have already backtracked on getting out of Afghanistan and we must expect the war against the Syrian Government to be ramped up!

          2. Three liters of water a day. Plus, the Vampires are sucking out 4 pints of blood over the next 3 weeks. In the hope that my marrow will produce some thinner stuff.

            The Haematologist said this will probably become a regular thing because my blood is like treacle.

        1. Good morning, Grizzly.

          I note you have a smoker,
          I would like one but have no
          idea about them or how they work;
          are you able to recommend a recipe
          book with instructions?
          Thank you.
          [Caroline’s salmon smoking has interested me!]

          1. Good morning, Garlands.

            I own a Pro-Q smoker which can be used for normal charcoal barbequing, hot-smoking and cold-smoking.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XL9FovDEqU
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTR6jbrqNIw

            There are numerous books on the market for home curing and smoking but none are better, in my opinion, than Keith Erlandson’s definitive guide, Home Smoking and Curing, [Ebury Press] available from the Advanced Book Exchange (AbeBooks) or Amazon.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d6e21e7061321a17ea16a77b186d8b4c9353e302ef8a74b8cd00cccc02a5dafc.png

          2. Thank you very much, Grizzly.
            I have seen this variety and like the fact that
            products hang rather than lie flat.

          3. For a cheaper version in the garden. Two largish terracotta pots. a mesh grill, Hickory, Cherry and Applewood chips.

            Chips in the bottom. Ignite.

            Place grill on the top of the pot.

            When ready. Place fish on grill.

            Invert the second pot.

            Ta dah !

      3. Yeah, I have a strong feeling it wouldn’t sound anything remotely like what Biden describes!

  17. ‘Morning, all.

    Didn’t find much to interest me in today’s DT Letters – complaints about “smart” motorways, problems in the CoE, the ongoing saga of Prince Harry, dark deeds in Myanmar, Anglo-Sassenach history, and an optimistic lady who seems to think that spring has sprung.

    However, one letter caught my attention and I reproduce it here for your delight and edification.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c32be8d7d0507985e5d72a81bfff600729a6c97e4a0953404368b93e2dde5762.png

    Mr. Stephen Graham is clearly a man of taste. I can confirm that this is indeed food for the gods and I frequently partake of it for my breakfast.
    :¬)

    1. As noted here yesterday, Duncan. I too enjoy an Arbroath Smokie but haven’t been able to buy one for years. I can get decent kippers, though.

          1. I can occasionally source haddock here in Sweden. The next time I am able to obtain some I shall salt them and then put them into my smoker to try and make my own.

            I shall report anon on my success or failure!

          2. Worth a try. Smokies are ‘hot smoked’ as opposed to kippers which are ‘cold smoked’.

          3. Although not as good, Grand Frais has had some smoked haddock in, in reasonable sized fillets in recent weeks.

          5. That’s right, Harry. I have a facility in my smoker for both hot-smoking and cold-smoking. I cold-smoke my bacon.

            There is also a technique called ‘smoke-roasting’ which I also intend to try this summer on some beef brisket.

          6. As French beef is generally tough and devoid of flavour, I have just imported some brisket (and gammon joints) from Eire. The brisket, pot-roasted slowly, is excellent.

            Among my condiments I have ‘smoked salt’ which adds a new dimension to some food preparations.

          7. That’s a pity but I suppose it’s considered such a magnificent dish would be wasted on the jaded palates of the Frangaich.
            ;¬)

          8. EU rules, I’m afraid. But the French won’t try anything new or ‘not invented here’.

        2. Drooling in anticipation.

          Quantity: 2
          Item: Pair Arbroath Smokies
          ID number:
          Price: £8.00 GBP
          _

          Subtotal

          £16.00 GBP

          Shipping

          £7.00 GBP

          Total postage cost£23.00 GBP

    2. Cullen skink and kedgeree are favourites of mine. I know Hokey Pokey in New Zealand is ice cream with bits of honeycomb through it but idiotgoogle thinks you have to

      You put your right foot in
      You put your right foot out
      You put your right foot in
      And you shake it all about
      You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around
      That’s what it’s all about!

      What is Scottish Hokey Pokey other than sex?

      I am going to order some smokies from your link.

      1. Surely it should be Hochmagandy not HoKey Pokey {:^))*
        *Thanks The Sweeney
        ‘Morning Phil

      2. Ah dinna ken aboot Scottish hokey pokey …

        … but I can tell you that the original Italian hokey-pokey was a frozen custard that was the forerunner of modern ice-cream.

      3. As far as I know, Hokey Pokey means ice cream. Some say the name was coined by a street vendor of ice cream in Glasgow, possibly a wop.

        Enjoy your smokies!

  19. I think the Hotel quarantine idea for incomers to the UK from “unsafe” countries could backfire on the Government. Who is going to approve the release of the detainees? If, as seems probable to me, any of the hotel staff or incomers develops Covid-19, will all inhabitants be given a further sentence of quarantine or will they be released into the community at the official end of their detention.?

    1. Anyone ever seen anything about the “guests” filling our hotels at our expense? Have they been jabbed? Clearly they can mingle with everyone else in the hotel – not limited to bubbles and family members. I assume they can come and go from the hotel as they please,

      2. Have they been tested walter? We get no reliable information about these Channel invaders. I presume the “Kent Covid variant” was brought in by these illegals. This government is failing to protect its citizens in many ways and will be punished at the ballot box.

    2. Just more grandstanding from the Government. They know it is unworkable. But hey, they are doing something.

        1. Only by default.

          I have friends who own and run restaurants. They are working in a potato packing warehouse.

      3. But every time you look on the DM, thousands of people post “we should shut the borders” as though that’s going to help anything. It’s all so crazy.

    3. I wonder what the guests are going to eat. Some of those airport hotels just have vending machines. Room Service. Two bags of cheese & onion and a pot noodle. Left outside your room. That should appeal to the wealthier traveller.

      1. The rules won’t apply to the genuinely wealthy travellers.

        For those at your slightly lower level of plutocracy, Staff will accept orders, I’m sure.

        };-O

    4. You really mustn’t ask sensible questions, you’ll be labelled as a trouble maker.

          2. Good morning, Bill. Is the little girl in the middle our beloved Queen Elizabeth II practising for her future annual Queen’s Speeches? I note that the clip opens on a long shot, then slowly zooms in to a close up before slowly zooming out again to a long shot. They obviously trained the little princess very well.

            :-))

          7. I used to chew the Horlicks tablets – I don’t think they make them any more. Instead I now chip blocks off a solidified lump of Horlicks powder

          11. and that’s a problem for me Sue, that stuff they put in our tea when I was an apprentice in the RAF is beginning to wear off.
            How are you now?

          12. Haha! Feeling pretty good thanks Alec! The nurse took the dressing off yesterday which was a bit odd but otherwise I feel great!

          13. One of my teachers in Primary school in the mid 40s had a jar of Ovaltine/ hot chocolate in her classroom cupboard to reward a spoonful to pupils who answered questions correctly. It certainly helped my education.

  20. Good Moaning.
    This RL item reminded of my parents’ friends; they were a couple whose cellar was jam packed with tins in case there was a WWIII.
    No-one had the heart to tell them that if it happened again, they were unlikely to live long enough to find the tin-opener.

    “Ministers are urging people living in areas struck by the new South African variant to avoid shopping, stay at home and live off what they have in the pantry.

    Younger people may struggle, but members of Britain’s Greatest Generation would have no problem.

    Like most folk who lived through World War II, my 91-year-old mum’s pantry is always well stocked.

    She’s got tins of soup and vegetables she bought donkey’s years ago, with the price stickers in old money.

    Some of them have moved house with her half a dozen times without being opened.

    And there must be older people out there who never bothered battling the Bog Roll Bandits during the first lockdown.

    They’re still using cut-up pages from the Sunday Pictorial. Old habits die hard.”

    1. My mother ‘s cupboard was full of wartime tins and she had a stone jar of pickled eggs. I have a few old tins at the back of the cupboard too but they are just there.

        1. No idea – I don’t eat anything pickled. I think the ex got rid of them sometime. But after she’d died there was still lots of stuff left. Mind you my cupboards are probably similar now. I’ve still got tins of compo rations at the back of the tins cupboard.

          Celery soup anyone?

  21. This global warming is strange – most roads round me , about 10 miles inland, are blocked with cars and buses trapped overnight and will be for most of the day. The snowploughs have given up in some areas – yet I haven’t seen one flake of snow yet. It’s not the depth of snow that’s the problem it’s the wind drifting it over the roads.

        2. Good morning FA. Meds have kicked in and i am seeing improvement. I can feel my toes again. Thanks for asking.

          3. Is that like carpet burn or something completely different? Glad you’re feeling a bit more normal! We worry about you, you know!

          4. Aww sweet.

            Freezer burn is when ice crystals form on the outside of meat, fish whatever. Dry’s it out and doesn’t last so long.

            For carpet burn wear knee pads.

        1. They could bankup the sides and top, cover in sods and plant some wild flowers. I’m green me…

          Morning Alf.

    1. The warqueen explained thi to me using a simple graph.

      Draw a small axes on some paper. Draw a vertical line way up past the vertical axis. That’s the demand for tax.

      Now draw a small line going out from the axes – that’s ability to pay. This is fixed.

      Where they cross is the amount raised.

      Not far along the line, is it? This is because taxes are stupid and too high.

      Now draw the same graph, but instead of having the tax demand line soar up off the page, have it start at zero and only creep along the bottom. The difference is what the government would earn.

      However, where it gets clever is that the abilityt o pay line doesn’t stay low. It starts creeping up. And up, and up. More people, more money. What you end up with is two graphs: one demanding a massive chunk of not a lot and far less interest in paying them, and another that takes vastly less from a lot more.

