Monday 10 January: It’s time to challenge the nonsensical claims of the Covid pessimists

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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611 thoughts on “Monday 10 January: It’s time to challenge the nonsensical claims of the Covid pessimists”

  4. It’s time to challenge the nonsensical claims of the Covid pessimists

    That we be a start, I suppose, at the moment they completely ignore them and call them tin foil hatter conspiracy theorists.

  5. Morning, all Y’all.
    Dark. Snow. Rain promised later in the week. Gloom – that means lots of ice everywhere :-((

  6. Gordon Ramsay says Vladimir Putin is most intimidating person he’s ever cooked for. 9 January 2021.

    Gordon Ramsay says Vladimir Putin is the most intimidating person he has ever cooked for.

    The celebrity chef said he was terrified he might give the Russian president food poisoning when asked to prepare a meal for him.

    Ramsay, 55, cooked for Putin and then Prime Minister Tony Blair at a lunch in Downing Street in 2000.

    What an opportunity missed! He could have gained the undying thanks of generations yet unborn and poisoned Blair!

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/gordon-ramsay-says-vladimir-putin-25896679

  7. Gordon Ramsay says Vladimir Putin is most intimidating person he’s ever cooked for. 9 January 2021.

    Gordon Ramsay says Vladimir Putin is the most intimidating person he has ever cooked for.

    The celebrity chef said he was terrified he might give the Russian president food poisoning when asked to prepare a meal for him.

    Ramsay, 55, cooked for Putin and then Prime Minister Tony Blair at a lunch in Downing Street in 2000.

    What an opportunity missed! He could have gained the undying thanks of generations yet unborn and poisoned Blair!

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/gordon-ramsay-says-vladimir-putin-25896679

  8. Gordon Ramsay says Vladimir Putin is most intimidating person he’s ever cooked for. 9 January 2021.

    Gordon Ramsay says Vladimir Putin is the most intimidating person he has ever cooked for.

    The celebrity chef said he was terrified he might give the Russian president food poisoning when asked to prepare a meal for him.

    Ramsay, 55, cooked for Putin and then Prime Minister Tony Blair at a lunch in Downing Street in 2000.

    What an opportunity missed! He could have gained the undying thanks of generations yet unborn and poisoned Blair!

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/gordon-ramsay-says-vladimir-putin-25896679

    1. But the health minister said they will cancel his visa again, as his covid infection “was not acute”.
      Looks like they are making it up as they go, and are being nasty, spiteful little fascists with it.

      1. The days of Rod Laver, Tony Roche, John Newcombe, Lew Hoad and Roy Emerson when Australia was the most successful tennis nation in the world are long gone. An Australian has not won the Australian Open since 1976 – 46 years ago. I am sure that this is why the nation with the reputation for bad sportsmanship cannot stand Novak Djokovic. How dare a man from the Balkans win the Australian Open nine times?

    2. That cartoon makes it look like Article 16 is too big a battle-axe for Ms Truss to wield.

    3. Article 16 is her big chance. Will it lead on to fortune for her or will the rest of her political life be bound in shallows and in miseries?

  13. Giant of the deep surfaces in the Midlands in one of Britain’s ‘greatest ever’ prehistoric finds

    The 180 million-year-old ichthyosaur is the largest and most complete fossil of any marine reptile found in Britain

    By Gurpreet Narwan, CONSUMER AFFAIRS EDITOR 10 January 2022 • 6:00am

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2022/01/09/TELEMMGLPICT000282344183_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqA7N2CxnJWnYI3tCbVBgu9T0aesusvN1TE7a0ddd_esI.jpeg?imwidth=680
    *
    *
    *
    The excavation of the remains will feature on BBC Two’s Digging For Britain on Tuesday at 8pm.

    5. ‘the largest and most complete fossil of any marine reptile found in Britain’
      Now this is evidence of Climate Change.
      I fished this east Midlands (Rutland) reservoir 4 years ago with 3 fishing friends on a couple of small boats. We cast flies all over the place but never latched into the whopper down deep.

