Monday 1 March: The Budget must reduce lockdown damage to women in business

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/2021/03/01/letters-budget-must-reduce-lockdown-damage-women-business/

812 thoughts on “Monday 1 March: The Budget must reduce lockdown damage to women in business”

  1. Good Morning Folks,

    Cloudy start here.
    First
    and a pinch and a punch the first of the month, no returns

  2. Saudi Arabia is medieval, cruel and an absolute tyranny. 1 March 2021.

    I was Defense and Army Attaché in the US embassy in Saudi Arabia for three years. Then I was head of US Defense Intelligence for the ME for eight years. After I left the government I traveled to SA many times on private business.
    I have been in just about every Islamic country. Ah, I remember now that I have never been in Algeria. Saudi Arabia stands out in the mind as being an absolute hell hole. The country LOOKS good. The infrastructure is modern. The medical facilities are first rate although nearly all are run by expats. But there is an overwhelming atmosphere of oppression generated by a clerically dominated regime in which a parasitic and gigantic “royal” family exercises ruthless and unrestrained power on behalf of a theocracy based on the Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam. This in turn is based on the Hanbali school of Sharia, a variety of Islam that is uncompromisingly rigid, and incapable of internal reform.

    When I was a Counselor of Embassy equivalent there, the Saudis I dealt with delighted in pressuring me into going with them to the weekly public executions held in front of the central mosque. The drill there was usually to march some condemned African or South Asian out into the square where an African slave would then behead him with the sword. Occasionally a woman judged an adulteress would be carried into the square sewn into a bag. Deposited on the ground she would then be stoned to death with rocks taken from a conveniently located pile nearby. Why did the Saudis take me to these events? They wanted to see if I would flinch. They were looking for weakness.

    Saudi Arabia is a medieval barbarism still extent in the 21st Century. It is an unsuitable ally for the US and it has always been unsuitable. The US government should DEMAND major reforms in Saudi behavior or we should walk out of the relationship. They need us a hell of a lot more than we need them.

    Morning everyone. Our wonderful allies! Coming to the MSM. Not!

    https://turcopolier.com/saudi-arabia-is-medieval-cruel-and-an-absolute-tyranny/

    1. The difference between Saudi and other islamic countries is not that the Saudis practice some “variety” of islam that is mysteriously different from “varieties” practiced in other countries.
      It is that in other countries, they place their own national culture ahead of islamic culture. For example, there is a saying in Algeria “islam ends where berber culture begins”.

    1. Morning Angie. Does it ever cross your mind that we are not going to get out of this?

      1. It’s all right Minty SAGE know their onions – it seems we are well and truly stuffed!

        1. 329781+ up ticks,
          Morning S,
          In the nicest possible way that has shades of premature submission behind the funny,
          Sad to say but I believe a great many have it as a mindset instead of “I’ve had enough of this sh!te” outspoken ongoing outlook.

    2. No doubt the non-compliant miscreant who failed to fill in the form will be hunted down and punished, and held up as an example of a bad citizen and a murderer to the rest of us, and anyone who criticises this will be told that they should watch a person choking to death from the terrible plague.

  4. Gary Lineker in race row over ‘fried chicken’ Walkers advert
    Critics say the 40-second advert from Walkers promotes a racist stereotype of black people enjoying fried chicken.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/28/gary-lineker-race-row-fried-chicken-walkers-advert/

    Ha, ha! Where to begin with this one? Gary Lineker, a champion of wokeness, being criticised for being non-woke, and people complaining there are too few white people and too many black people in a TV advert! One of the critics is Robert Wilson, the owner of the “diversity-championing” modelling agency which supplied the extras, who has described the advert as “controversial”!

  5. Morning hall.
    The WWII bomb recently discovered in Exeter reminded me that these devices are being unearthed three quarters of a century after
    the end of the conflict. In Germany, for example, it is still almost a weekly event, I understand.
    Looking back at the reports of these discoveries I was struck by the fact that, according to the media, a large proportion of them were ‘unexploded’ bombs.
    Very few of them, it seems, were of the other sort.
    I wonder if there has been any research into why this is.

    1. Ho ho.

      What always surprises me is that so many are still viable, even some from the first world war.
      I wonder what might happen if SS Richard Montgomery exploded.

        1. For those who’ve not heard of it, the Richard Montgomery was a ship loaded to the gunwhales with munitions which was wrecked in the Thames Estuary during WWII. It’s still there. Noone wants to remove it as it is likely to go BANG!
          It is estimated that this could flatten half of Kent and Essex and send a wave up the Thames which would be 100 feet high when it reached the City.
          Interesting to consider that, whilst we worry about catching the Virus, the crews of these vessels spent sometimes weeks at a time knowing that they were seconds from death should a silent torpedo strike.

          1. A contract was put out last year to finally remove it, but it was delayed until March this year, because of Covid.

        2. For those who’ve not heard of it, the Richard Montgomery was a ship loaded to the gunwhales with munitions which was wrecked in the Thames Estuary during WWII. It’s still there. Noone wants to remove it as it is likely to go BANG!
          It is estimated that this could flatten half of Kent and Essex and send a wave up the Thames which would be 100 feet high when it reached the City.
          Interesting to consider that, whilst we worry about catching the Virus, the crews of these vessels spent sometimes weeks at a time knowing that they were seconds from death should a silent torpedo strike.

  6. BBC Radio 4 News reporting that the Kent variant is the dominant variant in the UK. Where did that come from , i wonder.
    The Brazilian 2 virus variant is more infectious than its predecessor and the carriers are being hunted down.
    My golf partner got an NHS letter at the weekend advising him to shield himself at home to avoid catching any of the new variants of the virus.
    He had his first jab in January and is no more vulnerable than I am. I expect to receive such a letter in the next few days.
    It looks like SAGE advisors are getting worried that their vaccine procedures, reducing the volume of vaccine injected and increasing the gap between the jabs to up to 3 months may not be up to full efficacy.
    There was a report yesterday that the vaccine programme would probably slow down. The speed to get as many people vaccinated as soon as possible looks as if the vaccination programme has run into some problems.

    1. Wait for the Little-Midden-in-the-Mire variant.
      Followed by Boghampsted Episcopi mutation.
      And, of course, Ramsbotham-under-Micklethwaite navy tongue anomaly (authorities currently tracking down person identifying as a Chow Chow).
      This one could run and run.

    2. Three years since my last shift in Cardiff. Finished work in the small hours and, as it was St. David’s Day, I opted to ignore the weather warnings and make use of the extra night in the hotel and head home on the second.

      There were not many about that night!
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a3fc34c965f9e639ebe308b10334c6a1d2b06c75bcbeb6a45d8cf946676322b1.jpg

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/838cfc31d387dd414f3cc40c07be148cc0e662cb87528eef7b8476bff49ca0ba.jpg

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a0e2342094cb6df9f0cd50071c0fa71787f6a82ae6729044b9277db801559609.jpg

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ba1cb483ca5e9001ba9033be52a0a12645cbe36a1e00de7af4d371f856d62887.jpg

    4. How VERY rude of you, Stormy. In retaliation I shall use even stronger language: You are a VERY Silly Sausage!

      2. Evelyn Waugh’s Dr Fagan had strong opinions about the Welsh:


        “The Welsh character is an interesting study,” said Dr Fagan “I have often considered writing a little monograph on the subject, but I was afraid it might make me unpopular in the village The ignorant speak of them as Celts, which is of course wholly erroneous They are of pure Iberian stock — the aboriginal inhabitants of Europe who survive only in Portugal and the Basque district Celts readily intermarry with their neighbours and absorb them.

        From the earliest times the Welsh have been looked upon as an unclean people It is thus that they have preserved their racial integrity Their
        sons and daughters rarely mate with human-kind except their own blood relations In Wales there was no need for legislation to prevent the conquering people inter-marrying with the conquered In Ireland that was necessary, for there intermarriage was a political matter In Wales it was moral I hope, by the way, you have no Welsh blood ”

        “None whatever,” said Paul

        “I was sure you had not, but one cannot be too careful. I once spoke of this subject to the sixth form and learned later that one of them had a Welsh grandmother I am afraid it hurt his feelings terribly, poor little chap She came from Pembrokeshire, too, which is of course quite a
        different matter I often think,” he continued, “that we can trace almost all the disasters of English history to the influence of Wales Think of Edward of Carnarvon, the first Prince of Wales, a perverse life, Pennyfeather, and an unseemly death, then the Tudors and the dissolution
        of the Church, then Lloyd George, the temperance movement, Nonconformity and lust stalking hand m hand through the country, wasting and ravaging. But perhaps you think I exaggerate? I have a certain rhetoncal tendency, I admit ”

        “No, no,” said Paul

        “The Welsh,” said the Doctor, “are the only nation in the world that has produced no graphic or plastic art, no architecture, no drama They just sing,” he said with disgust, “sing and blow down wind instruments of plated silver They are deceitful because they cannot discern truth from falsehood, depraved because they cannot discern the consequences of their indulgence. Let us consider,” he contmued, “the etymological derivations of the Welsh language …….. ”

        And here he was interrupted.

        1. Evelyn should know, the name Waugh is probably derived from Old English (West Saxon) walh, meaning ‘foreign, not free, servile’, the same as Wales, Wallace and Walsh. Was he denying his heritage? 🙂

          What happened at the preparatory school, ‘Arnold House’, in North Wales, where he worked for a short time in 1925?

  8. Morning all

    SIR – We are concerned that the fiscal impact of the Government’s lockdown measures on women is being overlooked.

    The virus has taken its toll on a great many people in Britain, but a significant number of female employers, entrepreneurs and employees are being affected – and the damage could take decades to repair.

    More women than men work in sectors that have shut down. Mothers are almost 50 per cent more likely than fathers to have lost their jobs or been forced to leave because school closures have created a childcare crisis.

    Sectors largely staffed by women – such as retail and hospitality – have suffered massive job losses. Already almost 5,000 beauty salons have been forced to close.

    The British beauty industry is worth £28 billion to Britain’s GDP – double the value of car manufacturing – yet there has been no sector-specific financial support, despite one in 60 jobs being within its businesses, many of which were started by women.

    ADVERTISING

    The lockdowns have also exposed and accelerated the vulnerability of our high streets. Online sales have boomed, while retailers are being unfairly disadvantaged by having to pay high business rates. The collapse of Debenhams and Arcadia alone has seen 25,000 women lose their jobs. As more retail moves online, shops – which have mainly female staff – are being replaced by warehouses and jobs in deliveries, which are taken by men.

    We believe the lockdown is turning back the clock on Britain’s working women – who are not only losing their jobs at an alarming rate, but have also borne the brunt of the domestic load and home-schooling. We call on the Government to take action to halt this reversal by properly assessing the impact the pandemic has had on women’s lives in the UK.

    In Wednesday’s Budget, we are asking for a temporary cut to the VAT for hair and beauty salons, from 20 to 
5 per cent, in line with the VAT relief offered to the hospitality sector. We are also asking the Government to continue the business rates holiday to the end of the pandemic, and to lower them to 50 per cent thereafter.

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    These actions would show the Government’s commitment to backing business women in Britain, and that the female workforce is considered a vital part of the UK’s recovery plan.

    Caroline Nokes MP (Con)

    Chair, House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee

    Cherie Blair

    Mary Portas

    Baroness Morrissey

    Jane Shepherdson

    Chair of My Wardrobe HQ, Director of London Fashion Fund

    Millie Kendall

    CEO, British Beauty Council

    Baroness Bertin

    Baroness Bakewell

    Amber Rudd

    Former Women and Equalities Minister

    Dame Jenni Murray

    Former Woman’s Hour presenter

    Tamara Gillan

    Founder, WealthiHer Network

    Jane Boardman

    Chairman, British Beauty Council

    Jude Kelly

    Founder, The Wow Foundation

      2. I was intrigued by one signatory from ‘The Lady Garden foundation’. Is that make-up of some sort?

      3. The males were too busy driving delivery vans. Of course, it is impossible for females to learn to drive a van to give them alternative sources of income. So much easier to sit at home and complain. And, of course, any petition signed by Cherie Blair can safely be ignored.

    2. What a sad bunch of “up their own backside” posers! Good morning folks! Happy March to you all!

  9. SIR – I am a retired pharmacist. How can pharmacies dispense prescriptions signed by doctors who are not on the UK medical register (“Online clinic prescribes sex-change drugs to children without parents’ consent”, report, February 27)? To my mind this would render such documents illegal.

    M J Shucksmith

    Fordingbridge, Hampshire

  10. Militarily less capable

    SIR – Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, has the right instincts (“Gulf conflict reminds us to prepare for future wars”, Comment, February 27), but he is economical with the truth when he talks of “the biggest defence investment since the end of the Cold War” focusing “on the threats”.

    Notwithstanding the much-welcomed four-year uplift to defence spending announced last November, the relative amount of money spent on defence has steadily declined for many years. The result has been that, despite warm words by governments of all persuasions, the driver of each review has been cost and not countering threats to our nation and people.

    Talk of “giving us deployable, capable forces, equipped with next-generation capabilities” will not disguise a further reduction in our nation’s overall military capability.

    Admiral Lord West of Spithead

    London SW1

    2. The talk about improving Defence is the same as that about preventing immigration. They are lies to allay public concern!

  11. Morning again

    The likes of Harry

    SIR – Having, like, read and heard some of the recent self-centred guff from Prince Harry, I have decided to, like, sort of, dislike the word like.

    Grahame Wiggin

    Cannock, Staffordshire

    1. Epi, I was going to upvote you but that might be considered to be a “Like”.

      :-))

  12. And a good morning from a cold, -2°C and very misty Derbyshire.

    According to BTL Comments the multi-sig letter leading today’s letters page contains several signees who live in overseas tax havens!