      This isn’t rocket science. It’s not remotely complicated. It’s simply supply and demand. Is it better to have 5% of 1000 or 20% of ten. The state wants 50% of ten, then complains when people avoid it. That’s why tax is stupid.

  23. An entire DT article for poor NOTTLers:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/02/04/need-dissenting-voices-lockdown-debate-ever/

    “We need dissenting voices in the lockdown debate more than ever

    The witch hunt against Government critics is destroying our chances of holding a rational debate

    4 February 2021 • 9:30pm

    A few years ago, I persuaded a young Malaysian writer to move to London and join The Spectator. Clarissa Tan was shy and brilliant in equal measure, an aspiring novelist full of original and thoughtful insights both into her native Asia and Britain. Her career was just taking off when, at a horrendously young age, she was diagnosed with late-stage bowel cancer. Early diagnosis would almost certainly have saved her.

    I was thinking of her yesterday, when a study came out showing that 18 per cent fewer people were diagnosed with cancer last year – and you can bet that’s not because of a sudden plunge in illness. For breast cancer, it was 29 per cent. Prostate cancer: 51 per cent. We can only guess how many will now die who might have been saved. An estimate in The Lancet Oncology has put the total at about 3,500 avoidable cancer deaths from the first wave alone.

    At first, Chris Whitty was frank about this when discussing lockdown. It’s a finely balanced decision, he’d say: you have to consider the indirect deaths as well as the deaths. But over the past few months, the debate has become dangerously polarised. The Chief Medical Officer no longer talks about collateral damage, and Government messaging has hardened.

    Not so long ago, we saw official adverts urging us to seek NHS care if we felt a suspicious lump. Now, adverts in bus stops show the face of a Covid patient with an oxygen mask asking us to “look him in the eyes” and say if our journey is necessary. This changes the mood – and will obviously have consequences. Positive and negative.

    The Prime Minister speaks about the “frustrations” of lockdown as if it’s just a matter of being annoyed that you can’t go to the pub. But it’s more than that. It’s worry about the damage this lockdown inflicts on education, health and society. Stopping the virus spreading will obviously save lives, but it’s a trade-off. Great care needs to be taken to find the right balance. But for this, we need a proper debate.

    Covid is distinguished by how little we still know about it, how even the greatest experts can be confounded. This time last year, experts on the Sage committee were unanimous in advising against a Wuhan-style lockdown. China had been foolish, said its memo: it was “a near certainty” that a second peak would strike once it unlocked. This did not happen. Jonathan Van-Tam and others rubbished the need for face masks, which are now mandatory. This is not to question any of their credentials: it was a new and fast-moving situation that wrong-footed everyone. Myself very much included.

    But rather than emphasise the need to be open-minded, and consider all new angles, we somehow reached a situation where faith in lockdown is complete – and those who question its efficacy are disparaged. This shift is embodied by the behaviour of Neil O’Brien, a think tank chief turned Tory MP, who over the summer started using social media to highlight claims made by critics of lockdown. He applied his forensic mind to the pursuit of errors, and started to acquire quite a following.

    But this all mutated into a targeting of academics who had been effectively – and accurately – criticising aspects of lockdown. With some like-minded others, O’Brien created a website listing the offenders and their wrongthink. A new label was applied to the bloggers, journalists and professors: “Covid sceptics”.

    One is Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine at Oxford University, who balances his academic work with weekend work as an urgent care NHS doctor. When Heneghan spotted flaws in calculating Covid deaths, it led to a change in Government policy. Yet this world-class academic, who in his spare time sees elderly patients suffering from Covid, has found himself denounced.

    A few months ago, Heneghan was being consulted by the Prime Minister – who wanted him to test the arguments of the (many) lockdown advocates in Government. Also invited was Sunetra Gupta, a professor of theoretical epidemiology at Oxford and an energetic critic of lockdown. She now joins Prof Heneghan on the official list of heretics, pilloried on a website whose various sponsors include a well-regarded Tory MP tipped for promotion. It’s all very odd.

    Ministers don’t appear to mind the heretic-hunting one bit. When O’Brien’s efforts were hailed as “fantastic” by Jacob Rees-Mogg, Leader of the Commons, it started to look like a semi-authorised campaign against Government critics. It can even claim to be an effective campaign, insofar as the academics in its sights do seem to have taken a lower profile.

    The professors might be talking the most appalling rot – or they might come to be completely vindicated. But what matters, and what we’re losing, is the upholding of rigorous debate. The point of Parliament is to talk, hence the name. But when parliamentarians seek to close down discussion (O’Brien has said he won’t debate Heneghan so as not to give him “the publicity”), then it marks a deeply worrying turn.

    The latest lockdown (which, like the first, I supported) is likely to be extended on the strength of modelling suggesting that, if restrictions are relaxed, the virus will surge. This is the sort of modelling that Prof Henegan was once asked by the Cabinet Office to critique. He is not being asked any more. Which is, again, odd: if his criticism were so wrong, surely it could be exposed as such? And if wrong estimates disqualify people from giving advice, what about Prof Neil Ferguson’s claim that lockdown would keep deaths below 20,000?

    It might be possible to find someone who has never got anything wrong. But truth is found when errors are identified and flabby arguments are exposed. Real science invites criticism and refutation – and democratic politics plays by similar principles. The job of the Opposition is to oppose. But with Labour and the Lib Dems arguing for ever-longer lockdown, important questions are not being asked.

    The German philosopher Robert Pfaller recently spoke about this deranged turn in the debate. Ask when cases will be low enough to release lockdown, he said, and you’re smeared as a Covid denier in bed with the far-Right. He calls this turn of debate Covid “post-rationalism”, which sums up the danger. The Covid death toll is numbingly high, thousands of lives are still at stake – so the ability to think and debate clearly has never been more important.”

    2. “This is not to question any of their credentials.” Why not? If they don’t know how to deal with an epidemic what good are they? They are paper-pushers and short-sighted specialists so far up their own microscopes that they can’t see past the laboratory door.
      ‘…it was a new and fast-moving situation that wrong-footed everyone…” Actually, nobody sensible was asked fo their view. Anyone who has read about the Black Death, or Ebola would have leapt into action. Jings! Anyone who had read the Decameron would have had a clue.
      The reality is that they vacillated, bumbled and fudged. “Following the science” is a very poor excuse and a blatant passing of the buck. All passenger traffic into airports and ports should have been stopped from Day 1, for starters. The government was too cowardly to do it.

    3. 329095+ up ticks,
      Morning Anne,

      For beneficial to the Country debate, you surely need opposing sides that is sadly lacking in parliament seeing as the lab/lib/con coalition rules the political roost which in turn is held firmly in place via the polling booth & the electorate.

      No debates necessary under the coalition overseers rulings one being “the ovis is NOT to reason why the ovis is but to do as ordered”.

      If you had a party under new leadership, proven financially
      sound & gaining members daily, becoming a very credible
      opposition party and a threat to the lab/lib/con coalition if continuing, would that party, under that successful leader be allowed to continue under today’s odious political climate.

      The close shop rules supported as ever, by the horse hair shirt manufactures.

    4. We watched the four -night series “The Drowning” and every break – every few minutes – we got the “Look him in the eyes” propaganda. There’s not much more we can do to stop the spread.

    5. It’s the same with any issue, there is only one ‘acceptable’ opinion and if you dissent from it you are labelled some kind of ‘phobe’ or ‘-ist.’

      I believe that lockdowns will cause far more harm than the virus ever could. Does that make me a ‘Covid-denier?’ I have concerns over the possible harmful side-effects of a vaccine rushed out in six months, when it normally takes ten years to test a new treatment. Does that make me an ‘anti-vaxxer?’

      Whatever happened to sensible and civilised discussion?

      1. It was nuked by the Left. They don’t like dissent.

        The good thing about different opinions is that if you have them and let people air them they feel heard, cared about, listened to and are far less likely to throw a wobbly in the wrong place.

        Dissent is good. It keeps the lid on extremism.

    1. Morning Anne

      I am so glad you reposted this halarious bit of British eccentricity , I found it on Twitter last night and posted it on here fairly late in the evening !

      1. Years ago, I had to attend parish meetings just like this. There was one chap – he and his wife thought they were Mr.& Mrs. Greater Muckheap. More time was wasted on ‘points of order’ blah, blah, blah than actually getting anything decided.
        Morning, Maggie.

        1. I’ve done PTA and Sailing Club committees and can relate – in fact I decided these committees and their ilk are but a microcosm of Westminster and once I realised that a lot fell into place.

          3. Heed ‘o the Mair Primary! You should have seen what I wore!! Good morning Mr. Mac! My paternal grandmother was known as Mrs. Mac. and I went from a Mc to a Mac when I got married!

          4. Our junior school committee was run by the headmistress, a woman of such formidable demeanour she would make Aunt Agatha look like a wilting violet, she had written the constitution of the PTA gifting the Chair to herself in perpetuity and I kid you not the meetings were held with her in an adult chair and the rest of us in the children’s chairs, she regularly reduced the school secretary to tears as she did one of the committee members who was a usually robust nurse. I look back on those days and wonder why we put up with it.

          6. Absolutely , but she had our children and as young naive parents we were concerned, perhaps wrongly , that they may suffer if we didn’t toe the line. These days she would have been dethroned in a trice but this was the ’70s

        3. My children attended an alternative school – the kind where the parents are far more of a nightmare than the children.
          We had several parents like that.

        4. I sat on a board once with a local councillor. The residents wanted a barrier to stop their car park getting filled up with school mum cars.

          I remember tasking her to see it done, suggested a month would be sufficient. She couldn’t quite understand the concept of being told to actually achieve something tangible to a deadline.

      2. Morning Belle!

        The trouble is that we (the British taxpayer) are still forking out for them. Let them go their own way, but without a penny more from us.