  14. BBC broadcaster Nigel Rees quit after 46 years over ‘diversity drive’

    Presenter of Radio 4 show Quote… Unquote said he felt pressured to invite diverse speakers who were not necessarily most suitable guests

    By Phoebe Southworth 9 January 2022 • 4:47pm

    A Radio 4 presenter has revealed that he resigned after 46 years because he felt under pressure from the BBC to book more “diverse” guests.

    Nigel Rees, 77, had presented the hugely popular programme ‘Quote… Unquote’ since 1976 when he left last month.

    The veteran broadcaster has now said he felt pressured by the corporation to invite diverse speakers onto the show who were not necessarily the most suitable guests.

    “We had prescriptions to have diverse groups and disabled guests. I didn’t agree with it at all but I went along with it because I had to. It came from upstairs and it seemed to be a general priority,” he told The Sunday Times.

    “I am not willing to go on having my choices interfered with in order to tick boxes in the name of diversity and representation. It is difficult having it enforced for the sake of it. It is also patronising, not least to the people who don’t want to be on because they feel they are ticking a box.”

    The BBC’s focus on diversity in recent years has been criticised as out of touch with its audiences.

    The acronym BAME will no longer be used as it may cause ‘serious insult’
    Last month, the corporation said it would no longer use the acronym BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) as it could cause “serious insult” to ethnic minorities if they feel they are being referred to as a homogenous group.

    A report commissioned by the BBC on behalf of the broadcasting industry, and carried out by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, said the term was “problematic”.

    Mr Rees and his producer John Lloyd pitched ‘Quote… Unquote’ to the BBC 46 years ago, and he said he was proud to recruit guests through his own contacts.

    A panel of celebrities are quizzed on the origins of quotes, and are invited to share some of their own favourite quotes. Part of the show is dedicated to answering listeners’ queries on etymology and the source of quotes.

    Since January 1976, he presented 57 series of the show and hosted more than 500 guests, which included Dame Judi Dench, Sir David Attenborough, Anthony Horowitz and Glenda Jackson.

    Rees felt his autonomy slipping away after BBC started ‘making impositions’
    However, he said he felt his autonomy slipping during the 56th series in 2020, when the BBC started “making impositions” on who he should invite onto the show.

    While Mr Rees said everyone who contributed to the programme gave an excellent performance, he increasingly felt his guest choices were being questioned over fears of offending audiences.

    He also gave examples of “cultural issues” creeping in, making him feel out of touch.

    Mr Rees said he was asked not to mention some lines from Noël Coward’s 1932 comic song Mad Dogs and Englishmen as the BBC feared it would promote “colonial attitudes”.

    A woman once wrote into the programme to complain because a guest had told a joke about their Jewish mother, he said.

    A BBC spokesperson said: “We want our output to be representative of the UK and we want contributors on our comedy shows to be wonderfully engaging and funny.

    “These two ambitions are not mutually exclusive and it would be highly condescending to suggest otherwise. We have creative, editorial discussion around every production and they are very much standard practice.”

    To mark the 40th anniversary of ‘Quote… Unquote’, Mr Rees selected some of his favourite quotes featured on the show.

    These included; “Nothing matters very much and very few things matter at all”, by Arthur Balfour; “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something”, by TH Huxley; and “A week is a long time in politics”, by Harold Wilson.

    1. A report commissioned by the BBC on behalf of the broadcasting industry, and carried out by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, said the term was “problematic”.

      Who would ever have imagined that The Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity would come up with such a result. Lol!

      2. Ian Hislop became sexually self-sufficient when he decided to give up satire just as Lenny Henry stopped being funny when he started to take himself too seriously. John Cleese stopped being funny in about 1992 but his current irascibility is encouraging.

  15. ‘Morning,, Peeps.

    Busy today so a brief visit for now…I found this late yesterday. I enjoyed R4’s Quote Unquote for years, but felt more recently that it had gone off the boil a bit – I now know why:

    BBC broadcaster Nigel Rees quit after 46 years over ‘diversity drive’

    Presenter of Radio 4 show Quote… Unquote said he felt pressured to invite diverse speakers who were not necessarily most suitable guests

    By
    Phoebe Southworth
    9 January 2022 • 4:47pm

    A Radio 4 presenter has revealed that he resigned after 46 years because he felt under pressure from the BBC to book more “diverse” guests.

    Nigel Rees, 77, had presented the hugely popular programme ‘Quote… Unquote’ since 1976 when he left last month.