  13. Unvaccinated medics

    SIR – Nurses and doctors are members of “regulated professions” and subject to professional regulatory standards.

    For doctors these are set out in Good Medical Practice, published by the General Medical Council. The section “Risks posed by your health” says: “You should be immunised against common serious communicable diseases (unless otherwise contraindicated).”

    Advertisement

    As part of their “revalidation” all doctors are required to reflect upon their immunisation status, which may be discussed by their appraiser. Revalidation would be in doubt if a doctor were not to be immunised.

    In the past, employers have required pre-employment blood tests to show satisfactory levels of immunity for serious diseases such as hepatitis B.

    Nursing standards are set out in the Code published by the Nursing & Midwifery Council. It says: “Be aware of, and reduce as far as possible, any potential for harm associated with your practice.” Section 19.4 says: “Take all reasonable personal precautions necessary to avoid any potential health risks to colleagues, people receiving care and the public”

    For both professions, the regulator can take action if those on their register fail to uphold the standards. In serious cases, this can include removal from the register.

    Though there may be medical contraindications, no patient should be informed by a registered health professional that vaccination for a serious communicable disease such as Covid 19 is a matter of personal choice.

    Robert Baker

    Danescourt, Glamorgan

  14. I’m just going to look at the sport section to see whether Brian Moore has managed to write his Monday article, or whether he had a stroke after Saturday’s game 😁

    1. I thought he showed remarkable restraint on Saturday. Has the Beeb reined him in?

      1. I xant find any article by BM. Perhaps he was too overcome to comment by the performce of his compatriots and is having a lie down

  15. Non-fatal strangulation to carry five years in prison under reforms. 1 March 2021.

    It will seek to address concerns that perpetrators can avoid punishment because strangulation and suffocation can at times leave no visible injury, making it hard to prosecute under existing laws.

    Of course. If we can’t find anyone guilty because we can’t prove it we should amend the laws until we can! Simples!

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/01/non-fatal-strangulation-to-carry-five-years-in-prison-under-reforms

  16. This morning I came across a nasty and unwarranted attack on a long-standing Nottler. Now, I have never met the person who was attacked but I do know that he is a very kind and thoughtful person. I will not go into details as it is personal and I did not mention it at the time, and decided never to mention it on this forum, out of respect for that Nottler’s privacy. However, I feel that I cannot just sit idly by and have my kind fellow Nottler’s character attacked by someone who makes simplistic judgements on the evidence of opinions expressed on an open forum. I can say to the person who attacked my fellow Nottler, you have no idea of the compassionate and human side of the person you attacked. Your diatribe is an epic FAIL
    I hope that our Nottler of long-standing does not take exception to my defence of him, he’s big enough and ugly enough (no offence meant) to ignore such rubbish and I will be forever grateful for the kindness he showed me.

    2. I don’t think there can be any of our number that didn’t look at that comment yesterday and think what a sad , bitter and unpleasant person the poster was. I find these occasional spats bemusing as I’ve assumed that we are all old enough and wise enough to dismiss these outpourings as coming from someone with either significant character issues or just a plain and malicious delight in winding us up. I suspect this last post was a childish attempt to literally “poke the bear”

      1. These spats bemuse me too, Datz. I got the impression from an earlier post that the person in question had recently been bereaved (I may be wrong here and my memory may be failing me) – it is possible he was having a bad day which turned into an even worse moment towards the end of that day, and he snapped – these moments are often made worse by alcohol. I had always found that person’s comments of interest and as far as I can remember there had been no such outburst previously. It came across to me as a cry of pain, which is why I replied as I did.

        1. I must be honest and admit that after the initial insults I wandered off and watched an episode of Lovejoy so I have no idea how things progressed afterwards. I wonder if we are talking about the same thing, I was referring to an unwarranted attack on Grizz by Teir5inmate.

          2. I once saw Ian McShane the actor waiting to collect his luggage at Malaga airport.

        2. I missed it – but it is a great pity in this supportive group of people who have been chatting together for years, when someone cannot zip it up. There is no need to insult someone else.

          1. I think he is fairly new to this site, Ndovu, probably six months. It came across to me as someone who was having a bad time and snapped and took it out on someone. Fortunately that someone has shoulders big enough to take it.

        1. He did didn’t sound like either of those two from the outburst, Rastus. He has been around for about six months.

    1. 🙂
      Worse still they’re furrin sparrergrass, flown halfway across the world.

  23. The World is vulnerable to dangerous upsurge in chemical attacks including nerve agents after Salisbury poisonings, Defence Secretary says. 1 March 2021.

    The world faces a dangerous proliferation of deadly chemical weapons following the Salisbury poisonings, the Defence Secretary has warned.

    Three years after the attempted assassination of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal using novichok nerve agent, Ben Wallace said it was clear Russia remained an ‘adversary’ of the UK and represented a challenge to international law and the world order.

    Mr Wallace said the attack ‘reminded the West that countries purporting to be world-leading countries have a disregard sometimes for international law and sovereignty and seek to deploy some of the worst weapons on our streets’.

    There’s a whole raft of these articles out this morning. I’ve found five and there are almost certainly more. It will probably reach a peak later in the week as the third anniversary of the Salisbury business is on Thursday and it provides a convenient excuse for Anti-Russian propaganda and scaremongering, while simultaneously trying to cover the gaping holes in the Official Version. The incident itself is probably the worst False Flag in history. There are more holes in it than in all the Emmental cheese ever produced!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9310475/World-vulnerable-dangerous-upsurge-nerve-agents-Defence-Secretary-says.html#comments

    1. Note to self: don’t ‘buy’ scent from municipal waste bins.
      Morning, Minty.

    2. In the interests of fairness and civility, I not going to accuse you of anything, but merely to ask that you provide proof (and not just an opinion) to back up your (daily) claims on this matter. I’m more than willing to discuss them on their merits. Thanks.

      1. Andy, I do not know if you ever served in HM Forces, but for the sake of argument, I will presume you haven’t.
        From the first reports of this incident my nostrils twitched to the aroma of stinking fish. Every part of the official version of Skripals’ poisoning went against my Chemical Warfare training. With what was described as one of the most lethal nerve agent ever created the Skripals ought to have been dead within minutes of exposure let alone hours.

        Ditto with the couple exposed to the contents of the scent bottle.

        I am afraid that, so far, I have seen very little that gives the lie to my scepticism.

        1. So what exactly were those two blokes doing, travelling from Russia to the UK to apparently see Salisbury cathedral (the town just so happened to be where a KGB defector and his daughter now lived), travelled there, didn’t actually visit the cathedral (which was open on the day in question), the turned around, went back to their hotel, then back onto a flight to the motherland.

          Even if it wasn’t novichok, it still killed and nearly did of the intended victims. Then the two suspects appear on Russia state TV and (badly) pretend to be other people. I’d say that is grounds for suspicion that something dodgy happened.

          I mean, the Ruskies did also poison (and killed) that other defector by slipping something in his food/drink not that long ago. Maybe this was a ‘test’ to see what they could get away with, including a ‘watered down’ agent, which may be in short supply given the international treaties on making new stuff.

          You may be sceptical, but I am too, especially given the flimsy ‘evidence’ given by those most vociferously claiming it was all a set up. If they (not you) had not ‘doth protested so much’, I wouldn’t have paid it much attention. We all know that international politics includes false claims of X and Y from time to time. But daily bringing (back) up the subject for no good reason (it’s not as though the rest of us are doing so) rings a lot of alarm bells with me.

          1. There is a theory that the Skripals were disinformation plants and the two agents were actually in Salisbury to assist them to get away from their minders and help them get back to Russia.
            A plan prevented by the poisoning by, shall we say, persons unknown?

          2. Seems rather implausible. Would you post a link to the article on that theory?

          3. Here is my post from three days ago.

            Our security services attempted to bump off the Skripals in a very
            public way whilst blaming two Russian agents who had been spotted in country.

            The reason for this being that Sergei was a double double
            agent and was about to spill the beans to Moscow about the Steele
            document. Which would expose the meddling hands of the Clintons.

            I’ll get me bread for the ducks.

          4. That would be a very serious thing if true. Would you post the links to the evidence that back your claim up. I’m more than happy to look at it and admit I was wrong if I find it convincing. We just need to be careful to keep facts separate from speculation, rumours and opinions, many of which may not be backed up by credible factual information.

            Time for my walk before the sun dips below the horizon…

    2. I must have taken an hour to walk my dog, too. At his advanced age, we don’t go anywhere very quickly 🙂

  25. Good morning, my friends

    Caroline and I repeat our best wishes to Ped which we posted at midnight – between the end of February and the beginning of March when his birthday is.

    In terms of birthdays achieved he is probably the youngest Nottler of us all.

  26. Good morning, all. Pinch and a punch and all that. Apparently, it is the start of Spring. Not in my book, it isn’t. 21 March.

    Grey and foggy – and the weather isn’t much better.

  27. “The culture war is a power struggle for institutions
    However tedious the battle is, conservatives cannot sit by while the Left replaces tradition with chaos.”

    TIM STANLEY : DT Article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/01/culture-war-power-struggle-institutions/

    The abysmally lazy Conservatives have been far too complacent and have never addressed this problem. Is it now too late?

    An ominously accurate BTL comment by K Gallagher

    The left always deny what they are doing until they have achieved it.
    They denied that there e was any large scale immigration until there were 10 million immigrants in the UK.
    They denied the EU was becoming more powerful until it became a State.
    They will deny they are fighting a culture war…………..until they have won it!

    1. Having spent a bit of time on faceache with Lefties they always deny everything until it happens, then they support it.
      What makes life difficult is they have the mainstream media in the bag, so every article has to come from sources they consider extreme and conspiracy theorist.

      1. Can you imagine how the MSM would have reacted if Trump had been declared president when the level of evidence that he had cheated in the election was as great as the evidence that has emerged that Biden has cheated?

        Will there ever be a right of centre MSM again? Why have we all given up?

        1. Well it is not just the left we have to contend with, it is the globalists controlling everything now, they side with the Left at the moment because it suits them.

  28. Clever Monkey

    A guy walks into a bar with his pet monkey. He orders a drink and while he`s drinking, the monkey starts jumping all over the place. The monkey grabs some olives off the bar and eats them, then grabs some sliced limes and eats them, then jumps up on the pool table, grabs the cue ball, sticks it in his mouth and swallows it whole.

    The bartender screams at the guy, “Did you see what your monkey just did?”

    The guy says, “No, what?”

    “He just ate the cue ball off my pool table – whole!” says the bartender.

    “Yeah, that doesn`t surprise me,” replies the patron. “He eats everything in sight, the little twerp. I`ll pay for the cue ball and stuff.”

    He finishes his drink, pays his bill, and leaves. Two weeks later he`s in the bar again, and he has his monkey with him. He orders a drink and the monkey starts running around the bar again.

    While the man is drinking, the monkey finds a maraschino cherry on the bar. He grabs it, sticks it up his butt, pulls it out, and eats it.

    The bartender is disgusted. “Did you see what your monkey did now?”

    “Now what?” asks the patron.

    “Well, he stuck a maraschino cherry up his butt, then pulled it out and ate it!” says the barkeeper.

    “Yeah, that doesn`t surprise me,” replies the patron. “He still eats everything in sight, but ever since he ate that damn cue ball, he measures everything first!”

    1. 500 so far – -and once their families arrive there will be an ever increasing number as they breed for us to pay for – and at the same time – more and more arrive.

      1. 329781+ up ticks,
        Morning W,
        All i’m asking is that on entering a polling booth the indigenous voter asks himself/ herself/ itself, am I satisfied with the present state of my country under the lab/lib/con coalition governance,
        then vote accordingly, NOW always with the option of NOTA.

        Bearing in mind that the continuous voting pattern especially over the last three decades for the close shop has been / is the major destructive cause of our present odious state.

        1. As you know I agree with many of your points of view. However, we are no nearer reaching a solution.

          Macron arose from total obscurity out of nowhere and in no time there was a new political party and he was president.

          So, Ogga – your country looks to you to do a Macron and become the leader of the entirely new political party in parliament which forms a pro British government.

          1. 329781+up ticks,
            Afternoon R,
            IMO the Pen will prove mightier than the present incumbent & the frogs are seemingly leaps & bounds in front of us in regards to action / common sense.
            As for new party build a tad to long in the fang, happy as a long term UKIP activist especially under the Batten leadership until treachery took a hand.

            Problem has been / will be I’m sad to say, not so much as the politico’s the main obstacle to returning to common sense
            and decency within politics, resulting in a nation to be proud of
            but the voter.

            The papillon, day tripper electorate as seen post referendum
            victory reverted back to their old voting pattern, which by the way the politico’s love as that pattern guarantees their lifestyle.

            There are a great many “Oggas” cast adrift after the knife of treachery wielded by the uKiP nEc / nige, entered their backs,
            very capable people ALL looking for a political home, as I have already commented I will be looking at AM Waters, Laurence Fox,
            Robin Tilbrook, very last, very reluctant to use option would be
            NOTA.

      2. Nigel Farage has tried to bring attention to this problem but has not achieved very much.

        The truth is the government don’t give a toss – it’s only taxpayers’ money and they are not affected personally.

        I wonder what would happen if Farage organised vigilante squads armed with harpoons and spears that went out on patrol and punctured and sank every rubber dinghy filled with immigrants which got within five miles of the British coast?

        Actually, I don’t wonder. The members of the vigilante squads would each be imprisoned for a minimum of ten years and the illegal immigrants would be welcomed to stay in 4 star hotels until special new accommodation was built for them and their permanent residents’ permits were granted.