    2. That was the Parish meeting which produced my comment above yours Anne. Those meetings are sometimes not boring.

      1. I have a problem with the sort of people who seem to be drawn to such low-level, toothless ‘committees’.

        1. Unfortunately Mr Beans, it’s always the same people, because no-one else wants to do the necessary donkey work! Most of them (us) are good people, but there is always one!

          1. But they seem to expend a lot of time and hot air in order to achieve precious little.

          2. Having once attended a parish council meeting in 1985 – it was enough to put me off politics (and meetings) for the rest of my life.

  26. Anna Soubry, not my favourite ex MP, made a guest appearance on BBC Radio 4 News this morning to discuss odd behaviour at heated Parish Council meetings. It was quite an amusing clip and another participant told one meeting could not go ahead as several councillors could not climb the stairs to the debating chamber as the Stanna stair lift was out of action. [other makes of stair lifts are available]

    1. Why would you do a full wash when empty?
      Does it have an over loaded protection on it?

          4. Perhaps the belt has stretched and when there’s a load in it’s too loose to rotate the drum

    3. Does what you put in as a load tend to gather onto a large lump? e.g. duvet covers swallowing all the loose bits inside the cover, or jeans getting tangled together.

      If so, the machine almost certainly senses that the load is unbalanced and a safety mechanism will stop it turning because it could damage the machine at high rpm..

      2. I always close the duvet covers for that very reason. Bit of a faff, but saves a lot of trouble.

        1. Wrecked my machine with a bath mat getting inside a duvet. The noise was incredible. Now we have a limit of no more than 2/3rds full.

          No one else worries about this, only I do the washing around here!

  28. Before Spartie and I grab a spot of sunshine, a DM gem courtesy of Jan Moir.
    “The Sussexes will be a dynamite draw: she is the homecoming queen, he her prized king, dazzling in his braids and gilt buttons, even if many of their simpler, Hollywood fans think that epaulettes are best when breadcrumbed and fried in butter, served with a nice salad on the side.”

    Link for those who can be bothered to read about the Gruesome Twosome.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9226061/JAN-MOIR-Prince-Harry-turn-Britain-baubles-Disney-princeling.html

    1. They should have bowed out completely and made a clean break to start afresh. She was never going to give up on the titles and baubles. Vile manipulative woman.

  29. Good-bye

    To help save the economy, the Government will announce next month that Border Force will start deporting seniors (instead of illegal’s) in order to lower Social Security, NHS and Pension costs.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fa839b1ce5aa23f7deda26aac8480b58cf2549e80992e1d876c674dc7f3b219d.jpg
    Older people are easier to catch and will not remember how to get back home.

    I started to cry when I thought of you. Then it dawned on me … oh, crap…
    I’ll see you on the bus!

        2. Which the uniformed “receptionist” will take from you as you are ushered towards the “showers”…..

  31. The inexorable lurch to the far left in the US, leading to its decline before our very eyes, continues apace.

    A far-left Dem, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY), stated that she had “a near death experience” during the Capitol riots. This has been shown to be a lie because she wasn’t in the Capitol at the time.

    CNN excused one of their very own by saying “The threat doesn’t have to be real for you to believe it”!

    So much for trusting the MSM, especially the Communist News Network!

    By the way, this is not the first time that this socialist woman has been caught in a lie, so she has now asked her followers to demand social media giants ban anyone who fact-checks her!

    1. Morning Sguest. I never in my wildest imaginings thought that I would ever see the United States brought under a Marxist Government!

      1. It’s what Ayn Rand imagined in Atlas Shrugged, though of course as with Orwell and 1984, she intended it as a warning not a manual. Sadly her final chapter where it all collapses and the good people win is the least believable part of the whole narrative.

        1. The difference there is that the workers all stopped. The state kept trying to force them to work using all manner of controls, but the owners of production, the capitalists simply said no and left.

          They do the same here, except economically. While the state tries vainly to grasp their money, it just moves away from them. It’s stupid really. You’d think the state would realise why their policies don’t wokr and, well, change them to a looser, less rapacious, offensive and greedy tax system.

    2. I wonder how long before Tucker has to leave America and claim Political Asylum in another country…?

  33. During ancient times, when the population of the British Isles was meagre and ill-equipped to defend themselves against insurgency from outside powers. Consequently a number of invasions took place.

    Indeterminate dates: Invasions by the Celts.

    55BC: Invasions by the Romans.

    410AD: Invasions by Angles, Jutes and Saxons.

    793AD: Invasions by Vikings.

    1066AD: Invasions by Normans.

    These were the last successful hostile invasions by foreign powers into our islands. A number of attempts (some, non-hostile) have been made in the centuries since then but all ending in failure on the part of the potential insurgents.

    1337–1453 (Hundred Years’ War): France.

    1495–1497: Perkin Warbeck.

    1588: Spanish Armada [Spain and The Netherlands].

    1667: Raid on The Medway. Netherlands.

    1797: Battle of Fishguard. France.

    1914–1918: Germany.

    1939–1945: Germany and axis powers.

    All those attempts were thwarted by British resolve. Unfortunately, since then it appears that the famed British resolve has been systematically bred out of the population. Instead of defending the realm against insurgency, invasion is now welcomed and, in some cases, encouraged.

    1948: The ‘Windrush” generation welcomed from outposts of the British Empire/Commonwealth.

    1973: Opening of borders to fellow EEC/EU member states.

    2015–present (and ongoing): European Migrant Crisis.

    In these days of increasing globalisation, it would appear that the defence of the realm — for so long a vital necessity in retaining a country’s identity and the safety of its population — is now considered to be an archaic concept and the wishes, hopes and fears of that population are to be summarily dismissed and ignored for political expediency.

    This really is the end of the nation state and its inbuilt comfort factor of national identity.

    1. And govts willingly destroy our nations and cultures by allowing mass importation of other cultures that have openly said they want us gone ( but haven’t realised that it is our taxes that pay for their existence here ).

    2. I’ve said it many times (I’m usually wrong, but I like whinging) that everything is back to front.

    1. Arguably, this would breach the Nuremberg code. I’d hope someone would challenge it in court.

      1. It’s only to avoid quarantine. Forced medical procedures are so twentieth century!
        Get the mugs to do it to themselves nowadays.
        It would be funny if everyone bypassed Greece and went to Turkey and Morocco instead.

  37. Just on the radio – For the local elections in a few months masks will be compulsory ( and take your own pen/pencils ) – so already known that masks will still be here so far in front? Got to keep control haven’t they?

      1. Don’t they all look the same…oops! Someone has just put their foot through the front door…

    2. Social distancing at Tower Hamlets? My postal vote is secure – a letter from my Council has confirmed.

    3. Mr Rashid has bought in 250,000 mask for his staff to rotate mant time throu the same Polling Stations
      using different identities each time of course

    4. I’ve asked my SNP MSPs what will happen regarding the elections, and will postal voting be extended? Not even an acknowledgement.

    5. If you do go take a felt tip, your cross can’t be removed. But i have promised from the way this government has broken so many of its promises, obviously (covid or not) planned to be broken. I am never going to vote for anyone again. None of them are worth so much as a rotten carrot.
      But i am about to email my local authority about the dire state of the roads across the county. One mini roundabout in particular comes to mind the road markings no longer exist and many drivers totally ignore the junction and do not give way, most don’t even look to their right, as it now looks like a Tee Junction. Very dangerous indeed.

        1. There’ll be no problem with the gas supply to the camps. IG Farben has announced a multi-million pound investment in a project to build a new factory in the UK.

          1. Look at the camp in Penally near Tenby on Google Earth DM, just across the road is a huge shooting range. Fancy giving it a go ?? Or there is the Tenby Links. The toughest golf course I have ever played.

    2. You have to ask why. Yes, the companies hike the bills every single year for no good reason except greed and yes, taxes on green have soared but it really is time the cost of this abomination were considered and those introducing these destructive, abusive taxes and charges were held accountable for the carnage they’re doing to the country.

  39. More from Wuhan….

    A 1981 novel by horror writer Dean Koontz predicted the coronavirus outbreak,

    The Eyes of Darkness, which revolves around a grieving mother investigating the mysterious circumstances of her son’s death, is a peculiar reference to a killer virus known as “Wuhan-400”, the name of the city where the coronavirus originated.

        1. Of course😍, so do i that’s why i’m not here too often. It gets a bit boring some days.

  40. Good Morning Folks.

    I trust you are all well.

    A couple of things have come past me this morning which I thought would interest you.

    1) Vaccine Roll out is going so well that Government does not now think it will get slaughtered in local elections – so they are planning to go ahead in May – Unless of course something goes peetong between now and then.

    2) A great many EU workers left before the lockdowns but have retained the right to work and are planning to return – the expected date is after Easter.

    Seems to me that in addition to making these people self isolate in hotels they should also be made to accept vaccination.

    2. The EU workers aren’t really a problem – compared to the non-workers coming through the EU to get here.

    3. While compulsory vaccination may seem like a good idea it is illegal. EU workers should just be refused re-entry. Frankly, the EU has shown that it does not give a fig for any Agreement or Treaty with the UK. Why should we continue to honour them to our ongoing detriment?

    4. Boris will get slaughtered before being hung, drawn and quartered, if rumours today are acted upon.

      On the one hand, the Greens, led by their only MP Caroline Lucas, are campaigning to impose a meat tax on the UK — because of climate change!

      On the other hand, the government is apparently asking all departments to draw up carbon pricing levels for the areas of everyday life including traditional foods Britons have eaten for centuries and the gas used to heat their homes. They admit that this policy “would mean a de facto carbon tax or charge on products such as beef, lamb and cheese”.

      Since climate is a worldwide phenomenon, please could someone explain how these taxes, on the ever-suffering British people, would affect the climate in China, Nigeria or Pitcairn Island?

      1. But millions of morons will go out and vote Green as a protest vote against the Cons and Labour, because sunflowers and polar bears.