    The veteran broadcaster has now said he felt pressured by the corporation to invite diverse speakers onto the show who were not necessarily the most suitable guests.

    “We had prescriptions to have diverse groups and disabled guests. I didn’t agree with it at all but I went along with it because I had to. It came from upstairs and it seemed to be a general priority,” he told The Sunday Times.

    “I am not willing to go on having my choices interfered with in order to tick boxes in the name of diversity and representation. It is difficult having it enforced for the sake of it. It is also patronising, not least to the people who don’t want to be on because they feel they are ticking a box.”

    The BBC’s focus on diversity in recent years has been criticised as out of touch with its audiences.

    Last month, the corporation said it would no longer use the acronym BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) as it could cause “serious insult” to ethnic minorities if they feel they are being referred to as a homogenous group.

    A report commissioned by the BBC on behalf of the broadcasting industry, and carried out by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, said the term was “problematic”.

    Mr Rees and his producer John Lloyd pitched ‘Quote… Unquote’ to the BBC 46 years ago, and he said he was proud to recruit guests through his own contacts.

    A panel of celebrities are quizzed on the origins of quotes, and are invited to share some of their own favourite quotes. Part of the show is dedicated to answering listeners’ queries on etymology and the source of quotes.

    Since January 1976, he presented 57 series of the show and hosted more than 500 guests, which included Dame Judi Dench, Sir David Attenborough, Anthony Horowitz and Glenda Jackson.

    Rees felt his autonomy slipping away after BBC started ‘making impositions’
    However, he said he felt his autonomy slipping during the 56th series in 2020, when the BBC started “making impositions” on who he should invite onto the show.

    While Mr Rees said everyone who contributed to the programme gave an excellent performance, he increasingly felt his guest choices were being questioned over fears of offending audiences.

    He also gave examples of “cultural issues” creeping in, making him feel out of touch.

    Mr Rees said he was asked not to mention some lines from Noël Coward’s 1932 comic song Mad Dogs and Englishmen as the BBC feared it would promote “colonial attitudes”.

    A woman once wrote into the programme to complain because a guest had told a joke about their Jewish mother, he said.

    A BBC spokesperson said: “We want our output to be representative of the UK and we want contributors on our comedy shows to be wonderfully engaging and funny.

    “These two ambitions are not mutually exclusive and it would be highly condescending to suggest otherwise. We have creative, editorial discussion around every production and they are very much standard practice.”

    To mark the 40th anniversary of ‘Quote… Unquote’, Mr Rees selected some of his favourite quotes featured on the show.

    These included; “Nothing matters very much and very few things matter at all”, by Arthur Balfour; “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something”, by TH Huxley; and “A week is a long time in politics”, by Harold Wilson.

    * * *

    Not comments allowed, but here is clear proof on the BBC’s five-star, full-on obsession with wokery. To quote another programme of the 60s – or was it the 70s? – Never Mind The Quality, Feel The Width.

  16. SIR – As the Covid pandemic shows clear signs of ebbing, a new phenomenon has emerged – namely a rearguard of doubters.

    These fanatical, battle-hardened troops deny the good news, and demand that face masks are worn and social distancing is strictly observed.

    Despite a barrage of heartening statistics, many citizens are still being forced to work from home, while millions of schoolchildren have to endure muzzles. The threat of fines still looms. No wonder the Army has been called in to raise morale.

    John Pritchard
    Ingatestone, Essex

    Simon Bell
    6 HRS AGO
    John Pritchard, the public sector will always be reluctant to return to work. They know that they can’t be fired, their jobs are secure and they will be paid. The longer they can keep this hysteria going whilst they work from home (or don’t work at all), the better as far as they’re concerned. If the supermarkets were run by the Public sector we would all have starved to death last year.

  17. Delingpole: ‘Make the Unvaccinated Pay!’ Demands Failed Ex-PM’s Sister-in-Law

    Emily Sheffield has joined the campaign to vilify, marginalise and punish the unvaccinated.