        1. It’s not so long ago that Farage and co set sail to film the ‘refugees’ being handed over from the French escorts. They were blocked from filming and chased from the scene. As ever the LSM were not interested in any anti-agenda news.

        2. Apologies – Only just got to your reply Richard – and I agree with every word. There seems to be absolutely NO attempt to stop them – or even deport them straight back. It must be cheaper to actually fly them back to their country ( and ban them FOREVER from coming back ) than keep them here. I know of the “Can’t deport without proof of their ID/where they are from” but the rules need changing – drastically. If I had won the £180m Lotto there would be some fun – A lot of the MPs who welcome them, would find new neighbours moving in.

  31. 329781+ up ticks,

    Dt,
    People smugglers could get life sentences under Priti Patel’s new plans

    This is to bring them into line with the indigenous peoples & their ongoing,ongoing incarcerations, it also shows via priti & co, with the 6th May in mind that EVERBODY has to suffer even the body smugglers.

    1. The sights of people out in the sunshine at all four points of the compass over the last few days must have really spooked the SAGE crew, one would have thought they would have waited a week or so for credibility before announcing yet another interminable scary new variant.

      I am spooked by Hancock’s smirking and chuckling at the news (he was almost rubbing his hands in glee) that we have now reached a grand of 20 million jabs, I find his delight very sinister.

    2. With the radio telling us – in a panicked voice – that there is a hunt for one person who has the new super lethal Brazilian variation I feel a stage managed arrest may well be on the cards, where a team of officers – in full white Hazmat gear rush up and bundle the person into a van before the crowd is urged to be instantly vaccinated against the new variant. Of course, television crews will ( coincidentally of course ) be there to film it all.- keep ramping up the fear factor Boris !!!!

          2. That reminds me – in need to check to see if I won something on Friday’s Euromillions…I suspect not, given I come from a long line of unlucky gamblers (my grandad was the one that nearly always bet on the horse that fell at the first)…

      3. I do remember some time ago a news item about a refugee family whose baby had died because they didn’t realise it had to be fed. I didn’t realise the nhs was being sued for not informing the family….!

      5. A far more restrained comment
        than my initial thoughts!!

        Good morning, Rastus.

    1. Look where the cat comes through, before it does. The snow has clearly been thinned out as light is shining through.

      3. Possibly the cat had done it before, when the owners weren’t filming, so they rebuilt the set and – cameras, action.

      1. Just noticed something else. The cat has obviously been thrown through. Watch the gap where the cat has come through and as the snow falls away you can just see what appears to be the thrower’s hands pull back sideways and out of sight.

  38. As the super-lethal south african strain has failed to do its job justifying the next lockdown and has faded into obscurity let’s say hello to the even more devastatng Brazilian Strain,a strain soooooo dangerous (snigger) that people in Rio are falling over dead in the streets……….

    https://gab.com/MaxOverdrive/posts/105813476788806089
    Oh Wait…………………
    They really do think we are blind idiots
    Edit
    It gets worse,we now have the super-duper lethal “Finnish” variant,only one case detected but you know how well hidden Finnish Snipers are……….
    “A new strain of COVID-19 has been discovered by researchers in Finland. Only one case of the virus — temporarily named Fin-796H – has been detected so far, but scientists are hesitant as they do not yet know how far it could have spread.”
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13a7c59ef00abbbadbca07d329f2b70d5a9d3de5acf1a895e2f9dbbcc3df6ad2.gif

    1. Does the Brazilian strain make all your hair ‘down there’ fall out? If so, I’m sure some ‘Only Fans’ thots will be all over this virus…

      On a more serious note, as one of the DT Letters Page BTL comments said, the more transmissible a virus is, the less harmful it becomes when you get it.

    2. They are having a good time, aren’t they, they are scarcely cowering behind the sofa! I love it.

        1. Well, it did make me feel a bit nervous, it will certainly be survival of the fittest.

    3. Apparently the authorities had detained a man of German origin over the spread of this new strain, he’s been named as Herr Kutts. 😉

          2. We had a cat and it use to cough up fur balls Anne.
            It also tried to kill out Budgie.
            Until it was run over in a near by road.

        2. I had a good old mates chat yesterday with ………well one of my good old mates.
          with our wives we use to meet up twice a year and enjoyed a long Sunday lunch and an afternoon session in a pub with a live band.
          But i felt i had to point out to him that despite a ‘wifey trim’ I quite often look like DT when i get g out of bed in the mornings and would rather wait for a proper hair cut before we venture out in public again.

          2. No no no Obs i couldn’t do that it was okay when i was a mod in my Tonic suits in the 60s.

          3. That’s been my clip these last 30 years.
            Cheap, too. Hides the grey…

    4. It’s like the Trade Triangle; we export C19 to Africa; it is then exported to the Americas; we then reimport it from the New World.

    5. I see Labour who are priceless at hindsight judgements, have said that the government have been slack in monitoring people coming into the UK.
      Does that included the many thousands of rubber boaters ?
      I guess it keeps some of the hotel trade in business (at taxpayers expense) i just hope our wonderful government will be employing the airline industry in a similar capacity after lock down has finally ended.
      Time for a mid morning coffee i think.

  39. Preview of the Oprah interview with Harry and that woman. More than 12,500 comments BTL in the Daily Mail.

    I do hope Meghan doesn’t read them. She will be soooo upset.

    1. Prolly leave her “mentally challenged..oops I mean scarred) What a shame, eh?

    2. I’m deliberately not reading those articles. However, to drop my high mindedness for a moment, do I assume she’s not viewed as The People’s Princess?

    3. With a solid sprinkling of Americans who hate the British rushing in to give us advice on our Constitution and use it as a vehicle to be insulting. Does Harry have any nous at all, whatsoever? Is he completely, utterly, entirely clueless? How stupid can a man be? I think he’s setting records here.

  40. Morning all. Is there a shortage of large out (GLS LED) door ES light bulbs ? I have spent half an hour looking for a couple on Screwfix for click and collect when i went on to order and pay for them none available, any where ???
    I was going to trim, you know take the top off the grass today, but it’s now too wet, okay make my self useful and clean the car, it’s filthy……but blimey it’s cold out side 😏 so here i am https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofs_GyQXJ9k

    1. Due to the coof (pandemic), there’s been a worldwide shortage of anything coming from China and also of equipment that has electronics in them, as all LED lightbulbs do. It also means that prices have gone up and more stock that is available is cheap tat.

      I live on a private housing development (not posh, just that the local council did not ‘adopt’ the roads, so we have to pay to look after them and our street lights in addition to paying full council tax [yea!]), and we’ve been finding it difficult to source both the original streetlight’s bulbs (metal halide) and the newer, more energy efficient LED replacements. Some that were only changed over to LED last year have already stopped working because the new lamps were seemingly of inferior quality.

      You may want to try either the local DIY shops or your local trade electrical wholesaler – the latter will not be cheap, but they are more likely to have something in stock or able to be there within a few days.

      2. Stuck in the middle with ewe?

        (I was about to post the Stealers Wheel song but Ready Eddy beat me to it)

      3. Labour to the left of us, Tories to the right. Stuck in the middle with ewe know who!

    3. We bought some to replace good old fashioned spot bulbs – the bastard things take seven minutes to warm up..

      1. Are you talking about the originals lights orthe new LEDs? LEDs normally are up to full intensity immediately, or at least they should be. Compact fluorscents take longer, though good quality ones should be similarly up to full intensity within 30 seconds at more and 90% of the way within a couple of seconds.

        1. The new one. I have no idea what they are except that it says “equivalent to 60w” on the box.

          1. From my experience, you can tell by the actual wattage (equivalent to 60W is the light output when up to full intensity when new) on the box:

            LED: about 7-10W usage
            Compact fluorsecent: about 11-12W usage
            Halogen: About 35 – 45W usage

            A 60W old style filament lamp should have a light output of around 600-700 lumens.

          2. From my experience, you can tell by the actual wattage (equivalent to 60W is the light output when up to full intensity when new) on the box:

            LED: about 7-10W usage
            Compact fluorsecent: about 11-12W usage
            Halogen: About 35 – 45W usage

            A 60W old style filament lamp should have a light output of around 600-700 lumens.

    4. Much easier and cheaper to buy ES bulbs on the continent. No demand for them in the UK….

      But you could try your local branch of Toolstation.

  41. Quote from the DT on the current Scottish Play.
    “Mr Murrell has claimed the messages have been misinterpreted, were “out of character” and were sent because he was “upset”.’

    I can think of two possible translations.
    1. “We didn’t think we’d get found out.”
    2. “F*** you, we’re bigger than this country.” (The Big Ger Cafferty defence.)

    Other translations are welcome.

      2. “Tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed.
        Things rank and gross in nature possess it merely”

        [Hamlet]

    2. Translation – his ego was bruised, so to help it heal and to take his mind off things, he thought he’d throw a former colleague under the bus.

      And today’s politicians wonder why 99.99% of us would vow never to enter national politics…

        1. To her/them, publicity is like snow and British Rail. They only like the right kind.

    3. Hubris. “We are untouchable.”
      Of course, the seeds of self destruction lie therein. We are only untouchable “because we have created new processes that are inherently biased, we have suborned the people who dispense justice, we hold the civil administration very tightly in thrall, and have stymied the police”.
      However, the curtain has been pulled open, and we now see, and have proof, of what we have long suspected.

  42. Harry is out to destroy the Royal Family I see, reading the script given to him by Meeeeagain. It looks like this Oprah interview will not be survivable for him.

    I wonder how he will feel when he comes back to the UK and finds he is not welcome here, because that’s what’s coming.

    Edit: A comment BTL on the DM “They are talking like they have just survived Stalingrad”.

    1. I ntoice that the sections where Princess Nutmeg goes after Her Maj have all been taken out of the broadcast (even in the US), according to the DT ‘article’, presumably because Oprah and her cabal of lawyers know that slander wouldn’t go down well…

      Yet again, no comments allowed on that article.

      1. They can’t allow comments on an article like that. There would be many libellous comments and as it is unquestionably their comments page that they control they would be liable for damages. Litigation risk is often the reason why comments are not allowed. And Meeeeeagain would sue if there was money in it.

        1. I’d say they are more scared of the wokerati on twitter trying to ‘cancel’ them than a few people posting ‘mean comments’. besides, they don’t seem to have any problem letting those about a certain ex-president being posted – including some vile and untrue/libelous ones from certain well-known anti-Trump trolls (e.g. [IMHO] ‘Charles Hilton’).

          From the comments further down, it seems as the Daily Wail isn’t worried about being sued. Maybe they’re used to it. In my view, it’s surely easy for the DT to avoid being sued for reader’s BTL comments by putting a statement to say ‘reader comments are not the view of the DT, yadda yadda…’

          1. That may be your view but it would not help even slightly in Court, the DT are unquestionably the publisher. I haven’t looked at the structure of the DM comment system, but if it is run by a US company with no UK presence and in no way attached to the DM, then there would be no one to sue. It would all depend on what the lawyers say, if you don’t follow their advice then your insurance is invalid.

          2. As I said, it may well be as the DM is used to be sued by celebs etc, they may think that the publicity is worth the cost of a court case. In my very limited experience of reading DM articles (comapred to the DT), they appear to allow almost anything in the BTL comments areas and engage in very little moderating, with few, if any, articles ‘off limits’ to readers for comments.

            Are you sure that newspapers themselves are responsible for what readers say on BTL comments areas? That would mean that the likes of other ‘media’ outlets, including FB, twitter and YouTube would also be when someone from the UK posts a reply/comment on a UK original article or posting. Obviously not in the US due to Sect 230.

          3. Someone once remarked that having a comment facility is like owning a building with blank external walls that people stick posters on and spray graffiti. Should the building owner be liable for any hurt feelings experienced by passers-by?

        2. The daily mail article was open to comments. All 12,500 of them.

          You get a murderer brought to trial and sentenced to life and it generates a few hundred lol.

      2. They can’t allow comments on an article like that. There would be many libellous comments and as it is unquestionably their comments page that they control they would be liable for damages. Litigation risk is often the reason why comments are not allowed. And Meeeeeagain would sue if there was money in it.

  43. I see that the anti-Patriarchy crowd are out in force in the Telegraph again, with today’s whining long letter (the minute I saw Cherie Blair’s name, I knew it must be bad) plus the ongoing saga of the mean English male rugby player and his interweb cronies being mean and making dear little ‘sports journalist’ Sonja McLaughlan cry in her car…

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2021/03/01/sonjamclaughlan-bbc-condemns-rugby-fans-drove-female-reporter/

    Some excellent comments from both the Letter Page BTL area and similar from the article on the rugby non-event, noting on the latter that yesterday’s hit piece from DT ‘sports journo’ Alan Tyres conveniently stopped all BTL comments from around 4pm and deleted many.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2021/02/28/sonja-mclaughlan-owen-farrell-asking-right-questions-whether/

    The media’s comments reflect very badly on their attitude, and, as with the Letters Page letter about favours for the beauty industry, they rightly get castigated, including from many women readers. They also tarnish otherwise excellent female reporters and presenters like Gabby Logan. Here’s a selection of the best of today’s BTL comments from today’s article – before they all get deleted:

    Robert Webber
    1 Mar 2021 7:25AM

    Mclaughlan, like so many journalists these days, was not interested in ‘obtaining the facts’ but securing that all important ‘gotcha’ moment by goading the England captain into criticising the referee. She knew full well that he would be censured and fined for doing so but pressed ahead anyway. It backfired on her spectacularly and while undeserving of any abuse, which is rightly condemned, she cared nothing for the potential consequences for OF.