      2. There are already taxes on well, everything. Many five or six times over.

        Perhaps we should have a civil servant tax, where idiots who invent stupid taxes pay those taxes – and only they.

  41. Gawd, it”s not only sonny boy with too much time on his hands. One from (working!?) solicitor chum.

    “Late on Friday following the EU vaccine debacle, Boris Johnson left a voicemail message for Emmanuel Macron – and just for the craic he left it in German.

    A short time later Macron called Boris back and said “I got your message, but unfortunately, I don’t speak German”

    …after a short pause Boris said …….“and who do you suppose you should thank for that ….?”

  42. An interesting article on how London’s population is decreasing due to Covid:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/02/05/london-no-longer-calling-population-shock-takes-hold/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr&onwardjourney=tgt-123–control

    The UK has been too London-centric for decades, with the brightest people moving there for jobs at the expense of the regions. A ‘re-balancing’ might be a good thing. Why pay £1k a month to rent a shoe-box in London, when you could buy a decent house in the Midlands or North for a fraction of the price? And why should a company pay a fortune for a flagship office in central London, when they could rent a flexible office for one meeting a month outside the M25?

    Of course, it will be a very painful re-adjustment for the many theatres, gyms, bars and restaurants which cater for office workers (and tourists). But a reduction in population density and a spreading the wealth and talent around the country would be no bad thing over the years to come.

    Oh, and it gives yet another reason to cancel HS2!

    1. As far as I have been able to make out over the past ten years or so, a lot of ‘Londoners’ have sold up and moved out beyond the M25.
      But house prices have rocketed in the better and more desirable areas.

  43. Hmmm! Yesterday I was reading in the news how dogs can smell the dreaded Covid-19 and right now my dog is frantically sniffing at the door, which is most unusual, so I’m going outside for a wee look around and I’m taking my shotgun with me in case any viruses are lurking in the vicinity.

    Can’t be too careful in these troubled times.
    :¬(

          6. Evening, Sue. Trivial fact; the French for a budgerigar is une perruche ondulée. I used it in my O level French oral because I’d got a budgie and my teacher had told me that was what it was. I was a bit floored when my examiner asked me, “ondulée de quoi?” Er. She elaborated by adding “de quelles couleurs?” Then I was off again, reciting several different colours – phew! A little knowledge is a dangerous thing!

          7. That’s brilliant Conway! Amazing what things pop into your head when triggered by a word, or picture or even a scent! How are you getting on today? Thinking of you and OH. Hope things get a bit easier.

          8. Thanks, Sue. Today hasn’t been too bad for a change. No nasty surprises and I did get a decent night’s sleep for once.

  44. OT – last evening. beeboid R3 had a concert by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. They played one of Mozart’s Divertimenti. (K297b). The horn soloist was magnificent – Alberto Menéndez Escribano. He made a sound that reminded me of Dennis Brain. Out of this world.

  46. Just had a B nightmare ……….because our Gas Boiler needs replacing and the Plumber/gas fitter is/was scheduled for next Tuesday. I have been opening the valve under the boiler some times three times a day to top up the pressure. Not easy to do in any circumstance, but after today i’ll never have to do it again, it jammed open and continued to fill up, way over the red line on the gauge. But fortunately there is an overflow out let onto the patio. But ts taken me two hours to stop the flow and keep our water supply running. After removing several pieces of insulation I eventually found a service valve on the inlet, hidden away right at the bottom of the boiler. Hands and knees twisted pose with water dripping in may face and over the torch. I rang Graham and he’s coming Monday now with the new boiler. So no hot water or CH for a few days here.🙄 But at least we have a couple of electric rads and a barely used coal effect open gas fire. But good job it’s warmed up a bit eh ! But having said that the forecast is not looking good for next week. But no showers forecast 😉

    1. In 9 years, Eddy, you won’t be allowed to have, let alone use, a gas boiler.

      I’m wondering how they’re going to prevent us continuing to run our gas hob as it is supplied by Calor gas cylinders outside.

        1. We’re in a rural village, Eddy, with no mains gas – I pity those that rely upon it and wonder at the constant bombardment of advertising by British Gas.

      2. Our central heating system and hot water runs on LPG. No gas in the village. What it is to live out in the wilds. Eight miles from Cambridge. There was no running water supply until 1953, the village pump still stands there in the muddle of the village.

        1. No gas north of Inverness PM so my CH is oil although calor is an expensive alternative – I use bottled gas for my hob 19Kg lasts 3 years

    2. I paid £11,000 to have my bathroom completely refurbished. It turns out that the water stop valve is under the tiled floor.

      2. Oh dear wadda mistaka to maka 🙄
        Is there any way you can get to it by cutting a neat (Small trap door) hole in the ceiling below ?
        I once sorted out a guys leaky shower trap but cutting a hole in his kitchen ceiling, and making it good after.

        1. I would post a picture of my ring but i don’t think people would appreciate it. :@)

          xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

          The One Ring inscription.

          ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. Translated into English: One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them..

  48. 329095+ up ticks,
    We are entering a vegetable period of salad days as in near normality, covid bows to the course the political coxswains are steering concerning the coming may elections, 7th may, treachery, lies & deceit, WILL resume as the NEW normal ongoing.

    Keep in mind if you insist in following the usual voting pattern that got us into such a state of bottomless sh!te then get behind YOUR mp no matter it is only may elections every vote counts in this instance, remember that “they” survive via the ballot booth and YOUR kiss X of consent.

    Short term political gain within the lab/lib/con coalition, injures & kills innocents.

    Remember without your vote we would be in dire danger of REALLY returning to normality & REALLY reinstating DEMOCRACY.

      1. 329095+up ticks,
        Afternoon NtN,
        It would be better to ask me who NOT to vote for , we have been
        manoeuvred into a corner with a large % of the electorate feeling
        they must vote as the family tree dictates granddad, dad did, I must, then you have the best of the worst, nasal canal grippers
        brigade.

        It is openly obvious that treachery has been active since the major reign getting more brazen ongoing but it did not change the voting pattern one iota, vote & whinge was / is the order of the day.

        I would not normally condone NOT voting, history dictates that would be wrong,BUT in extreme cases this would be the only option for many.

        Personally & with the REAL UKIP falling foul of treachery I will
        be looking at L Fox, AMW, or R Tilbrook.

        In my mind to vote lab/lib/con coalition party is to ensure the kids following will suffer as they have suffered in the past, lest we forget rotherham plus.

        1. I know of Laurence Fox and his ‘Reclaim’ Party but what is AMW and/or who is R Tilbrook.

          Don’t worry, I’ll google it.

        2. Oh dear, AMW seems to be socialist (avoid like the plague) and Robin Tillbrook represents the English Democrats and, as I’ve said before, I cannot and will not trust any country or party with democrat in its name, as democratic is what they, decidedly, are not.

          1. 329095+ up ticks,
            NtN,
            In the nicest possible way as a solid reason AMW “seems” to be a socialist & R Tilbrooks worth that has yet to be tested will i’m afraid not wash is my opinion alone.

            We are currently in the throes of political treachery via the lab/lib/con coalition party being given again & again carte blanche in the polling booth.

            Many on entering the polling booth drop into three monkey gear,
            party first regardless of consequence ie mass murder, mass paedophile rape / abuse, mass, mass.

            How about the Dover illegal entry campaign endangering ALL innocents, in your face treachery.

            Currently political treachery as shown by the overseers finds regular support, we could never have got into such an odious state as a Nation without it.

  49. As a UK government spokesman said, “just teething problems”. Like being ripped up by Jaws was just a goldfish being friendly.
    It is obvious that the process received no walk-through before being agreed by our “negotiating” team. They either did not understand which is highly likely as they were bureaucrats who have never actually worked, or were quite happy to destroy UK exports of fresh food.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55887043

    1. I imagine the bureaucrats paid no attention to it whatsoever and simply signed it away.

      It has be remembered, much of the state has nothing to do apart from create processes to hinder other processes.

  50. Yesterday evening the BBC South West television news had a gloat in its throat when it reported that fishermen were so bogged down with paperwork that their fish go rotten before they can get their catch to market and it has to be thrown away. As a result several fishermen were selected to be interviewed saying that they now bitterly regret having voted for Brexit.

    The EU has shown itself to be no better than gangsters.

    I feel sorry for the fishermen. When confronted by the Kray Twins does one cave in or does one stand firm.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/df8c5f462e7c2fd8b6215cc3b39e21c7fe39b72427ca63d796fd892738cefae1.jpg

    1. Some long time ago I was talking to one of the company’s salesmen who did business with the Krays. “Nice people to deal with, never a problem”.

      1. When Peter cook ran the Establishment club he said he had a visit from the Krays. They suggested providing security for if and when there was any trouble. He said he was sure the club would be fine as there was a Police station just round the corner. They left.

        No trouble.

    3. “The EU has shown itself to be no better than gangsters.”

      Time for a latterday Eliot Ness, methinks.

    4. I’ve posted below the link to the excellent and very thorough BBC analysis of the form-filling required. If someone had tried to introduce something like this in old Byzantium, they would have been executed in a gruesome manner.

    6. Fish exporters to the E.U have to use 4 different databases. One of which will produce a label identifying which species the fish is. One of the larger exporters said the databases are sometimes not running and access is denied.

      He also said that the database identifier gave the wrong code for Skate wings and had to call the lorry back and throw it all away.

      Other databases issue official stamps.

      There is also the need to provide translation.

      About 40 pages in all.

      One cannot expect the ordinary trawlermen to get his head around this. Or the time. Even the big boys are struggling with it and they have secretaries.

      1. Here’s the question though: why do we bother?

        The EU has created this leviathan deliberately to control what we can do. Why do we obey? Why not fill the thing with utter nonsense?

        1. Most of the catch is exported. They can’t find a home market for it quickly. Besides, the majority of species have historically not been eaten here.

      2. It has long been my view that the EU will make life as difficult as it wants for the UK post Brexit. It’s about time we started detailed inspections of every French car coming into the UK. I’m sure there will be many reasons for rejecting half of them, even if it takes a couple of months on each car.

      1. All part of the plan. In Boris’ future, flying, car ownership and meat-eating will only be for the rich.

          1. If hunter gatherers had not supplemented their weeds and berry diet with some meat, they would not have been able to fight off the tribe in the next valley and would be extinct.

            Vegans are deluded which is why some of them drink their own urine.

          5. They drink their own urine? Then they don’t need anyone to take the piss out of them – they are doing it themselves.

          13. Perhaps it’s a cunning plan to get rid of all the newly arrived scroungers. Because most of them have come from much warmer climes they’ll bugger off.
            I doubt if there are many people left who can remember the curtains being frozen to the bedroom windows, when we woke up to get dressed under the covers for breakfast and the icy walk to school and back home.
            I really don’t remember anyone of my age group with such obviously invented mental health issues as we seem to have now.

          14. It would come as a huge shock for younger generations to live without the benefit of central heating, as we had to do. Mind you, at my age, I don’t think I would be able to cope without central heating now, either!

      2. Why don’t any MPs – back-benchers, Official Opposition or otherwise – table a question at PMQs asking Johnson to explain exactly how much influence his eco-freak tart, Carrie Symonds, exercises over him and is she the driving force behind his insane “green” policies?

        If they want to score points, it’d be a golden opportunity to show him up as the weak-willed W⚓ that he is.

    2. Yet of course the reality is that processed vegan foods (with essential nutrients such as Vit B12 necessarily added) have a far larger carbon footprint than locally reared grass fed meat.

      1. Because Vegan foods are not real foods on there own it affects their way of thinking. ie. They can’t.

      2. But who cares about reality?

        Deeply shocked that Carrie Symonds, like David Miliband has decided to be a figurehead in a charity organisation as there is good money in it for her. The alternative I suppose would have been to join something like Facebook as Nick Clegg did.

        In the 1970’s there were a series of saucy soft-porn movies related to various occupations: e.g.s Confessions of a Window Cleaner, Confessions of a Dental Surgeon, Confessions of Schoolmistress etc. etc. I suppose she could star in a revival of the genre: Confessions of a Premier’s Paramour?

        1. I assume you’re being sarcastic with your shockings as that a politico wouldn’t take a fat tax payer funded salary in exchange for access is fairly expected.

      1. Yep, you wouldn’t mind so much if they actually presented truly green policies rather than merely pushed a communist agenda.

        1. Everyone knows the biggest problem with carbon emissions, occurs as people with almost no carbon footprint travel thousands of miles to settle in northern Europe and demand housing whilst consuming more gas and electricity than they have ever used before. The lowish previous carbon foot prints are now off the scale.
          Felling thousands of trees to build the homes ripping up agricultural land, extracting sand aggregate producing concrete, bricks, plaster board, cement, glass making, etc etc is not in any way green.
          Tell that to the green fakes and they will ignore it completely.

        1. Nice to ‘see you’ Conners, we were a bit worried about you. So sorry to hear about you poor Good lady it must be very difficult for you. I can remember my mother trying to cope with my father and Mother-in-law with FiL.

          1. Thanks for the good wishes, Eddy. Today has been a better day, fortunately. I have to keep taking one day at a time.

        1. The Climate Emergency extremists worry about the amount of carbon dioxide being produced and suggest various remedies but the main culprit…

          Isn’t the farts from cows, sheep and pigs;
          Isn’t the coal fired power stations in China and India;
          Isn’t even the emissions from all forms of transport.

          The main culprit is the farts and the CO2 we humans breath out. At the last estimation in April 2019 there were 7,700,000,000 humans alive on the planet.

          In order to reduce this pollution, we need a visit by one or more of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

          Conquest rides a white horse; War, a red horse; Famine, a black horse; and Plague, a pale horse. Though in deference to the Climate Extremists I would change ‘Conquest’ to Flood and Drought.

          Are you prepared for this extreme solution to your extreme emergency?

          Thought not – it’s too realistic.

        2. It’s worth making an effort to read the non-technical bits, and assimilate the graphs, because it is very important. Essentially the guy establishes with a proper statistical analysis that the climate models used by the IPCC in their last two reports do not model the climate system – that is a very strong statement. He is thereby saying that the IPCC models of the climate tell us nothing, nothing.. He is a professional statistician and his work is competent, unlike almost all Climate change stuff, and an awful lot of medical stats.

          Ergo, any conclusions, warnings, policies etc based on those two reports, underpinned by those models, have no scientific basis. Or simply, they are rubbish.

    6. This was always the intent: force down sales by slapping taxes on everything. Comically the next problem with be iron deficiency.

      1. Why’s Johnson grasping that chookie so tightly? Don’t much like the glint in his eye…

  52. In the last couple of weeks I have posted a couple of links to articles in France Soir – an online French newspaper. These contained rational, non inflammatory accounts about the honesty of the US election and plenty of evidence was provided to back up the case FS was presenting.

    Of course the PTB are now planning to close France Soir down by not renewing their broadcasting licence.

    Liberty, Fraternity and Egality are becoming harder and harder to find in Macronland.

      1. Don’t mock the Monster Raving Loony Party! It is the only party whose members actually know that they are loonies!

    4. In the last local elections down ‘ere in North Zummerset the longstanding safe tory council was demolished ( I suspect in an act of protest against Westminster) and replaced by an assortment of Greens, LibDems and oddballs and boy are we paying for it now, the first thing they did was declare a climate emergency and started “re-wilding” i.e. planting 100s of trees in all the public open spaces, most of which were surrounded by , erm – – – trees.

      1. My local town council here in Norf Zummerzet are ALL independents, I like to think of them as members of the independent party.
        That said, in the town there has been some marked improvements, not sure they won’t succumb to green carp that is being talked about.

      2. While here in Glawstershire they’ve devastated the edge of our common by churning up the grass (full of rare plants) and have cut down quite a lot of mature trees – to “open it up” I presume but it looks terrible at the moment. I had to take a detour to get home this morning as the road was closed. They have an enormous crane to collect the tree trunks up .

  54. Sorry, I’m over-posting today – but this made me grin like a cheshire cat!

    “Alone, a country can be a speedboat, while the EU is more like a tanker,” Mrs von der Leyen said.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/02/05/brexit-britain-vaccine-speedboat-says-ursula-von-der-leyen/

    You think, Ursula? That it’s easier for one, nimble nation to act quickly than for a lumbering beast with 28 bickering heads to make a decision? Well I never! Maybe the rest of your ‘member states’ should start thinking about following us out the exit door?

    1. Maybe the rest of your ‘member states’ should start thinking about following us out the exit door?

      We can live in hope.

    3. Maybe, but it’s a lot more like a cruise liner where there aren’t many people payingand only a few are making decisions about where everyone goes. It’s expensive, inefficient and while it looks good, you’re just being taken for a ride.

      The EU, of course, is a cruise liner with holes below the waterline.

      1. Those holes below the waterline are portholes and are safely glazed. They’re for seeing where you are going. Count the fish!

    4. She forgot to add that it’s much easier to dodge icebergs in a speedboat than it is in a tanker.

    5. A tanker with one engine room, but three bridges and 27 officers’ quarters. Bound to go far!

      The speedboat’s got a chimp at the tiller, but yes it’s got speed and manoeuvrability.

      1. “The Lord Chief Justice said they “should not have been prosecuted for the extremely serious offence”.

        If a Lord Chief Justice actually used those very words, then he should be immediately replaced. If he is implying that people should not be prosecuted for committing “extremely serious offences” then we seriously have to look at this man’s position in the judiciary.

        It could be, however, that BBCese is being used in that report.

  58. The DT has an article today
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/05/thousands-drivers-prosecuted-angry-motorists-submit-dash-cam/
    on dash camera etc footage leading to successful prosecutions. The say it is from “angry drivers”, although they don’t say how they know the drivers were ‘angry’. I suspect many weren’t, they just thought what they had seen was very dangerous and sent it in.

    The comments BTL are hilarious. The DT motoring lobby is 90% dinosaur and anything that interferes with their ‘right’ to do exactly as they please when driving is seen as the end of civilisation. The inevitable STASI comparisons abound, completely missing the point that the STASI collected information on irrelevant political crimes whereas drivers are offering proof of dangerous conduct that may easily have led to deaths or life changing injuries. With this argument, anyone who reports evidence of a murder is, well … just STASI really, and as for calling the police to try and prevent one – worse, far worse.

    It is noticeable as a cyclist that drivers over about 45 are generally a lot safer than their elders. That is because they have read the modern highway code, and been tested on it. So they are aware of Section 163, so opposed to many of their elders who haven’t read the Highway Code in 30 years but are only too willing to lecture you on what it says.

    3. Well, it doeshent, does it? I jusht had it to add to my AZ collection – I’ve got Lunden, Machester and Cardrift already. On my book self.

    1. Tomorrow’s news: Man fined 100000 pounds for hate crime of assaulting council staff and calling them “fascist jabbers.”

    2. Flying another kite Rik, must be, surely. Can you imagine poor little council employees going round knocking on doors and attempting to talk people into it? The’ll need an escort!

      1. That’s going to be my response if and when they arrive at my door: “I’ll have a jab if and when long-term side effects testing has been completed, which normally takes between 5 and 10 years for medicines, especially vaccines”. And I will also make the point that me not volunteering to have the jab now is a CONFIDENTIAL matter, and should NOT be shared with anyone outside of my GP or if required to be law otherwise.

        Let’s see if they try to push it into law to be vaccinated to get a job, go to sporting/cultural events, travel, etc. That would mean it would be maditory in all but name, which doesn’t sound like a liberal democracy to me, more like an authoritarian dictatorship.