    Also, This is a totally different case from the criticism received by Maggie Alphonse, a brilliant former player and World Cup winner, who really understands the game and provides thoughtful and considered comments and questions.

    Finally, If a male reporter had burst into tears and posted the fact on the loathsome ‘Twitter’ we can only speculate on the derision he would have received.

    Grahamu Howat
    1 Mar 2021 2:22AM

    Personal threats and Abuse are abhorrent ,but she asked juvenile irrelevant questions and got rightly condemned for it by sections of the paying public.

    Michael Pritchard
    1 Mar 2021 7:50AM

    She isn’t a great interviewer for sport and questions on Saturday where poor. The only comments I have seen on Twitter weren’t abusive just critical of her performance.

    Rather stupid to post on Twitter you had been crying. Never seen a male reporter do that after being criticised. She has hardly enhanced using women in male sports.

    steve brown
    1 Mar 2021 7:55AM

    I didn’t write nasty things about her, but found her attitude aggressive. She merely attempted to land Owen in hot water by trying to solicit criticism of the referee.

    I found it unedifying. She should reflect.

    Alex Walker
    1 Mar 2021 6:24AM

    Well diversity strikes, no surprise then. ‘Journalists’ know that rugby captains are constrained from criticizing referees after games. She knew this, but deliberately asked questions that if answered honestly, would have exposed Owen Farrell to disciplinary action from the rugby authorities. That is simply being cunning and very unfair to Farrell.

    Wales won because they deserved to win, but the referee deliberately blew for the free kick to go ahead before indicating to the England players which option Wales would take. Clearly the referee failed to do his job, Farrell could not say what his opinion really was, so why did she persist in pressing him to answer in a way that would result in him being disciplined? Her job is not to be controversial- or is it?…..

    Martin Bormann
    1 Mar 2021 8:13AM

    “In car, crying.” It’s the female nuclear weapon of last resort. Or, in this case, first resort.

    If all else fails, detonate the public weepies N bomb as the ultimate female control mechanism that never fails to deliver.

    Because obviously the entire world has to grind to a halt as soon as a woman makes herself ostentatiously cry.

    andrew Moore
    1 Mar 2021 3:43AM

    Really if she can’t handle that then why’s she being employed, I’m afraid whilst I wouldn’t condone it that you’d expect it goes with the territory of being a reporter or journalist. You can’t be in the public eye and get paid for it without knowing you need a thick skin….

        1. He’s right. I put on my mental “man armour” every day to deal with my colleagues! Twitter is a cess-pit of self-indulgent whiners, but they often seem to forget that there is a big adult world beyond the twitter boundaries.

          3. Neither do I, but I’ve been monitoring a problem account (for me) for nearly a year now.

    2. Sorry, but what a fool to whine on twitt about crying in her car. If you can’t do the job, step aside and let someone who can, do it. Honestly, some of these people seem to think they are still in the kindergarten, and the teacher will make everything alright.

  44. I have just posted this to the ‘Keeper of the Calendar’. Rastus. I am trying to catch up with the rest of the comments:

    Thank you very much, Caroline and Rastus, and the many others who sent me good wishes. I was feted and treated by friends and went for a long walk around the lake and town of Huelgoat, in an area steeped in Celtic history and Arthurian legend. I have survived so far and have no intention of letting the ‘Coconut virus’ beat me. It is no fun living without access to the company of friends (I mean boozing) but we have ways and means. The biggest problem is the six o’clock curfew, but I am hoping it will be relaxed soon. Thank you again and best wishes to all. Keep safe, Per (Ped).

      1. Thanks, Sos. I am luckier than most, I can celebrate the day before the first of March or the day after the 28th Feb – or both even! Except on Leap Years when I am restricted to the 29th. Always look on the bright side of life. 🙂

    2. I posted this to Damask Rose who sent me a sentimental card with lovely animals frolicking in the woods: (to save you going back to yesterday’s comments).

      How very sweet. I went for a long walk yesterday and saw the swans and other lakeside birds. There were lots of couples and small groups out in the sunshine, and sensibly spaced, with hardly a facemask to be seen. The robins, blue tits and sparrows are busy eating the bird food on my windowsill, barely two feet in front of me. Thank you very much.

    3. We have an 85 year old Irish friend called Jim whom we met and then took under our wing after his wife died six years ago and Caroline played the organ in the local church for his wife’s funeral.

      After many years in France he still does not speak the language very well and he gets lonely even though the people in his village are very supportive. He misses conversation so we have him regularly to supper with us on Saturday nights when we often have other friends dining with us but, as you know, we have a curfew in France which means you cannot venture out after 6. p.m.

      We have got round this by keeping a bed permanently made up for Jim so he now always spends Saturday nights with us so he can regularly enjoy Caroline’s excellent cooking.

    4. I had no idea that Huelgoat was a town – it’s the name of a horse I could have bought a share in!

    1. Suprised bookmakers aren’t running odds on where the next new variation is supposedly going to be from.

      1. Russia, Hungary, Belarus, parts of Africa? Pick off the states that didn’t lockdown and/or don’t play ball with the WEF.

      2. There are still some 190 countries to go.
        Then there are states, regions, departments, counties …

    3. SAGE – “having wisdom that comes with age and experience”. What an inappropriate name for that advisory body!!

    4. The ‘missing case’ probably found its way to Japan. Airlines, eh?

      1. All the passengers on that flight to Florence were landed at Krakow. That’s the fun of Easyjet.

    5. Missing case?

      I was on a plane where BA “lost” all the passengers’ cases.

      I was waiting fairly patiently; my luggage always seems to come off last when I’m in a hurry, and it soon became apparent I wasn’t alone when the designated carousel stopped and about 100 people immediately set off for the complaints desk.

      1. When I worked at Norwich Airport, one of the baggage-handling supervisors flew out from the airport, on holiday, to Majorca. Around the same time another flight took off to Malaga. When both flights landed at their respective destinations it was discovered that the passenger baggage for the Majorca flight had been placed onto the Malaga aircraft, and vice versa.

        It cost the airport a small fortune to forward both sets of baggage to their intended destination. Enquiries were made but it was never established whether this had been done purposely, to wind-up the holidaying supervisor, by his team; or as a result of crass incompetence and not adhering to procedures. Needless to say, he was not a happy chappy on his return to work. Nor were the airport management.

        1. My friend and I were flying out of Manchester to Athens in 1976 when the flight was diverted th Liverpool! We were all stuck on coaches, along with luggage and off we went along the M56 to Speke! About 10 miles into the trip the luggage door flew open and several cases, rucksacks and vanity cases flew out and onto the motorway! Amid much hilarity the coach stopped and the driver spent a happy? 10 minutes picking the stuff up and avoiding the traffic!

          2. ‘Spect that’s what the driver said! Me? Hey,we were 19 and off on a girly hol!

        2. In my case (ho ho) it was a double whammy.

          I had been called back from Switzerland, told to get the first available plane and then be on the first out from London to investigate a massive fraud in New York.
          The first Swiss UK was the last BA of the day and I arrived at HR late at night.
          To then be forced to miss the last train was the icing on the cake and I had to get a taxi.

          The first plane to NY was at some crazy hour in the morning, it was hardly worth going to bed.

  46. STICKS AND STONES

    This insufferable prig must have mellowed somewhat since passing his allotted three-score-years-and-ten last week. I read the diatribe by Tier5inmate, yesterday, but I wasn’t too disturbed by his opinion. After all I’ve been called worse both in real life and on this forum. Water off a bear’s back. Many thanks to all who posted kind messages of support for me in the aftermath of that comment; it just goes to show the general high standard of person commenting here. Thanks, especially, to Korky the Kat for his staunch defence. I am not as big as I once was, Korky, but I am still certainly as ugly! 😉

    Having said all that it would be, though, quite hypocritical of me to lambast Tier5inmate for making his opinions heard. It is now a year since I became a fully-paid-up member of the Free Speech Union, a society whose very existence is to support free and uncensored speech and thought: something that the powers who run the planet are desperate to kill off. With that in mind, although I do not agree with all of Tier5inmate’s assertions and opinions, I will support to the death his right to say them.

    It is all too easy to misinterpret what is put into print: no verbal clues are present. I have no ‘beef’ with Tier5inmate as a commentator. As I said, yesterday, I would not hesitate to buy him a drink if I ever met him. This goes for all the brave souls who have served in the armed forces, a large number of whom I count as good friends. I have served alongside former servicemen in my previous life as a ‘plod’ and, without exception, I found them all to be trustworthy and fabulous company.

    Water under the bridge. Best wishes to all on here. And I do mean all.

    2. The thread turned rather jokey about sheds and greenhouses after that comment.

      You are right to point out that something in text can be misinterpreted if you are new to the poster.

      Saying that i do think there was an element of truth in the ‘two sheds’ comment. But we have come to expect that from bigheaded Northerners. :@)

          2. What does does it mean when a lady is ‘off ended’? It sounds interesting. Asking for a friend.

      2. Was this just a genertional thing (in my 40s), but I didn’t get the joke on sheds yesterday. Any old war children and boomers here care to enlighten a Gen-X dope?

          1. Ok. Where did the phrase originate from? The closest equivalent phrase I could think of was ‘mine’s bigger than yours’… 🙂

            Maybe its just that I’m from a generation who don’t have a shed.

          3. I do have a very big shed. Come to my studio and i’ll show it to you some time. :@)

          4. My my, Mr. Phizz! How could a gal resist an offer like that? A studio eh?

          7. Though Stormy (time served military hadn’t heard it) it was said to be a military expression. So if one hasn’t served they it may have passed one by. My guess is it’s from the Navy.

            I have a brother in law who fits the description. If you were to say you had a new TV he would say he had bought a better model cheaper.

            Insufferable twat.

          8. I suppose when you tell him you need something or other, he tells you he just threw or gave one away yesterday.

          9. I gave up a long time ago. Weddings and funerals are the only times i am prepared to meet and then only briefly. Life’s too short for that nonsense.

          12. Ok. Where did the phrase originate from? The closest equivalent phrase I could think of was ‘mine’s bigger than yours’… 🙂

            Maybe its just that I’m from a generation who don’t have a shed.

        2. Andy, you are younger than the median age on NTTL. It could have been a reference to Mr ‘Two sheds’ Jackson, immortalised on Monty Python.

      3. On a serious note, I once done a 4 week training course with a chap who came to be known as black hat for the reason if I had a black hat, he had a blacker hat!
        I wonder as it is no longer the 80’s, what would be today’s politically correct expression, would he be known as non white hat?

        1. I own no fewer than five black hats and they’re all blacker than any of yours!

          So there! 😛

          1. I handed my black hat in for a woolly hat with a bobble on top with a tiny peak at the front to stop the sun blinding me when I try to watch the rugby on sunny days from my season ticket allocated seat.
            I can’t foresee when I might need it again, perhaps I should try to borrow a black hat from someone who has a few of them. 🎩🎩🎩🎩🎩😄

          1. My black hat actually is flat, when not in use.
            It is a splendid Edwardian Opera hat, which pops up very well, with the original cover and mechanism.

          5. My bowler hat is in a Christie’s box. My (non-folding) topper is in a tin hat box.

      4. Especially if they are Yorkshire (God’s own country) born and bred. They possess a certain chutzpah.

    3. My first reaction, when I read his post, was to assume that he’d had a couple of shandies in the sunshine and they’d gone to his head! Hence my query as to where the remark had come from. Having engaged with several odd people across many sites I have developed much the same attitude as you Grizz, and feel a lot better for it! They may be out to get you but don’t sweat the small stuff! 😘

      1. Anyway who insults or bores me is blocked. Far simpler. So you watch it…!!

      2. Hopefully yesterday’s kerfuffle can be put down to either someone getting out of the bed on the wrong side or waking up to red mist outside their house…

      3. I was shocked and my first reaction, Sue, was what on earth caused that ouburst? It just came out of the blue, from nowhere – I had to read it through three times and as my nature is to seek for explanations I could only conclude that the perpetrator was in some way in mental turmoil and had spent what was a beautiful afternoon drowning his sorrows and a word or phrase had just got to him in some way, ‘triggered’, I think the fashionable word is these days.

        1. I was shocked as well! It really came out of left field but was so random. Anyway Tier5 is back today, so I hope us jolly Nottlers can be welcoming and be there if he needs a pal.

  47. It would seem that a recent TV advert by Walkers Crisps has been criticized – viewers have said the 40-second advert promotes a racist stereotype of black people enjoying fried chicken.
    Well – virtually every other advert on the TV shows BLACK / BAME people in equal numbers to the white population – what’s the problem ?

      1. Probably not, but I am really looking forward to his grovelling apology once the SJW demands for his cancellation start doing the rounds…

          1. The last time Lineker took the knee was when he was in an England shirt before a match…

    2. If you ask white people what their favourite meal is it is one of three things. Fish and chips. Roast beef. Curry.

      If you ask black people the same question then fried chicken will almost certainly be in the top three.

      It’s the usual whingers complaining about something that a sensible person wouldn’t even consider.

      1. I agree. We went into a fried chicken restaurant in north London a couple of years ago, and it was so full of Africans, it was like a joke cliché! But they are right – fried chicken is darn tasty!

          2. If you haven’t any buttermilk you can make your own. Two tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar to half a pint of milk. Not UHT. It helps to tenderise the chicken.

            Also if your cheffy knife skills aren’t brilliant you can debone the thighs with a pair of scissors. Just go in where the flesh is thinnest. there is also a piece of gristle at one end of the thigh that you need to cut out but you will see it easily enough.

            Enjoy !

          6. Of course i haven’t tasted yours but… Red onion is always a good idea because it is sweeter than white onion.

            It does look good as a side dish i must say.

            If you only have white onion then slice and dice and let it soak in water for a few minutes and it takes away the harshness.