        1. I think it will be mandatory in all but name – they won’t pass a specific law to make it so but it will become increasingly difficult to do any of those things without being vaccinated.

          I’m going for mine tomorrow so that I can travel – I’ve had to postpone my trip to Kenya booked for early March – it’s now October and I’m going – so I will play along and have the jab if it means we get out of jail.

          They’ve now sent me two letters in the last couple of days although my appointment for tomorrow was booked two weeks ago.

          1. I think it will be mandatory in all but name…

            And then what? Vaccinations annually to keep your “licence” to be able to move around your Country?

          3. If it means I can visit my wife in the care home I’ll have a jab every week because that’s more important to me than anything else.

        2. This is worth a read if you have time. Deals with employment but I expect human rights would come into play in other areas. Not sure that even this shower of a government would want to try and mess with human rights legislation; sure to expose their agenda and probably the reason why the injection minister had to backtrack late last year. Johnson and his lackeys will attempt to get companies to act as their proxies in getting a ban working. Be interesting to see what happens if companies are sued for discrimination as per masks.

          As if Johnson already hasn’t done enough damage to the social and cultural fabric of the UK the rumours around taxes on meat and dairy to please the Green slime and save the planet will not help his standing.The Buffoon facade has dropped and exposed a very dangerous politician.

          Open Letter Vaccine

    5. Data protection, medical in confidence, nah, not if the Government wants to drive through an agenda.

    6. Why not make them multi-task they could check

      Number of people living at a house

      If they have a TV Licence

      Recycling being carried out properly

      No overdue library books

      are not illegals

      Car taxed

      Car insured

      Car MOT’
      etc

      2. Piles
        Prostate in good nick
        Foreskin – no? We have a comfy railway truck for you, sir. Just one small suitcase.

  61. DM story beyond belief.

    Denmark launches sexual consent app where lovers can give permission ‘for one intercourse, valid for 24 hours’ in the wake of new rape laws

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9227555/Denmark-launches-sexual-consent-app-passing-new-rape-laws.html

    Will girls be expected to have a sort of parking meter attached to themselves so that when the 24 hours has elapsed a click from the device will show that time’s up. It will give a new dimension to coitus interruptus.

    1. Coin slot, or credit cards accepted? That’s the best description of this nonsensical concept!

      I suppose it is a logical result of the sexual revolution and feminism. There used to be a contract that regulated such things, called marriage.

      2. There’s a youtube channel by Better Bachelor about how women are getting what they apparently wanted – no interest from men, and they don’t like it. This is based on Merkin experience, I believe. Us Europeans are hopefully less strident about it.
        https://youtu.be/KUVDPirF6VU

        1. History provides many, many proofs that marriage never “regulated such things” in any way, shape or form.

          The difference nowadays is that it isn’t just men who have choices.

          2. I have posted Fred Wedlock singing it below.

            Note the key change half way through the song. Makes it a bit difficult to play on the guitar but when I saw Fred singing it he had that brilliant guitarist, Chris Newman, backing him up so he was able to move up the fret board with the capo which enabled him to play the same chord shapes after the key change. When he did not have Chris with him he didn’t bother with the key change.

      2. A true story. Man walking along with wife at his side. Fantasic looking woman walking on the other side of the road. he says, cor I would not mind half an hour with her. Wife replys as quick as a flash, and what would you do with the other 29 minutes.

    4. Sounds good to me. It puts paid to the notorious “Stop stop” game, which I have only met once, but apparently some women are well known for it.

      1. I just discovered them by chance. But they claim to be speaking to the British and European governments on behalf of 1.24 million people!
        Sounds like a bunch of Remainer chancers assuming that all Britons in the EU are Remainers.

        1. I’m not. I would still vote for Brexit again, even though I now pay import charges (and Swedish VAT) on goods from the UK that I buy from Amazon and elsewhere.

          1. #ustoo.
            And we have extra bureaucracy to get an identity card that wasn’t needed before.

  63. Oh dear – just had a call from my wifes care home to say that visiting is suspended as one of the staff has tested positive (without any symptoms) and 3 more are in isolation, so I can’t even see her now through a closed window. This is expected to last 10 days. !£”^%$&*£%$

      1. My thoughts exactly but they make the rules. I used to be able to speak to her through the closed window but even that’s stopped now. They are ultra careful but what do you do? I’d hate to be the person who brought it into the home.

          1. Possibly but the staff are tested twice a week and there was no symptoms, I guess they’ll test the residents as well now but they won’t test my wife as she wouldn’t allow them to. The one thing that hasn’t been affected by Alzheimers is her strength as many of the staff have found out and I won’t let them force her to submit to throat swabs.

          1. Yes they all got jabs on 30th Dec – of course it may be a false positive and we’ll get back to normal quickly. It may have come via one of the staffs families because they’re still liable to come into contact with others. I think the residents will be safe.

      1. Unfortunately Maggie she’s lost the power of speech. Yes they’ve got an iPad and I could do a Facetime contact but her concentration is such that you don’t get any response – we’ve tried.

          1. Thank you, hopefully it won’t last too long and I can ring the home anytime, the staff are always ready to talk to me.

      1. Hopefully Sue it won’t last too long, she’s happy enough in her little bubble and I doubt if it will affect her – it’s just hard to be denied access.

        1. So sorry, Spikey, that must be incredibly hard for you even if your lady wife is happy enough. Try to keep your spirits up, mate.

    5. Lordy, I’m sorry about that.
      Surely the virus can’t jump through glass… and even that’s a bloody awful solution.

    8. That is so sad, Alec – evening, by the way. When someone there has tested positive (it might even be a false positive) despite all the regs, why can’t people just look through the window from outside? It’s like driving all alone in a car and wearing a mask.

    3. Jeez, she used to be quite pretty but now she looks hideous. I wouldn’t have known who it was, had I not seen her name in the article.
      :¬(

        1. Surely they must have seen the results of other women? Why repeat the mistakes of others? Einstein?

    7. Were they being ironic? She doesn’t look youthful – she looks grotesque. Almost as bad as the “Bride of Wildenstein”.

      1. Is that surgery or unfortunate old age?
        She used to be cute…. at least, Rear of the Year doesn’t have to look at that!

    2. I wonder how they will react around this time tomorrow when i show them my Patient Alert Eliquis Card (apixaban). It states, Show this card to any health care professionals that treat you

    1. It’s going to need the 1922 Committee and a lage number of gonads to achieve that. Soon to be built up as the saviour due to the vaccines: the other horrors of the last 11 months will be airbrushed out by the MSM.

      1. I think this quarantine in hotels will be outed as a complete waste of time.

        One merely needs to see what has happened in Melbourne before the Australian Open to see what a nonsense it is.

        Right at the end of the quarantine and a member of staff tests +ve and it’s heading back to square one.

    2. Is it only me or are others fed up with Adams and his continual foot stamping cartoons about Brexit?
      He reminds me of a little kid having a tantrum that just doesn’t stop.

      You lost you tosser, accept a democractic result.

      1. I think he has to follow the paper’s line rather than his preferred approach. All such cartoons by the political cartoonist (and that’s his official role at the ES) usually stick to the script fairly rigidly, unless they want to be sacked.
        The Standard, particularly under GO has been rabidly anti Brexit.

        1. Osborne has been determined to achieve the Big Three:

          * The worst ever chancellor of the exchequer;
          * The worst ever newspaper editor;
          * The most mastabatorial man in the financial world surpassing all bankers.

          1. The more politicised a newspaper becomes the more the cartoons deteriorate.
            I used to rate Adams highly, but since his move to the ES I find only about one a week is even remotely funny.

            It is exactly the same process and failing that has afflicted comedy on the BBC.

      2. No, it’s not only you, vvof. I always thought Adams was a sub-standard cartoonist when he was at the DT, even though others liked him. Now I know he’s a complete tosser.

  72. Just in from the garden. Glorious afternoon. Warm, sunny and still. Finish beech hedge pruning.

    Ladder work on pear tree.

    Put wire netting over top of child-proof grille on well. The gaps are too small for a child to get through (unless helped…!!!) – but a cat could easily fall through. Now safe.

    G & P spent about 20 minutes in the garden. Kept going back to check house still there!! The MR took some snaps. I’ll post if they are any good….

  73. Yer France makes me smile.

    They have 12 hour curfew from 6pm to 6am. Compulsory masks; home-working; social distancing, big stores closed; no travel out of the country except for “compelling reasons” – YET – the regular half-term migration when half the population moves from one home to another is allowed! And, lo, a fortnight later – a fresh outbreak of the plague…..followed by the “confinement” (lockdown) they are so desperate to avoid…. You read it her first.

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

    Professor who survived cancellation attempt thanks the Free Speech Union

    A few weeks ago, we asked members to sign a Free Speech Union petition urging the President of Chicago University to issue a statement reaffirming his commitment to the Chicago Principles (the gold standard of university free speech policies). This was because an outrage mob were gunning for Dorian Abbott, a professor in the Department of the Geophysical Sciences, who’d committed the sin of criticising positive discrimination. Three days after we started that petition, the University President did exactly what we asked and the mob quickly dispersed. Prof Abbott has written an article about his experience for Quillette in which he thanks us for the support: “Fortunately, at a crucial juncture in the proceedings, the Free Speech Union launched a change.org petition in my support, which was signed by more than 13,000 people. (The list probably includes many readers of this essay. Thank you so much for your support!) My university president, Robert Zimmer, subsequently issued a strong statement defending freedom of expression on campus. As a result, I seem to have survived my cancellation.”

    Hate speech

    FSU Director of Research Radomir Tylecote writes in Spiked that despite the Home Secretary’s plans to reform hate speech laws, “some of the most extreme demands for censorship now come from quangos the government itself sponsors.” The Law Commission, in particular, wants to expand the number of protected characteristics recognised in law, as well as remove the dwelling exemption that prevents people being prosecuted for things they’ve said in the privacy of their own home. It also seeks to criminalise the sharing of “inflammatory images” – meaning cartoons. This, coupled with the Covert Human Intelligence Sources bill, which would permit children to be used as spies against their parents, is a step towards Stalinism, says Radomir: “There is no greater poison to the human capacity for trust than the knowledge that one’s own child might be a spy.”