          7. I do try to use red onion when I can for salads. Thank you for the tip about soaking white onion in water, I will remember.

        2. Many years ago I wax staying at a hotel in Dallas and outside the hotel were two fast food joints. It was interesting to see whitey going into Macdonalds for burgers, those of another persuasion going to Popeyes for spicy chicken and dirty rice.

      2. Presumably if the ad showed white people eating fried chicken, the usual crowd would have complained about ‘cultural appropriation’. All they are succeeding in doing is stoking resentment by the majority.

      3. So long as I can see what it is, thats what matters to me. Anything all mixed together on a plate that I have not mixed myself I will not eat. so curry would never be on my list.

        2. You would eat mine, Johnny. I make a Jalfrezi with onions, peppers, tomatoes, chicken and spices. Each part readily identifiable.

          I don’t make brown sludge.

  48. I wonder how many people are going to have a close shave with this Brazilian strain of the corona virus?

    1. I feel sorry for those medics having to take a swab to check, at least all those patients except on pretty young ladies…

      1. Especially those men who self-identify as female. In fact, wasn’t there one who was suing multiple beauticians because they didn’t want to touch him, so to speak?

          1. Then the Canadian Trannies should be charged with a discrimination offence. (IMHO they are all batshoot crazy, or bordeline mentally ill).

    4. Its a flu type virus so we will have many variations it will never be “cured” The death rate was never high enough to justify what thery have done.

    1. Afternoon Sue – He was taken there because of a pre existing heart condition which is worrying his doctors. He had a stent inserted some time ago to clear a blocked artery. He seems to be holding up well.

      1. Thanks. I assumed something of that nature as Barts is now a cardiac (as well as cancer) specialist unit. It always makes me smile when I walk down the side of the hospital on my way to church and pass a big red sign that says, “Heart Attacks This Way”, as if that’s where you go to get one!

        1. Fingers crossed for the Duke.
          The latest CQC assessment says “Requires Improvement”

          1. Will he have to wait until June before he gets a get well soon card from the Queen?

  50. Penal Colony No. 2 ‘breaks people’: Inside the prison where Alexei Navalny has been sent. 1 March 2021.

    Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been transferred to a penal colony that has been described as “one of the worst” in Russia, Moscow said on Sunday.

    The opposition figure, who was jailed upon return to Russia last month after recovering from a poison-induced coma, is now believed to be in penal colony No. 2 in the town of Pokrov, which is three hours outside Moscow, according to Alexey Melnikov, the secretary of the state-run Public Monitoring Commission (ONK).

    There are three articles in the MSM about Navalny’s new residence. All horror stories in various guises; the Mail in particular describing it as having “torture-like conditions” without bothering to explain what these might be. Oddly enough Penal Colony No. 2 “White Swan” has its own Wikipedia entry which records only one death (something the inhabitants of Corcoran might well envy) in the last twenty years.

    The prison has roughly 300 inmates, one-third of its maximum capacity, held in cells of one, two and three people. All cells have a dossier containing photos, articles, and a brief “biography” of the detainees. White Swan was the first prison in Russia to feature an on-site professional psychologist, and the administration, after studying the prisoners, settles them based on psychological compatibility in order to avoid conflicts. The conditions of the prison supposedly correspond to the requirements of international standards, with a library, correspondence materials, a commissary, a weekly shower, and an hour-long walk per day. During White Swan’s entire existence, there have been no confirmed escapes. Wikipedia.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Swan_(prison)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/01/penal-colony-no-2-breaks-people-inside-prison-alexei-navalny/

    1. Russia has the type of prison that no one would ever want to be sent to because they are so tough to survive in.

      Unlike ours.

    2. Note that Wikipedia entries can be put up or edited by anyone – including from governments (and have been showed to be in the past). If the prison is for very violent criminals, why is Navalny there, given his ‘crime’ (embezzlement) doesn’t include anything like that?

      1. If you don’t believe what Wikipedia tells you I wonder that you should bother to read it. On the other hand if you have evidence that the entry has been altered in the last twenty four hours I should be interested to see it! Navalny was sent there because quite unofficially the White Swan is reported to have the best food in the Russian prison system!

          1. Which means its getting more and more por-establishment by the day. The NuLeft is not like Corbyn’s lot, more rich upper middle class ‘professionals’ who work in office-based tech industries and the media – hence why so many SJWs who want authoritarian control via big firms do it by infiltrating them as well as civil services and the media. They essentially control information.

      2. I agree, Andy. How do we know what’s true in Wikipedia, and who put it there?

        1. From what I understand, like twitter & Co, you have to be on their ‘good list’ or at least not be on their radar in a ‘controvercial’ issue you’re posting on there. As this prison gains publicity, I’d suspect that the entry gets ‘changed’ again. In the end, trolls on both sides win because muddying the waters is almost as effective as outright lies.

          That’s why the failure of the media over the last decade, especially over the last 4 years, has been terrible. Who else is there to uncovere and report what the truth is? It looks like it’ll be down to ordinary people, who have no experience, knowledge or power, making their life much more difficult.

          I was hoping to see if those reports of empty hospital wards at my local hospitals were true, but due to teh Police presence, I could be arrested and that would be it for me – including nixing any future career after possibly being on a government/Police ‘blacklist’. I still have something to lose.

      4. Try and change the BBC entry pointingting out their left wing leaning and see what happens.

    3. Note that Wikipedia entries can be put up or edited by anyone – including from governments (and have been showed to be in the past). If the prison is for very violent criminals, why is Navalny there, given his ‘crime’ (embezzlement) doesn’t include anything like that?

  51. I am always grateful if anyone can let me know of any faults and omissions. (certain key Nottlers are very shy and are not on the list!)

    Anyone feeling less coy than they were about giving their year of birth?

    Some very lovely ladies, Sue MacFarlane, Caroline and Maggiebelle – along with Geoff Graham and Fallick Alec – coming up this month:

    PLEASE, Fellow Nottlers, let me know of any errors, omissions or additions I need to make to this list.

    02 January – 1947 : Poppiesmum
    07 January – **** : Lady of the Lake
    08 January – 1941 : Rough Common
    09 January – **** : thayaric
    10 January – 1960 : hopon
    16 January – 1941 : Legal Beagle
    18 January – **** : Stormy
    21 January – **** : Nagsman
    23 January – 1951 : Damask Rose
    27 January – 1948 : Citroen 1
    10 February -1949 : Korky the Kat (Dandy Front Pager)
    11 February- 1964 : Phizzee
    22 February- 1951 : Grizzly
    24 February- 1941 : Sguest
    28 February- 1956 :Jeremy Morfey
    29 February- **** : Ped
    05 March—– 1957 : Sue MacFarlane
    08 March—– **** : Geoff Graham
    26 March—– 1962 : Caroline Tracey
    27 March—– 1947 : Maggiebelle
    27 March—– 1941 : Fallick Alec
    19 April——- **** : Devonian in Kent
    22 April——–1950 :Jay Sands
    26 April——- **** : Harry Kobeans
    24 May——– 1944 : NoToNanny
    08 June——– **** : Still Bleau
    09 June——- 1947 : Johnny Norfolk
    09 June——– 1947 : Horace Pendleton
    23 June——– 1957 : Oberstleutnant
    25 June——– 1952 : corimmobile
    01 July——— 1946 : Rastus C Tastey
    12 July——— 1956 : David Wainwright/Stigenace
    18 July——— 1941: lacoste
    19 July——— 1948: Ndovu
    26 July——— 1936 : Delboy
    29 July———- 1944 : Lewis Duckworth
    30 July———- 1946 : Alf the Great
    01 August—— 1950 : Datz
    03 August—— 1954 : molamola
    10 August—— 1967 : ourmaninmunich
    14 August ——-1944 jillthelass
    18 August—— **** : ashesthandust
    19 August——- 1951 : Hugh Janus
    04 September- 1948 : Joseph B Fox
    07 September- 1946 : Araminta Smade
    11 September- 1947 : peddytheviking
    12 September- 1946 : Ready Eddy
    13 September- **** : Anne Allan
    15 September- **** : veryveryveryoldfella
    26 September- **** : Feargal the Cat
    30 September 1944 : One Last Try
    07 October—– 1960 : Bob 3
    11 October—– 1944 : Hardcastle Craggs
    25 October—– 1955 : Sue Edison
    12 November- ***** : Cochrane
    01 December– 1956 : Sean Stanley-Adams
    06 December– 1943 : Duncan Mac
    10 December– **** : Aethelfled
    16 December– **** : Plum
    21 December– 1945 : Elsie Bloodaxe

    (E&OE)

  52. The PM said this morning that the Border Force is fit for purpose. I think many of us think differently. He is either completely out of touch or lying. [or both]

    1. It does do its job, which is to let in as many as possible, while pretending to prevent it!

    2. On the other hand (and this is a VERY long shot), in the past, when Prime Ministers have said that they had “every confidence” in someone – he was usually fired within 48 hours!

      1. He is just yet another French president/prime minister who has been done for corruption. It goes with the territory. The list is endless.

      2. Perhaps if I wrote “Boris, Handoncock and others should be watching what has happened to Sarkozy and be concerned justice may be coming for them as well” my original thoughts would be better expressed.

    6. Blair was a far worse criminal and yet he continues to escape Scot free.

      (Indeed this is not an inapt term when you think that Blair’s perfidy has led to the misapprehension by the likes of Sturgeon that Scotland should be a country of Free Scots!)

      2. Can anyone remember a French president politician who wasn’t corrupt to the core?

        1. You have a point there, although our French neighbours do like to take their corruption to a whole new level… 🙂

      3. Can anyone remember a French president politician who wasn’t corrupt to the core?

    1. Creepy as anything. “enable them to move safely … abroad” my a55!
      Meanwhile, Britain requires 3 tests in total for anyone travelling in, cost about 300 pounds, as an incentive to get the vaccine as quickly as possible.

    2. Hm. “It will respect data protection, security and privacy”. But give us all your information or else.

          2. Opinions that are vertically strung out to needle the original poster and pin point..oh hell, I’m no good at this stuff!

    3. It’s the only language they all understand! 😅😅😅. I have a feeling there have been moves to expunge the English language from the EU chambers.

  55. Prince Philip, 99, leaves King Edward VII hospital after 14 days and is taken by ambulance to St Bartholomew’s to ‘treat infection and undergo testing for pre-existing heart condition’ – where he is expected to stay ‘at least until end of the week’. 1 March 2021.

    The Duke of Edinburgh was today transferred by ambulance to St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London for ‘testing and observation for a pre-existing heart condition’ following a two-week stay at King Edward VII Hospital.

    The end is fast approaching my friends and that of Her Majesty. This will also signal the end of an era and of a whole civilisation! What follows will be irredeemably ugly. The Triumph of Evil!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9312171/Prince-Philip-leaves-King-Edward-VII-Hospital-London-14-days.html

    2. Not that I am looking forward to it but it will be interesting to see the public response if he does die. Will there be wall to wall wailing as happens when unknown celebs die or will the woke just shrug their shoulders and carry on their fantasy self centered lives.

      1. I, for one, will deeply regret his passing.
        His war service, his service to the country in support of HM the Queen, over so many years shows what a solid man he is. A role model, if there ever was one.

  56. Has Scottish Labour just elected the man who will deny Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP its precious majority?
    Anas Sarwar has a unique opportunity ahead of May’s Holyrood elections

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/03/01/has-scottish-labour-just-elected-man-will-deny-nicola-sturgeons/

    Apparently it is unforgiveable for a Labour MP to send his son to a private school which is what Anas Sarwar does. It was not always the case; when I was at UEA one of my fellow students was the son of one of Harold Wilson’s cabinet members. Robin Gordon Walker tried – rather unsuccessfully – to chase the girls and was given the sobriquet of The Organ Hawker!

    A BTL Comment with which I agree:

    I could understand the hypocritical public school educated Blair not sending his son to Fettes because he was, at least nominally, a socialist who was meant to believe in state education.

    On the other hand the Conservative Party is supposed to support private enterprise – and private schools are surely prime examples of private enterprises. So Cameron, by sending his children to state schools, was, showing gross hypocrisy – which was only confirmed by the fact that as soon as he left office he transferred his children to private schools. He thought that being a class and party traitor was quite acceptable and more important than his own children’s education. In the same spirit he wore a suit rather than a morning coat at his own sister’s wedding and tried to do the same at Prince William’s wedding.

    I think few people are aware of just what a piece of sheer excrement David Cameron is. Shall we ever have decent people entering politics or will it continue just to attract the dross.

    1. 329781+ up ticks,
      R,
      We have had them just NOT leading the lab/lib/con coalition party.

    2. I think Diane Abbot’s son went to a private school as did the children of other Labour supporters and they had no compunction in doing so. IIRC the Bliars’ went to Brompton Oratory – don’t think that’s a state school. As a once supporter of the Conservative party I have no problem with people sending their children to private school although we, unfortunately, could not afford it. But when labourites tell people what they can and can’t do with their own money it makes me cross.

      2. The difference between Cameron and Abbott is that she tried to put her son’s interests ahead of her own political image. She faced a barrage of abuse for hypocrisy but in my opinion she was far less of a hypocrite than Slimeball Cameron.

        (I do find it very sad that her privately educated son has become a criminal)

          2. He was involved with drugs and did not behave in very gentlemanly manner when he was arrested

            From the DT report on the matter:

            The son of the shadow home secretary Diane Abbott has admitted spitting at a police officer and biting his colleague outside the Foreign Office after being refused entry.

            James Abbott-Thompson, 28, was working as a diplomat for the government department after graduating from Cambridge University.

          4. It was? Do you think you could give us all written warning in future. Just so we know we are supposed to laugh. :@)

          6. I feel sorry for his Dad – I worked with him for a while and he’s a nice guy (at least he was to me), if one with (IMHO) poor taste in ladies.

    3. Excellen BTL comment, which sums up how I feel about Cameron too. All the more so because he has been notorious all his career for being a nasty little snob.

    4. No. Scottish Labour is in a bad way. The Operation Cerrar report identified muslims in Glasgow as child rapists. The Tories are best placed to take on the SNP. Unfortunately their arguments only go as far as rejecting independence. This is a losing strategy as half the population support independence. Moreover this is a Scottish Parliament election, not a General Election. Most of the population would support an honest and competent government.

      https://www.glasgowchildprotection.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=33484&p=0

      https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/01/28/asylum-seeker-grooming-gang-kept-secret-scotland-police/
      https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/5215881/police-scotland-glasgow-grooming-gang-secret/#comments

    6. I would have worn my speedos at Prince WIlliam’s wedding – the ones I normally have to show off my dad-belly.

      Possibly why they didn’t invite me.

  57. Boris Johnson ‘condemns’ former Fleet Street editor for piece revealing IRA support. 1 March 2021.

    Mr Greenslade, once editor of the Daily Mirror, provoked outrage with an essay outlining his long-held Irish republican sympathies and declaring his support for IRA violence.

    The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said he condemned the piece, in which Mr Greenslade said he kept his views quiet from Fleet Street colleagues because he could not hope to convince them “that the killing of civilians, albeit by accident, was justifiable”.

    In the piece for the British Journalism Review, the former editor said he “no longer felt it necessary” to conceal the affinity he had held to the cause since the 1970s.

    There is nothing wrong in itself with being a supporter of the IRA provided you accept its responsibilities; the fault here lies in its concealment. If Mr Greenslade felt so strongly, why did he not speak out? The answer is that he was personally unwilling to pay the price in the social and employment ostracism that would inevitably result. The soldiers and innocent civilians that the IRA killed had no such luxury extended to them. To pretend that the murders of the latter were justifiably accidental is an ugly lie designed to escape blame. They were killed deliberately and oft times in the most brutal manner.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/01/boris-johnson-condemns-former-fleet-street-editor-piece-revealing/

    2. I think that the most odious part was not that he held those views, which, as you say, he’s perfectly entitled (albeit completely wrong on), but that both he kept them from the college (especially whilst being a lecturer of journalistic ethics) and every previous employer as a journalist, especially after actively supporting IRA terrorists by paying their bail money.

      I’d say he’s more of a coward for that concealment than his actual views – possibly whilst indocrinating a generation of students and gullible Mirror readers with propaganda hiding behind the guise of respectability of a journalist. An honourable person would’ve been open about what they were doing from the start. I’m sure most of us despise Jeremy Corbyn for his support of the Republican cause, but at least he was brave (or stupid) enough to do so openly.

      2. When I was organist at Hindhead, we had Sheila Armstrong in the choir. She lives in the village. She told me that, having worked extensively with Andre Preview, she was in the studio when AP and M&W recorded a version of that sketch for radio…

  60. Oh good, Macron has stated that the curfew here will continue for at least another month.
    Wazzocks.

    2. He hasn’t ruled out another total confinement

      Do you think he belongs to the same club as BPAPM, Halfcock, Frau Doktor Merkel etc al?

      1. I suspect it’s just a threat and suddenly voilá, the French vaccine will launch and all will be well.
        And naturally he will try to take all the credit.

    3. It makes the Sarkosy sentence less meaningful if everyone is locked up at home anyway.

        1. Be careful or you will be off to that heart hospital in London that they just transferred Phillip to.

  61. Is it just me, but Discurse notifications are taking several hours to reach my e-mail.

          2. Does delete post here? I’ve not noticed the name.

            And I never block, except spammers.

      2. You can miss a response in the threads but an email guarantees you see what someone said. Do Keep up !

        2. Exactly 2 hours elapsed before your reply above arrived as an email in my inbox. Perhaps staffing levels aren’t what they should be in the intelligence agencies due to Covid?

    4. Just use the button on the top right and turn off the emails. Unless you are sad and don’t get any others.

        1. Well I hope they go into a Nottl folder as Phizzee said. I found I was overwhelmed with emails the first week I started with Disqus so turned them off then.

          2. Do you prefer this method (maybe because you’re doing so via a mobile phone) to just loggin in to Disqus and searching through your posts or all the replies it lists from today?

            When accessing each day’s nottler page, when I login, the little red bubble appears to say how many replies I’ve had since the last time, and then clicking on that bubble brings up a pop-up box with all the most recent replies to my comments here, plus the ability to reply directly or open up each thread in a new browser tab.

            Handy for replying to comments made to my early posts in the day, wheras the latest I just scroll down on my PC.

          3. I’ve used the blob to see replies and and notifications since I started using Disqus in 2013. I couldn’t be doing with all the emails coming in, even when filtered into a folder, they seemed pointless so I turned them off.
            When there are more than a couple of hundred comments, there are too many to scroll through. It works that way here on the laptop, or on the phone.

            I haven’t discovered a way of accessing the mod page on th ephone though.

      1. Perhaps you turned them off without noticing. I turned mine off the irst week I signed up to Disqus.

        1. Mine disappeared for a few days but I could pick up my red dots on Breitbart or other Disqus user boards.

  62. The Boys from Brazil arrived at Heathrow over two weeks ago. The Boy who escaped and is now being traced, supposedly, has been on the loose for that time.
    What on Earth use is that? (Not to mention 7 hour queues at Heathrow. Beyond incompetent.)

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56234302

    1. Every day people arrive at Heathrow from all over the world.
      Yet travelling to visit relatives in the UK is verboten….

      1. The good news. You can soon go to the Pub.

        The bad news. You can soon go to visit the Mother-in-Law.

    2. Last Brazilian hunted in London was shot in the head and killed.
      By the unit whose leader now commands the Met.
      Just saying. In his place, I’d be bricking myself!

    1. I guess the above post was made by an African American as they are the only ones permitted to use the final word……

      1. Me bored? Nope. I post a few memes every afternoon. You have obviously not been appreciating my efforts. :@(

    1. So, all the influenza went to the States rather than remain in the UK? When will people wake up to this misattribution of any and nearly all deaths to CV-19?

    3. I wonder how many of the ‘excess deaths’ here in the UK will, upon reflection, be actually attributable to:

      1. Existing diagnosed life-threatening illness like COPD, heart disease, lung and breast cancer, etc;
      2. Old age and related multiple ailments (where a cold or the flu would’ve unfortunately finished many off);

      3. Undiagnosed or untreated serious illness;
      4. A broken heart/loneliness/dementia through being effectively shut inside all the time and not being allowed to see/visit relatives and friends or go to cultural/sporting events;

      …and not primarily, or possibly even much/at all COVID-19?

      My uncle (in his 80s) is currently likely to go the way of group 4. He was fine a year ago, just with a few minor memory issues, but since the lockdowns started, his mental health has seriously deteriorated. And he’s not even in a nursing home – my aunt (otherwise perfectly healthy for her age) is being tested to the extreme on this.

      We in the UK have been so negligent about the many negative serious and long-lasting effects of the lockdowns. I think that countries and US states (like Florida) that have done far better on this front should be commended. That Biden is trying to push the opposite narrative and also trying to punish Florida by restricting travel to/from there (for no good reason other than it’s a GoP run state) is an utter disgrace.

      Ron DeSantos (governor of Florida) should seriously consider running for President next time around, as I think Trump will be too old (the same age as Biden is now). I’ve been very impressed with his work and how he deals with the media.

    4. I wonder how many of the ‘excess deaths’ here in the UK will, upon reflection, be actually attributable to:

      1. Existing diagnosed life-threatening illness like COPD, heart disease, lung and breast cancer, etc;
      2. Old age and related multiple ailments (where a cold or the flu would’ve unfortunately finished many off);

      3. Undiagnosed or untreated serious illness;
      4. A broken heart/loneliness/dementia through being effectively shut inside all the time and not being allowed to see/visit relatives and friends or go to cultural/sporting events;

      …and not primarily, or possibly even much/at all COVID-19?

      My uncle (in his 80s) is currently likely to go the way of group 4. He was fine a year ago, just with a few minor memory issues, but since the lockdowns started, his mental health has seriously deteriorated. And he’s not even in a nursing home – my aunt (otherwise perfectly healthy for her age) is being tested to the extreme on this.

      We in the UK have been so negligent about the many negative serious and long-lasting effects of the lockdowns. I think that countries and US states (like Florida) that have done far better on this front should be commended. That Biden is trying to push the opposite narrative and also trying to punish Florida by restricting travel to/from there (for no good reason other than it’s a GoP run state) is an utter disgrace.

      Ron DeSantos (governor of Florida) should seriously consider running for President next time around, as I think Trump will be too old (the same age as Biden is now). I’ve been very impressed with his work and how he deals with the media.

    1. Maybe I should try for the Cornish coast in the summer. Can I pay extra to bring my golf bag and trolley?

      1. Perhaps I need to print that out and put it on my fridge door as a warning! It would certainly turn me off scoffing anything.

      2. Wow, Kaypea! Judging by her expression, it’s a good job she couldn’t move fast enough to catch you!

        1. I was in a car with a faster acceleration than my subject, not difficult I know.

      4. AHOY THAR CAP’N! THAR SHE BLOWS!!
        LANDWHALE TWO POINTS OFF THE LARB’D BOW!!

        2. It is sad. She’s at the age when she should be at her most healthy and attractive.

      7. Read that as “… scoffing a Mercedes”. Looks like she eats for Britain.

        1. First time round I thought he meant the entire McDonalds ‘restaurant’!!

      8. She’s having lunch after auditioning for a role in the live action remake of the film Wall-e…

    4. Shortly to be appointed as Health Secretary, that’ll allow Boris to show Biden who’s boss.

    6. Maybe she was so hungry she ate her car’s airbag and it just went off…

  72. With news of their well-touted interview with Oprah Winfrey, it appears that Ginge and Minge are determined to inflict as much damage on the Royal Family as possible. As well as being a despicable way to treat HM the Queen – an elderly lady who must be overwhelmed with concern for her husband of well over seventy years, who is seriously ill – it could also be construed as a crimen laesae maiestatis and thus an attack on our Constitutional Monarchy itself.

    The Queen really should give serious consideration to the vexed question of Harry’s place in the line of succession and his titles. A Dukedom is too high a rank for an exiled royal, who, under similar circumstances, shows none of the decorum of his great-great uncle David. At least the Duke of Windsor – who chose marriage to a divorced American slapper over his royal duties – maintained a dignified low profile for the rest of his days in exile. Harry’s cheap, publicity-hungry wife is certainly unworthy of any title at all – so, what to do?

    Harry and his heirs should be immediately removed from the succession but a compromise could be reached over titles. If Her Maj. wants to give him a “courtesy title”, may I suggest “The Count of Westward Ho!” which describes both Harry and Migraine to a T and would probably resonate well with an American audience.

    1. What has Westward Ho! done to deserve that?
      I’d make him the Count of Fuck-All.

    2. Very Naughty Duncan…..

      Ho -“African American Vernacular English. … (slang, euphemistic) A whore; a sexually promiscuous woman….”

          1. Well, I hope Her Majesty has too. If she were to find my advice helpful, I may well feature in the next Honours List….

            …. Sir Duncan Mac KCVOB has a certain ring to it, as I’m sure you’ll agree.

          1. No punches pulled today! 🙂 I’m not sure about giving an upvote (as much as I’d like to) just in case Princess Nutmeg sues me for doing so.

            Oh, wait a minute. I said Nutmeg. Bu99er. Oh well, there you go. It’s only money, after all…

          2. No punches pulled today! 🙂 I’m not sure about giving an upvote (as much as I’d like to) just in case Princess Nutmeg sues me for doing so.

            Oh, wait a minute. I said Nutmeg. Bu99er. Oh well, there you go. It’s only money, after all…

    3. The only title they deserve is Mr and Mrs.

      But clearly not for long.

      Once she has done with him as she has done with everyone else in her life when they are of no longer use he will come back to Britain with his tail between his legs.

      The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will by then have had the blessings of St Peter and no other Royal will want anything to do with him.

      Perhaps he could share a council flat with Prince Andrew.

      1. He should receive the same treatment as Shamima Begum and be stripped of British nationality and not allowed back in the country.

        Banishment was a traditional punishment which now needs to be re-introduced. If he dares to return the Queen should summon him to court and say :

        “Harry Hewitt – you are stripped of all your ranks titles and money. You will be taken to Dover and put in a rubber dinghy and towed out to sea and left half a mile off the French coast.”

        2. That’s a bit hard, Rastus. He hasn’t, to my knowledge, cut off heads and been a hoar to the terrorists, in fact, he fought against them.
          If he doesn’t want the Royal thing, then fine: No Royal – titles, money, grandeur, whatever.

    5. My first teaching job was at place called Grenville College at Bideford just up the road from Westward Ho!

      Rudyard Kipling’s school, the Imperial Service College (upon which he based Stalky and Co), used to be there before it amalgamated with Haileybury and moved to Hertfordshire. There was also a very passable fish and chip shop and an excellent second-hand bookshop in the village where I bought books regularly in the days when I lived in that part of North Devon. And of course Charles Kingsley wrote his famous novel called Westward Ho!

      My point is I would not like the place about which I have some fond memories to be sullied with connection with this sordid and weak man who deserves to have no higher title than handmaid to a has-been whore.