    Conservative backbench MP Andrew Bridgen makes the case for repealing the UK’s hate speech laws entirely in an interview with Spiked. The core problem, according to Bridgen, is that hate speech laws are “an infringement on free speech”.

    An amendment by Scottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf to his own Hate Crime Bill has been withdrawn after a backlash from within his own party. The amendment, which said that “behaviours and materials are not to be taken as threatening or abusive solely on the basis that it involves or includes discussion or criticism of matters relating to transgender identity”, prompted younger LGBT members of the SNP to threaten to leave the party. Nicola Sturgeon urged them to stay, while Conservative SNP and convener of the justice committee Adam Tomkins said he was “disturbed by the reaction I have seen to what were modest, innocent amendments”. Yousaf will meet with opposition leaders to draft a new amendment that will address free speech concerns “in a way that also doesn’t make any group feel marginalised”.

    Principles to fight cancel culture

    Writing in the New York Post, former New York Times editor Bari Weiss offers a reminder that America is still a free country and lays out 10 principles that anyone wishing to fight back against cancel culture can implement immediately. The anti-woke list includes “be honest”, “stick to your principles”, “become more self-reliant” and “trust your own eyes and ears”.

    Quillette has published a similar piece by Pedro Domingos, Professor Emeritus of computer science and engineering at Washington University, with a slightly more tactical list for those in the process of being cancelled. Based on his own experience being targeted by the mob for pushing back against an “ideological litmus tests to limit what can and cannot get published”, his set of principles includes “don’t back down”, “mock them mercilessly”, and “turn their weapons against them”. It’s a false equivalency, he argues, to claim we sink to the cancellers’ level by employing such methods: “The cancel crowd tries to ban people because of their views. We try to stop bullying – behaviour that is reprehensible regardless of ideology.”

    What cannot get published

    Educational psychologists Dr Peter D’Lima and Dr Clare McGuiggan have published a blog post on the importance of free speech in “the cognitive, moral and socio-emotional development” of children, after the official publication of the British Psychological Society, The Psychologist, refused to publish it. Their central argument is that “freedom of speech, exposure to diversity of opinion, and the process of scrutiny and challenge associated with this process is… necessary for children and young people to truly think. Freedom of speech is necessary for the freedom of thought.”

    The UK’s longest running gay men’s magazine, Boyz lost the chief sponsor of its annual National HIV Testing Week issue, the Terrance Higgins Trust, after promoting a webinar hosted by the LGB Alliance, “a group that believes in biological sex rather than gender-based public policy”. Even though there are “believed to be around 7,500 people in the UK currently living with HIV who are undiagnosed”, the THT, the UK’s leading HIV charity, said “it is unacceptable to promote an organisation that questions trans equality”. (Needless to say, challenging trans orthodoxy is not tantamount to denying trans rights.) The THT pulled its advertising, ensuring the issue “will not see the light of day (even online)”.

    The supremacy of free speech

    Facebook’s new Oversight Board, set up as an independent body that can review decisions by the social media platform to censor or ban users, has overturned several such decisions in its first set of rulings. Board member Alan Rusbridger, former editor-in-chief at the Guardian, said: “For all board members, you start with the supremacy of free speech. Then you look at each case and say, what’s the cause in this particular case why free speech should be curtailed?”

    MyPillow founder Mike Lindell refused to back down after a number of retailers cut ties with the pillow manufacturer over Lindell’s support of President Trump and his public statements about alleged voter fraud in last November’s election. Corporate America lives in fear of the mob, he argued, but companies that capitulate to the demands of these woke Torquemadas “end up losing, because their real customers are very upset… they’re losing out on the sales from the other stores that have stuck with us. They make the money, and they get the customers.”

    New initiatives

    Helen Pluckrose, founder of Counterweight, gave an interview to Triggernometry’s Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster in which she explains how her new organisation helps individuals “resist the imposition of the ideology that calls itself ‘Critical Social Justice’ on your day-to-day life”. Counterweight has “a case worker system” which helps people push back against certain forms of ideological intrusion at their place of work or elsewhere in their personal life “in a way that they feel safe to do so, armed with knowledge and principle”. In the same interview, she says the first thing she tells people who contact her is to join the Free Speech Union.

    Speaking to LBC’s Iain Dale, Free Speech Champions founder Inaya Folarin Iman articulated the importance of building a network of pro-free speech student activists, saying, “free speech is not inevitable. It’s against all odds and we have to fight for it each day”. Her message was echoed in Spiked in a piece by one of the founding champions, Rob Lownie, who explained that the new organisation existed “to promote healthy discussion and tolerance of different opinions”. Young people interested in becoming free speech champions should visit the website.

    Kind regards,

    2. Impressive. Not really having a clue about Snow on High ground we left Manchester at 1:00am to drive to Sheffield via Snake Pass in a very old Morris Traveller. There were blizzard conditions on the top and no other vehicles in sight. Fortunately we managed to get down the other side (despite not being able to see the snow covered road). Snake pass was closed to traffic for two weeks thereafter! Very lucky to be alive given there were no mobile phones in the mid-1970’s and no signs of habitation on the top.

      1. I remember in the seventies there were poles with markers showing the depth of snow on either side of the road. Very frightening in blizzard conditions.

      1. A jacknifed lorry was recovered on Wed but no recoveries needed once the ploughs etc had opened the road, I did have a couple yesterday though but no snow involved

  77. As promised:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13fb30861e25034161067d54a6b460199ed12a7e7a54b437b383624c31cf3d96.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9dfbf60bc9e9c43a7c2665bb219c325721d78973e8b7e427fe607a917e155559.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7738d2b7a80baeba37afa8a9f4abd6b15cc64739493df65015fb6c18c64abb4d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bf4010e0b40fb25817f321d7fa6ef1de9cd9a46be6fb29fc159a05cccbb496b2.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0a7dd704d63cde9b2e73d0b62f1f6d8893567ba88f73065c0985a0d78aeaca0d.jpg

  78. This video from The Podcast of The Lotus Eaters (first 25 mins) showing how the Dems, leftists and Big Tech stole the US election – and are now bragging about it in a Time magazine article:

    https://youtu.be/prxnM4B4xcM

    I was dumfounded at their brazeness. Please spread the word, including the links.

    Original article referred to: https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/

    How much you wanna bet that gets deleted? Download the page/text. Well worth sticking with the podcast on the second part, which is dealing with the parliamentary debate on grooming gangs.

  79. That’s me gone. Another very good day. Trip to Martins Farm this morning – to stock up with pork and chicken against the snow and ice coming next week. Very good gardening. Bold and plucky kittens. Put two pieces in the Lowry jigsaw – it is a real devil, but a brilliant one.

    Now Angela Thirkell….

    A demain. I hope.

    1. Imagine my surprise…

      So much for the World Economic Forum’s agenda that ‘you’ll own nothing and be happy’…

          2. Hello Conway, I am so pleased to see your reply.
            I hope all is well with you and that your break has refreshed and reinvigorated you.
            Have you been able to ride?

          3. Hello, sos. Alas, no. Being able to ride is totally dependent on bojo and his band of loonies. I wouldn’t say I’m refreshed and reinvigorated, but today has been a better day with no nasty surprises, thanks.

    3. That’s so good, Congratulations to them!
      As a parent of four myself, I am most impressed by their ability to get all their children cooperating for three minutes.

    4. It was really, really good! The children were brilliant, and the parents not half bad! Not ‘alf!

    6. I wish I could sing. My father used to sing amateur opera but alas, I have my mother’s musical gene’s.

      2. Yes, I’m checking labels more closely and deciding if there is an alternative. If not, what is a good substitute or do I need it anyway?

  83. Just had ‘The Phonecall’

    0845 Tomorrow morning to be stabbed in the arm

    Which knife (vaccine) will you be using I ask

    We do not know, they say!!!!

    3. Having mine tomorrow at noon. I don’t know what variety, so will find out when I get there.

      1. Yes, I get that impression.
        Elder son is getting his jab on Sunday at his GP surgery – he asked which one: AstraZeneca.

      2. I don’t know which one I’m getting tomorrow but I’m assuming the AZ one as it’s at the health centre – OH went to the hospital 12 miles away. They’ve probably used up most of the stocks of the Pfizer one on the older groups.

        1. Yes J, I think they have used up most of the Pfizer stock. I was told when we receive the second one it may be different to the AZ we will be having on Wednesday.

          1. There should be plenty of the AZ one – especially as most of the EU are not going to use it. Using a different one for the second dose is a bit experimental – I should ask for AZ again.

    5. Just noticed from the leaflet they gave me this moring that the AZ vaccine contains alcohol. Is that why the take-up in the Muslim community is low?

    7. I had a phone call yesterday from my surgery, asking why I hadn’t responded to the NHS letter and their texts telling me to book an appointment. I told the receptionist I declined at this time. She said she’d put a code by my name (DNR?) and they wouldn’t bother me again.

  84. 329095+ up ticks,
    Seems very much like to me that the control valve governing our welfare is in the ONS office, valve ID tag is manipulation inflate / deflate control valve.

  86. An interesting article from American Thinker:

    Election Fraud? Many Conspiracies Arise from a Rational Foundation

    By Jocelynn Cordes

    A long time ago there was a guy who donned a tinfoil hat. It was a risky move professionally, but he was an ornery sort who enjoyed rocking the boat every now and again, upending received “wisdom” and then sitting back to watch the fallout.