    6. My first teaching job was at place called Grenville College at Bideford just up the road from Westward Ho!

      Rudyard Kipling’s school, the Imperial Service College (upon which he based Stalky and Co), used to be there before it amalgamated with Haileybury and moved to Hertfordshire. There was also a very passable fish and chip shop and an excellent second-hand bookshop in the village where I bought books regularly in the days when I lived in that part of North Devon. And of course Charles Kingsley wrote his famous novel called Westward Ho!

      My point is I would not like the place about which I have some fond memories to be sullied with connection with this sordid and weak man who deserves to have no higher title than handmaid to a has-been whore.

      2. Given the retail ‘genius’ that is Sharon White is in charge and now going to be setting up loads of littl ‘mircoshops’ inside Waitrose stores, maybe these two people were visiting a shop to be asbestos.

        Either that or two lazy SoCOs / CSIs on a lunch break.

    2. Given some people’s hysterical response to the propaganda i would do that for a laugh.

        1. If I were taking the Mick, I’d wear either a Spiderman or more likely Deadpool suit and mask. At least that would get a few laughs. 🙂

          1. Taking the piss by elaborately over-egging the ‘Space, Face, Hands’ shite works for me.

    3. I hope they asked one of the partners in which aisle they could find a bottle of Novichok?…

      1. I can only imagine that thinking had little to do with their decision but listening to the SAGE and government apparatchiks had everything to do with it.

    7. Ada: “Charles, we just can’t keep meeting like this!”
      Bert: “But my dear Ada – I am Bert!”

      2. From Hell, Hull and Halifax good Lord deliver us! I spent a year in Hull – I never want to go back.

      1. “Mine do. But then i ain’t snorting them.”

        Yer BP levels are potentially lethal; is there a connection ?

        1. I have very sticky blood which is affecting my BP. The drugs and blood letting are bringing it down to safer levels.

    2. Adams seems to have been on fine form of late, with some very cutting cartoons. I still like Matt for his wit, sacasm and general style, which to me reminds me of Dilbert from the US.

        1. He’s been somewhat absent from the DT of late. Perhaps his anti-lockdown views on Twatter don’t resonate with the new, improved, super-woke DT?

          1. I think he’s been marginalised; a great pity.

            If I were Andrew Neil, attaching a website to his new news channel, I would hire BoB immediately as in-house cartoonist for the blog parts.

        2. He’s been somewhat absent from the DT of late. Perhaps his anti-lockdown views on Twatter don’t resonate with the new, improved, super-woke DT?

      2. He went through a bad patch, I think down to George O’s control, but he’s improved of late.
        I was a great fan when he was at the DT, I own 8 originals.

      1. That’s the best bit for me, the way it’s gnawing on the corner with the bits of flag dropping away.

      4. I did. There was a headline in my local rag this evening about hunting a person in Shropshire with the Brazilian variant. How do they know? Do they know who it is?

  78. Why must the budget help women? Why can it not simply help business. Why must the Left continually label?

  79. That’s me for this grey, dull (weatherwise) day. Very difficult jigsaw on the go. 1000 pieces – each one with a small reproduction of a painting. Easy to spend an hour putting in one piece.

    So I’ll leave you in pieces.

    A demain.

    1. It was foggy and cold this morning and overcast till lunchtime but we did get a bit of sunshine later on.

        1. We were nowhere near that and there was a cold wind blowing just for good measure. Having let the Rayburn go out during the welcome global warming period, I had to clean it out and light it again today.

    2. The hardest one I have done was a Monet painting.
      There was also the collage of hundreds of puppies on a white background, at least half of which appeared to be golden Labs – that one was way harder than it looked!

  81. The Palace is being less than transparent about the condition of the Duke of Edinburgh …

    1. A total cynic would suggest that he might already be dead and that they are saving the announcement until after the Meagain and Horror show.

      2. They’d be better off making the announcement just before the programme airs.

        1. They could employ the same tactic as used on his father-in-law. 😉

        2. Good point.
          How about:
          “We interrupt this programme to bring you an important announcement”?

      3. There was a top hat visible in the ambulance photos today, which seemed a bit odd, and looked like an undertaker.
        Perhaps the Palace is saving up the announcement to coincide with the Oprah interview! I feel sure Philip would approve of that.

      4. He didn’t posh up for it. Did you notice the tired, scuffed brown suede shoes with what looked remarkably like a hole in the sole?

        Edit Harry didn’t posh up for interview, I mean!

        1. Nope, I am only commenting from headlines.

          Yeah, yeah, I know, don’t jump to conclusions from the headline.

          I used not to, but having read through a few articles I now recognise the symptoms

          1. I read only the headlines too, I cannot bear any more of thee two but sometimes I look at the photographs as well.

    2. After spending a couple of weeks in 2 hospitals, I’m sure his chances are becoming very slim. A good knock though, by any standards. Maybe he’ll see the ton up, who knows.

    3. It would be nice if he could at least make it to three figures, if not just to get a letter of congratulations from Lizzy.

  82. Thought for the day, after the mafia insinuations from OOPwallah.

    Had Meagain and Whorie been Mr and Mrs Clinton Jr. and behaved as they are do, you think one, other, or both would have suffered Arkansacide, mysteriously?

    1. I did hear mention of a rumour that if Meghan suffered a fate similar to Diana, then William would get it. There are rumours she has backers… and here we are back to the Clintons again! – quelle surprise! – and the Obamas…. It is rumoured that Michel(le) Obama introduced Harry to Meghan. This begs the question why…..

  83. Just seen a rather disturbing item in the Mail
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9313239/Vicar-calls-CofE-SHUT-virtually-churches-make-housing.html
    Many of us have been suspecting that Welby’s policies throughout the lockdown were actively aimed at shutting churches for good. Quick closing, and then a questionnaire that went round that appeared to be trying to make us agree that streamed services were as good as the real thing.
    Now we’re seeing it openly said – church leadership testing the waters, perhaps?

    1. Rather like John Lewis…

      I’m awaiting the announcement that the now unused churches and lands get sold off to Chinese ‘entreprenuers’.

        1. Hi, Stormy. Your TV recommendations are as good as ever. Nearly at the end of the first season of Sneaky Pete. Thanks.

    2. Rather like John Lewis…

      I’m awaiting the announcement that the now unused churches and lands get sold off to Chinese ‘entreprenuers’.

    3. Start at the top.
      Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s must be worth a widow’s mite.

      Swiftly followed by all the Bishop’s palaces.

      But first up, confiscate all that wazzok’s property and put him in a sleeping bag on the street.

      Then piss all over it so he gets the “real” street experience.

      1. They will leave the high profile ones til last, and go for the village and suburban churches.

        1. Realistically, he’s probably correct.

          What gets my goat, is that if it happens, it will mostly go to incomers who have no connection whatsoever to the Christian heritage of the country.

          1. Perhaps there would be more people actively involved in the church if the leadership went out and preached the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ, instead of the Gospel according to St Marx.
            The blanket ban on using churches has harmed the churches, as have the lame streamed services.
            In other European countries, the churches were open for private prayer throughout 2020.
            It is honestly hard to come to any other conclusion than that Welby is trying to wind up the church of England, which up til now has obstinately refused to die.

          7. The Davos globalists want a world religion that serves them as god emperors.

            The Covid Cult makes use of long established elements of pagan worship. Forced separation, masking, ritual hand washing.

            Gavin Ashenden (formerly Queen’s Chaplain) has been saying for some time that he sees the church being forced underground. Metaphorically pushed back to the catacombs.

          8. Queen’s chaplains are ten a penny. As I discovered when I tentatively explored a possible vocation with St Edmundsbury & Ipswich’s Diocesan Director of Ordinands. My habit of wearing trousers counted against me at the time. I have much time for Gavin Ashenden. And Peter Mullen, who now posts at ConWom.

      2. The Abbey is a royal peculiar. It’s nothing to do with Welby or the C of E. Yet it closed down the adjacent St Margaret’s with absolutely no consultation.

    4. I’ll visit the link in a moment, but our Rector says that the vast majority of clergy in the Godalming deanery think that the future is Zoom. I’m glad to report that he vehemently disagrees, but he’s very much in the minority.

      I’ve just about had my fill of the CofE. Since singing is banned, both of my choirs are in suspended animation. The parish is – like many – in serious financial difficulties, so last February I was told that the decision had been made to sell the Verger’s Cottage endowed to the parish in 1936 by Miss Dorothea S Courtauld (of the fabric empire).

      They would give me a new 5 year contract, and cover my rent up to a ceiling, if I stayed within three miles of the Parish. I found a new-build flat in Aldershot, then Covid happened. I was then made aware of a vacant retirement bungalow just outside the parish boundary, in the care of a small local housing charity. Said charity was founded by the Taylor half of Taylor Woodrow. One of our occasional organists is married to Taylor’s daughter. So I applied. As did another 39. Far be it from me to suggest that any favouritism took place, but the interview panel was entirely made up of Parish churchgoers. The rest is history. It’s good, and is two minutes’ walk from Wanborough Station, and even has the occasional bus, three days a week.

      Meanwhile, the PCC has had second thoughts, and has now rented the cottage out. Fairy nuff.

      But the noises coming from the Common Purpose CoE hierarchy leads me to believe that the role of the village church organist is severely time limited. In two years and one week, I reach state pension age. Hopefully, I can hang on to my tenuous position until then.

      2. In 2020, someone I know posted a very inappropriate photo of themselves working from a laptop in the local church together with an unChristian comment that was a jibe at someone else.
        I was talking to the lady-vicar and mentioned it, and her swift reaction was “At least the church is being used!”
        Now this is a very small parish church that during most of its entire 1000 year history has probably never had communion more than a few times a year.
        In the light of later developments, I have the feeling that this kind of talk about selling off “unused” churches has been going on for a long time within clergy and lay leadership circles. They all meet and say this kind of thing, and ordinary churchgoers have no idea.

        2. Wasn’t it called “redundant plant”? Back in the 80’s, IIRC.
          So, what’s the point of the C of E if there are no churches, and only virtual congregations? Where will money come from – a virtual Offertory plate? What about the “2 or 3 gathered together”?

          2. “Ubi enim sunt duo vel tres congregati in nomine meo, venient lictores et capient eos”
            :¬(

          3. Around thirty years ago, I was organist at St. Peter, Brandon in Suffolk, and living in Thetford in Norfolk. Sunday morning Communion was fairly well attended. Evensong was moved to 4 in the afternoon, for some reason. We had a female Reader, with issues. So on one Sunday afternoon, I made the journey, as did the Reader, and no-one else turned up. She threw a wobbly, and said she was going home. I replied that there were at least two of us – “when two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst of them”. Apparently, I didn’t count, and she flounced out of the building. So I read BCP Evening Prayer on my own. I’m sure there are many reasons why this was unacceptable, but I didn’t, and still don’t care.

          4. Two or three gathered together is very, very important – a fact that I only really appreciated when they started the awful streamed services.

  85. Just a point. As Witter and Basefook (apologies to Prof. Spooner) go further and further down the road of censorship, at some stage the UK Courts will tell them they are publishers, not notice boards. Then they will be responsible for every libel published on their pages. They will enter a dark black hole where unseen forces take all their money and they never see the sun again.

    The “You can’t do this to us!” and other special pleading (they are a right pair of pleaders) will be a joy to behold. They are a way off as yet, but it only takes one case with a clever (and by heavens they are clever) libel lawyer who has thought of a killer argument to crush them. The first case you will be able to recognize because they will suddenly settle a case for squillions with a confidentiality clause and everyone taking no questions. But the argument used will leak, it always does.

    1. Cashiering (or degradation ceremony), generally within military forces, is a ritual dismissal of an individual from some position of responsibility for a breach of discipline.

      1. Indeed, Maggie. They should rip-off Harry’s epaulettes and other insignia and break his sword in two, preferably over his neck.

        1. I just love it when you throw in the odd Gaelic word “rip off Harry’s epaulettes” and knowing you Duncan that would be without any anaesthetic

    2. I don’t know what happened here. I posted this as a new comment at the top, and it overwrote my comment on Prince Harry.

      The 12 people who ticked this comment did not tick this, but the one that got over written.

      1. Roger, my upvote was for this comment,
        I hope you are correct in your points;
        I neither trust nor like social media.

        1. I am not a lawyer, although I have worked on cases as a technical expert. Successful libel action in the UK is astonishingly profitable, and libel is very difficult to defend, so they will be trying hard. Witter and Basefook have lots of libels on the their sites and lots of money. Luverly jubberly.

  87. Being serious for a minute, while I’m pretty sceptical about the virus and the measures being adopted against it, I’m finally aware of a genuine Covid-19 death. My friend (and ex-girlfriend’s) 2nd Husband, and the Father of her two youngest, was hospitalised five weeks ago in Bournemouth. For the last three weeks he was on a ventilator. They couldn’t get him off it. All came to an end yesterday afternoon. I wasn’t exactly a fan of his, but I wouldn’t wish his way of departure on anybody. Diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago, if his behaviour at his daughter’s graduation is typical, his response was to have the carbiest dessert on the menu. I know his widow was concerned enough to ask my advice. I feel bad for his kids.

    Apparently he and his widow never ventured out beyond the supermarket in the last year. I know people who only shop online, then disinfect all their shopping when it arrives. I’ve been denied lifts, and left to walk a couple of miles home from Church on my artificial legs in the snow, because I’m nothing but a disease vector.

    Yet I cheerfully travel around on buses and trains (which are mostly empty). I use masks when they’re legally mandated, but I believe they’re total bollocks.

    Apart from the aforementioned, I’m aware of six people who have genuinely had, and tested positive for Covid. Antibodies, not just the dodgy PCR test. Two were skiing last New Year, four are medics, and caught it in hospital. None were seriously ill. I also believe I had a brief visit last February. Above Friend had “the worst ever flu” in the New Year 2019/20, and after spending a week at her place in late Jan, I had some mild, yet fleeting, symptoms in February.