    Sometimes it seemed to his contemporaries that he made outrageous claims simply for the ripples of discontent they produced within his small community, for most of the time they involved trivial matters important only to a tiny coterie of scholars. But on this one particular occasion he launched a claim that had much broader implications. He was certain that an extraordinary fraud had been perpetrated which had gone relatively unquestioned for quite some time — one which, unlike most of his provocative assertions, had real-world consequences.

    I say relatively unquestioned because this trouble-maker was not the first person to suspect the fraud had taken place, for others had expressed skepticism over the years. But he was the first person to lay out a coherent justification for these doubts, and in the end, after he had published his opinion, he’d not only exposed the massive conspiracy for the fraud that it was, he’d launched a new academic discipline.

    Our conspiracy theorist’s name was Lorenzo Valla and he was born in 1407. His claim was that a certain document the papacy used to justify its temporal powers over the Western portion of Christendom was a forgery. It was allegedly composed in the 4th century by the Emperor Constantine himself, but Valla showed that it actually had to have been forged centuries later.

    The document was known as the Donation of Constantine and it appeared to gift the entire Western hemisphere to Pope Sylvester in gratitude for his having cured the emperor of leprosy. The document explicitly stated “. . . we give over . . . to the most blessed pontiff and universal pope, our father Sylvester, and to the power and sway of him and his successor pontiffs, not only our palace . . . but the city of Rome and all the provinces, places, and cities of Italy or the western territories . . . and we grant that they should remain under the law of the holy Roman church.”

    Why was this important? At around the same time, a group of forgeries called “The False Decretals” were composed presumably with the intent to boost Rome’s power at a time when it was weakening. The purpose of back-dating these “proofs” of church authority was to reinvigorate it in its contests with secular rulers. And the Donation, included amongst these Decretals, was indeed used throughout the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance to justify the authority of the Church over the state. In addition, it bestowed an impressive amount of material wealth on the papacy in land, palaces, Church sees, and so forth. Further, the papacy’s claims to ownership of this vast territory justified its demands for periodic tribute as well.

    Throughout the centuries, whenever Rome flexed its muscles, objections to the Donation would surface here and there but nothing ever came of them. It wasn’t until Valla published his scathing critique “On the Donation of Constantine” — a demolition if there ever was one — that the brightest light was shown on the document confirming it to be the fraud that it was.

    Since the Renaissance, what appears to have interested scholars most was Valla’s skillful analysis of the Donation’s language, for it was there that one found the most definitive proof that the document was a forgery. For instance, the writer used expressions that had not yet come into common parlance until well after the 4th century. The document also referred to political functionaries whose role did not yet exist at the time of the alleged composition. Some of the most enjoyable bits are when Valla, being something of a snob where style and rhetoric were concerned, unleashes scathing condemnation of the forger’s clumsy sentence structure and inept syntax. He positively excoriates the forger’s Latin.

    But that’s not what interests me about Valla’s critique, for he doesn’t begin his attack with these technical points, and while they’re definitive, there’s something else that demands attention. When I first considered writing an essay on Valla I thought the most important thing was to point out (for the benefit of our college-educated illiterati) that conspiracies to commit fraud aren’t new. If young people received an actual education, this case of a Renaissance humanist exposing a massive fraud concocted centuries earlier would be tucked away somewhere in their minds to be recalled whenever they heard contemptuous dismissals of “conspiracy theorists.” They might even consider the possibility that, as Paul Joseph Watson has pointed out, “. . . conspiracy theories are just inconvenient truths that the political establishment wants to remain hidden.”

    But then right before our very eyes this extraordinary election fraud took place, and it was in the reaction of fraud deniers to this epochal event that my attention was forcibly shifted to the specific way in which Valla approached his thesis.

    As I said above, he doesn’t begin with specifics; rather, Valla opens his monograph with an examination of the likelihood of this gift having been made (and received) in the first place. In other words, before getting down to the nitty gritty details that prove his thesis, he steps back and lays out the probability of the entire scenario. For instance, he first observes that empire-building monarchs are manifestly aggressive about the acquisition of territory, often to extremes. Consequently, it would be highly unlikely that a figure as ambitious as Constantine would undergo a character reversal so extreme that he’d decide one day to simply give away an empire he’d worked hard to sustain. Then Valla questions how Constantine could possibly have withstood the pleadings and admonishments from his vast family and friends, some of which would have surely included threats, as Valla dramatizes in his imaginings of what those confrontations would have entailed. He spends time on these questions and others, carefully delineating the context in which this gift would have taken place — a context he reveals to be thoroughly illogical. Only then does he move on to specifics by examining the Donation more closely.

    Now this is exactly what those individuals who assert election fraud are attempting to do. They pose general questions such as “How likely is it that Joe Biden could have won so overwhelmingly when he couldn’t even rustle up more than a handful of people at his rallies?” or “What is the probability of so many voters voting exclusively for the president and no one else on the ballot?” Those familiar with the issue can offer manifold examples of their own.

    It is most important, however, to emphasize that those individuals who ask these questions are engaging rationally with the logic of the context. And the questions surrounding probability (and improbability) are the essential indicators that something might be amiss. Situations that involve a staggering number of improbabilities demand investigation. It is the height of irresponsibility to ignore them and no one can claim any degree of intellectual integrity if they do. Ignoring the illogical and the improbable is tantamount to abdicating reason itself.

    My fanciful introduction did Valla a disservice, because it wasn’t a tinfoil hat he put on his head. It was something much less shiny.

    It was a thinking cap.

    Jocelynn Cordes is an author, essayist and literary critic.

  87. Pleased to see ”Conservative Woman” supports the Chris Whitty oik !

    ”Well said, young oik”…… by Daniel Miller…………….

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/well-said-young-oik/

    Apparently, Whitty put on his mask when he realized he was being filmed !

    Who do Johnson, Hancock and Whitty (who ran a Gates $40,000,000 research project) have in common…………

    Bill Gates………….

    https://twitter.com/sunpolitics/status/1326215764685312002?lang=en

      1. Isn’t Whitty the Gates bully who wants to keep everyone locked up almost forever?

        I think Whitty is a Gates man, and Gates wants mass vaccination irrespective of individual clinical need.

  91. I notice that this week Italy has a new appointed Prime Minister who was not even subject to any election and i haven’t heard a whisper of criticism on the MSM. No doubt Mario Draghi (for it is that Goldman Sachs creature) will grimly bind the Italians to the Euro and subject the population to the globalist workbook: the Great Reset, Build Back Better, and Climate Change.

    PS. I suspect that like a number of elections – Austria, Sweden, USA, Canada – where populist parties suffered surprising setbacks (post 2016), the most recent Italian election was “a bit o0f a steal”.

  92. Stowaway SURVIVES hour-long flight from London to Holland by clinging to landing gear: ’16-year-old Kenyan boy’ is found alive on landing despite sub-zero temperatures at 19,000ft
    Teenager landed at Maastricht Airport, in Limburg on Stansted freight plane
    Dutch police investigating whether it is linked to a human trafficking ring
    Boy is lucky to be alive and is currently being treated for hypothermia in hospital

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9228557/Stowaway-SURVIVES-hour-long-flight-London-Holland.html

    I hope the Dutch don’t send him back to us .

  93. The CEO of Amazon, the Executive Editor of the Washington Post, the CEO of CNN, and the CEO of Wikipedia have all resigned this week.

    What do they have in common ?

    Opponents of President Donald J Trump !

    2. They have been obliged to step aside because the share price of their companies have plummeted after they censored President Trump and anyone supporting him. It is called the economics of the marketplace.

      1. The deaths were in India but I have an interest in Indonesian affairs and was browsing the JP website.

  95. Can’t wait for the first reporter to pop the question to Biden/Harris or Jen Psaki:

    “How do you respond to the Time Magazine claim that a cabal of very powerful people rigged the election for you?”

    All these top corporate guys stepping down so close to each other…

    ….and now this admission they rigged the election in Time Magazine when they’re FOUR DAYS AWAY from putting President Trump **on trial** for claiming it was a rigged election.

    The Biden White House is flailing around………

    This is the WORST POSSIBLE TIME to make this admission.

    Why’d they do it?

    2. You realise that Time magazine is left of centre don’t you?

      The latest edition of Time at Time.com has negative things to say about the Trump campaign, it could be cnn.

      1. Everyone on the wrong side of the election steal has suddenly got the jitters big time coz they just got wind of what’s coming up!

        1. But that doesn’t change the fact that Time has not published 5he story you present here. Where in the link?

    4. ‘Twould be nice to think you’re right, Polly but, is this more whistling in the dark?

  96. One other clue about what’s happening is something that’s been brewing for ages……….

    ………who knew Jeffrey Epstein too well, and why it’s suddenly coming live again now !

  97. Goodnight, everyone. Thank you for all the support and positive messages. It has been a pleasure to share time with you again.

  98. Sorry, chums it is nearly 03:00 and I need my liddle beddy-byes for a few hours before I may rise again, phoenix like to smack-down the idiots who probably abound in the world outside. May God bless you, keep you (and me) safe during the coming night and the struggles before. Love you all.

  99. Wow, another one gone ! Tom Donahue stepping down from Chamber of Commerce….

    Huge globalist. Love ❤ it. Trump caught them all. 👏

  100. Morning Folks.

    Not that many care but it seems to me that the programmes scheduled for Saturdays on Radio 3 are beginning to resemble the contents of Stella Magazine. At 06:27 the presenter Celeste is playing a Rapper….I wonder how long it will be before ‘Classical music’ is reduced to a couple of one hour slots along the lines of ‘Jazz Record Requests’….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1974263c2ea68bc8a909fdf95a1c604b6ecbd69661949e2f7b5693f0fa25df12.png

    Yes, yes I know there are much more important things such as Death from Covid, the Globalists’ agenda and the extinguishing of democracy, false narratives, abolition of freedom of speech, why the British public are so stupid as to not vote for UKIP, but WTF can’t Radio 3 be left alone?

Comments are closed.