    I’ve had the first AZ jab. Within two days, I acquired a swelling on the left elbow. Probably Bursitis. But there’s no injury, so is it an adverse reaction? If GP’s were available, I’d try and find out…

    1. “To help prevent bursitis, stick to a healthy weight, warm up properly before exercise, and avoid knocking joints.”

        1. Like Duncan earlier it is so helpful when one doesn’t have to explain…..:-)

      2. No obvious injury. The weight is more than desirable, but it’s odd that this appeared within a few days of the jab. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation. If only there was a way to show it to a medically-qualified individual. We could call them “doctors”…

        1. I will. I want the OAZ one, but MOH wants none of it and has bought a supply of Ivermectin. She says not good for me because of my blood thinners.

          1. WHERE DID SHE GET THE IVERMECTIN FROM?? I am in her camp entirely!

            Edit: This is the only time I have ever used capitals!

          2. The Sub-continent. I’ll ask for details tomorrow, unless she’s not asleep yet. Stand by.

          5. daddydragon… oh-oh. I am a cautious person, but I thank you for your concern… the name makes me very wary…. It is the fact that hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin were banned in this country for use with covid makes me so very wary about the vaccine…. I am sure Johnson, Hancock and Co are up to no good – it is not our health they are concerned about.

            I would be interested to learn the result of your quizzing!

          7. They are issued in India, and looking at the cricket crowd, the epidemic is over there.

          11. It appears MOH bought the Ivermectin for our son, who turned on her by accepting on the telephone today an appointment for the jab (he has an underlying condition). Whether the site is dodgy or not she thinks the meds are genuine and is going to take the ivermectin. She also has a thyroidal problem and has turned down a jab. Family!

          12. Thank you, molamola. The name of the site does not inspire confidence (!) and I realise this stuff does not come with the British seal of approval…. I remember giving our boys the drug lecture many years ago along the lines of “you realise these things are made in people’s garden sheds and they can put in them whatever they like to make up the bulk… these things haven’t escaped from a bona fide chemist’s shelf.” They were somewhat shocked at this piece of information and as far as I am aware they never indulged. Does your OH need to take ivermectin unless she has the symptoms of covid? I understood it was a cure to be taken at the earliest sign of symptoms rather than as an overall preventative. Having said that, it is thought that the population of Africa has got off lightly with covid because of its consumption of HCL for malaria – who knows if this was pre-emptive or otherwise. However, Ndovu said that her hedgehog sanctuary uses Ivermectin for hhog pests, and that comes from India.

            And finally, my apologies for shouting at you last night… I got told off by Geoff – I was just so excited at the thought someone had located a supply of this potential lifesaver. I will, though, bear the site in mind for future reference. Many thanks.

          13. It might make her less prickly on occasion hopefully, although I mind find her snuffling around the dog’s food bowl.

          15. Oh, I’m sorry…. I’m just so excited someone has been able to get some Ivermectin, capitals are something I never use and won’t use again – but Ivermectin is a lifesaver… how else to convey my excitement? The written word on a screen has no dimension. I won’t capitalise again.

          18. I have started taking Vit D3 as well. I always used to take Vit B Complex and echinacea. I walk daily to exercise my dog and try to get as much sun as I can (when it shows through the murk).

          1. I’m happy that I missed the Pfizer version. The Ox/AZ vax is rather less novel. While I’m utterly unconcerned about fertility, I’m happier to be GG than GM…

          6. I had mine on 3 Feb, Maggie – the Oxford AZ – it has greatly increased my knowledge of trivia …

          7. Sheep may safely graze and pasture
            In a watchful Shepherd’s sight.

            Those who rule with wisdom guiding
            Bring to hearts a peace abiding
            Bless a land with joy made bright.

    3. Hi Geoff

      I am also aware there is such a thing as a genuine Covid death , my younger son , who is in his forties has had 2 work chums succumb to this virus , healthy men in their mid to late forties .. Guys who worked in retail, M+S .. My son is on furlough now, but the story of the 2 deaths were that the guys who were married, young families , no health problems as such developed breathing difficulties and were admitted to hospital …ICU..

      Sadly one died within 3 days of being intubated , and the second died 10 days later also intubated.

      Intubation is a risky business, and depending who carries out the procedure , an anaesthetist or similar , in a busy Covid ward anything can go wrong with the actual procedure , I have heard so many stories .. and I wonder how many deaths have occurred because things have gone awry .

      Just wondering aloud because I suspect it would be similar to drowning / choking .

      Look , what is another vaccination , 21million vaccinated but 50 million unvaccinated , and of course all the bods who want to travel , what sort of a Covid cluster are they flying into…

      It is like flying into a malaria infested / typhoid/ cholera you name it area where we HAVE to produce our vaccination certificates , because to fall ill in a foreign country and perhaps even die would be a very expensive business/ .

      1. It’s a horrible way to go, Maggie. But please keep it in proportion. Most people who are infected don’t even notice any symptoms. I believe I had a brief encounter with the ‘Rona last February. Woke early one morning, feeling tight around the chest and short of breath. After a cup of tea, I was fine. A few days later, my sense of taste and smell deserted me. But only for a few hours. I may be diabetic, but I’m confident that my T-cells are in working order.

        1. I thought the bug I had in January 2020 might have been covid – but then if it was I might have reacted to the jab, so maybe it wasn’t.

          1. Me too. I had a dry cough that lasted about three months.
            I had the z
            Pfizer jab at work in Jan. Not even an inkling of a side effect.

          2. I was really ill (but not hospitalised) February last year. I ticked all the boxes for Covid symptoms. I haven’t yet had the jab (I agree with poppiesmum) and I’m relying on my T cells to stand up and fight if I encounter it again.

      2. Not entirely relevant but a chum of mine a couple of years back contracted “sepsis” while on a tour of China ( no , I don’t know why China ) and became dangerously ill, the insurance people were horrendous and his poor wife had to deal with the probable death of her husband and selling the family home to pay the bills and repatriate him, fortunately being a Brummy girl of considerable fortitude she managed to sort things out , He survived and the insurance company eventually met the costs.

        1. Sepsis is no joke. I developed the symptoms while I was waiting outside the Diabetic Foot Clinic at Frimley Park. I’ve never seen so many medics in one place – some of whom were Military. Turned out it was MRSA in what was destined to be the “good foot”… Sigh…

          1. I wrote “sepsis” as I know that it is a generic term for a range connected and deeply unpleasant and dangerous conditions, I had no intention of trivialising it I just though I would head off any pedants who might chose to point this out. This is one of the few problems of a forum that without the clues of facial expressions , body language and speech inflections it is so easy to misinterpret intent. This for instance is not a angry rebuttal but an apology for what may have seemed to be a dismissal of your experience.

      3. I should have been flying to Kenya tomorrow – obviously I’m not. But I’ve rebooked it for October and I fully expect it to be a requirement to be vaccinated. I’ve had many others, and this was just another jab – painless, with no reactions at all.

        1. It is not the actual jab I am concerned about, I’ve had enough of those from my dentist than I care to think about, it is the long term effects which have not yet been trialled; we are, in effect that trial. There is something distinctly unsettling in Hancock’s obvious glee in all of this, and in his association with Gates whose involvement with vaccines is distinctly flakey to say the least.

          1. I wasn’t keen to have the Pfizer mRNA one – but the AZ one is a ‘normal’ vaccine and it does seem to be effective. Hancock is a tw@t and always looks like that. or extremely shifty. Gates is creepy I agree.

    4. I go out into the fresh air and go to the shops as often as I always have. I do not shield my 87 year old mother but taking her out for a ride in the car is no risk at all, an end to her dementia would be a blessing any way. We have had no illness in the household, one of whom travels to work daily and one who was at school. We have lost a friend to CV who was in her 50s and had asthma, she died at her home. My bro and sis both NHS have had the lurgy and they felt nasty flu effects. My 87 yo father who lives with my sis has remained well amazingly. I dont perceive much risk outside and only wear my mask when mandated. Its a funny business all round.

      2. I wear the mask as little as possible – shops and anywhere else they demand it, otherwise it stays in my pocket. I do the weekly shop as normal, and in Morrisons it is normal – no queuing outside since last summer. We went out for a walk yesterday and so did many others. I’ve chatted to the neighbours as normal. Nobody I know locally has been ill at all, and onlt a few other people I know have had it.

        1. Last Saturday I took the train to Farnham. Got to Waitrose, and the queue was the length of two sides of the store. So I went to the relatively small Sainsburys (there’s a bigger one in Water Lane, outside the town) , and there was no queue at all. I use masks where I absolutely have to, but that’s all. I can’t believe the number of sheep who wear them in the street, in the open air, or even while driving their car, alone…

          1. I think the people who wear their masks in their cars are probably carrying out Care and Share tasks , ferrying people to have their jabs and that sort of thing.

          3. They could be armed blaggers, on the way to pull a job, Geoff. With all the masking-up, it’s getting harder to tell the difference between criminals and honest, albeit overanxious, civilians.
            :¬(

          4. I would never have thought, a year ago, that I would be able to walk into a bank wearing a mask, ask for money and be able to walk out again without challenge.

          9. The ones I’ve seen must be taking the invisible man and his relations, then. They have been alone in their car, but wearing a mask.

          10. We took a hedgehog out on Saturday afternoon to take some photos – it attracted a bit of attention as lots of people were out, enjoying the sunshine. A couple of people in a county council car with Covid Protection plastered all over it stopped and the woman got out, she was wearing a mask. I thought we were going to be apprehended for being out without a “reasonable excuse” – but they just wanted to see the hog and chat about them. The hog was an absolute star and posed for a lady from a nearby cottage as well. So we did a bit of PR work as well as the photos.

      3. Since moving, public transport is now an option. I’m two minutes’ walk from Wanborough Station. Guildford is seven minutes in one direction; Aldershot and Farnham in the other – fifteen minutes at the most. On the train, you generally have your own carriage. There’s also a limited number of buses, three days a week. I use them all. Hate the mandated masks. On a bus to Frimley Park Eye Treatment Centre on Friday, a fat female sat on an ‘out of use’ seat, without a mask. Within less than a metre. I don’t particularly care, but – should I die – will someone please sue Stagecoach on my behalf?

          3. Isn’t a ouija board a bit unchurchy?

            Regarding your post about the unavailability of a Doctor. Have you tried emailing the Practice. Works for me.

    5. Hello Geoff
      Re those who wouldn’t offer you a lift it does confirm my thoughts that going to church does not necessarily make you a Christian.

        1. Totally agree. I’ve been a church organist for 50 years, give or take a month or two. Also a Parochial Church Councillor, and even a Churchwarden. Church politics differs from Westminster politics in only one respect. It’s dirtier…

          1. Like University politics then. “Academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small”, often attributed to Henry Kissinger, but he got it from Wallace Sayre.

          2. I quite agree. I have worked on several cathedrals, Lambeth Palace and numerous churches down the years.

            I found that he higher up the Anglican hierarchy you go the more venal the churchman.

            The one exception was Robert Runcie at St Albans and later Lambeth Palace.

            The Bishop of London was a wrong un. When we converted buildings in Amen Court for high ranking clergy (just behind the Old Bailey and a stone’s throw from St Paul’s’) his Clerk of Works wished to remove C17 panelling and to demolish cross walls in order to have an island kitchen with a lighting gallery above. These buildings were mediaeval in their origins and given a fine C17 brick facade.

            Some of the worst vandalism to our churches has been ordered by progressive clergy. I remember the immense damage caused to Peterborough Cathedral because pews had been replaced by stackable plastic chairs ignited by a tramp trying to keep warm.

          3. Shrewsbury (RC) Cathedral is in the process of restoring the 19th century interior. They have discovered caustic tiles hidden under a false floor and brightly coloured wall paintings covered by a couple of layers of emulsion. It’s thought they can be brought back to life safely. The architect was Edward Welby (no relation, one hopes!) Pugin – son of Augustus.

          4. That is encouraging. I worked on a Carluccio’s in Shrewsbury a few years ago. I also prepared a Heritage Statement and designed the shop front.

            Behind the restaurant was an enormous Temperance Hall, the front of house buildings of which had been demolished by Dyas Brothers, a famous clothiers shop.

            I found Shrewsbury to be a wonderful town with many fine historic buildings. It was blighted in part by council developments which included a hideous town hall with clock tower and an oblong sports hall, the service area to which was also regrettably highly visible from Quarry Gardens.

            Shrewsbury I discovered was the seat of the Temperance Movement.

          5. The market hall (with clock tower) is hideous, but Rowley’s House and Henry Tudor house are fine half timbered buildings.

          6. Ta for correction. I was surveying a basement most of the time with about 4 ft headroom and adorned with fifty years of spider webs.

            The buildings replacing the Temperance Hall frontage built in the sixties were heavily underpinned to support steel stanchions. I imagine the soil conditions were particularly poor.

            I had little time to take everything in. I did manage a few glasses of wine in a pub across the Severn recommended to me by Robert Dyas the building owner, a most helpful man.

          7. How does one get to be in a position to be able to have a meaningful vote on the future of the Church of England?

  88. Off to bed now – might join in on my phone – that’s still logged in on my other entity for some reason.

  89. Evening, all. Maybe I’ll be shot down, but why only women? Surely they need to help reduce damage to everyone who has been affected?

    1. “Earth to be hit by asteroid. Entire population will die. Women worst affected”.

    2. You dinosaur! Only wimmin count these days. I bet you’re white, middle aged, middle class and (I can hardly bring myself to say it), male.

      Only joking – the first letter is utter bollix…

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