    “It’s time for London’s unvaccinated to pay with their freedoms, not ours”, she says in a hard-hitting editorial for the Standard, a London free-sheet widely used in cat litter trays across the Metropolis.

    https://twitter.com/emilysheffield/status/1479472178605473792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1479472178605473792%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Feurope%2F2022%2F01%2F09%2Fdelingpole-make-the-unvaccinated-pay-demands-failed-ex-pms-sister-in-law%2F

    1. Her father is raking in approx. £500,000 pa from his windmills. I doubt he misses out on claiming all the other subsidies that British governments scatter around like confetti.
      I’m not sure the Sheffields are people who should be fretting about draining taxpayers.

        1. I wonder how her sister’s frock shop is doing? Apart from raking in furlough money, that is.

    2. Click bait article. I think reducing the maximum number of characters allowed in Twitter to 0 would be so beneficial to the country, this tweet only reinforces my view.

    4. What has this nasty piece of work got to say about the surging infections in the ‘booster’ group? Maybe she’d like to verbally spar with Dr G V Bossche or Dr R Malone or Dr M Yeadon etc. on just which group is creating the variants, and why? It’s said that ignorance is bliss, however, ignorance in this case is in the hard face of this wanna be non-entity

      1. Clickbait-chasing tweets aren’t set up for agreement, only reaction. See Piers Moron, Jezza Whine et al for income ideas.

    6. I think most people have accepted that the vaccines do not prevent transmission, so the idea of having a vaccine to protect others is bunkum. So now, it’s attacking ‘the unvaccinated’ for not doing everything they could to protect themselves, therefore taking up precious bed space for ‘our NHS’

      That’s a pretty dangerous argument, because the most common co-morbidity for Covid is obesity. Should the NHS not treat fat people? Or heavy drinkers? Or smokers? Who is really going to be the biggest risk for the NHS – a fit as a fiddle unvaccinated 25 year-old. or a triple-vaxxed overweight smoker?

      It is just more propaganda to guilt us into take a jab that most people don’t need. These people should be ashamed of themselves.

      1. What about mountaineers and those who engage in dangerous sports? Should they not be denied NHS treatment? The only answer is not to treat anybody.

        2. I walk Spartie through muddy woods with slippery leaf cover.
          If I break a leg, would it be my fault and the NHS should refuse to treat me?

      2. 343920+ up ticks,
        Morning JK,
        When “these peoples” accept issues such as the very long term cover up of rotherham “in the name of the party” I find it rich when they accuse the likes of me
        unjabbed of endangering them.

        To many nonthinking selfish me,me,me twats are, sad to say,
        abroad in this Country.

      1. Those who remember Julie Walters in the eponymous role in Educating Rita where she played alongside Michael Caine in the role of a seedy English teacher will remember that she was full of enthusiasm having seen a production of the Scottish Play in a theatre. “What a cow! ” was her verdict on the character of Lady Macbeth.

    8. Our freedoms are threatened by vaccine passports… argument from the Right?

      If you have to present ‘papers’ then you are, by default, hindered in your life. This sort of attitude, for a control system comes from Left wing fascism.

      It’s not a bogus argument, it is fact.

      The entire statement makes no sense. The vaccine only helps you. If you’re vaccinated – unless you want a social control method – why do you care what other people have done? This rather rings as ‘I want vaccine passports to make ME feel better so other people are forced to comply with MY demands.

    9. As someone said a few days ago.
      This is the first time in the history of medicine that the failure of these doses is being blamed on the people who didn’t take it.
      Perverse o4 what?

  18. Standing up to Putin. 10 January 2022.

    The problem is that no one is sure how committed countries like Germany, which is beholden to Russia for its gas supplies, are to the cause of Nato expansion. Whether Europe is really prepared to stand up to Mr Putin will become clearer this week.

    BELOW THE LINE.

    Carolyn Bates. 57 MIN AGO.

    More to the point, is Biden prepared to stand up to Putin. I think not, if his presidency is anything to go by; just look what happened in Afghanistan.

    Putin called Biden out in the first few weeks of the new White House administration, over the fact Biden had stated publicly, that he called Putin ‘a killer’ to his face, whilst Vice President to Obama. That no one else could remember this taking place, including Putin, who also publicly announced this, was the first diplomatic blunder of many, for the American president.

    The fact that the Russian leader called for a televised broadcast so that he could put this to him directly had the feckless Biden running for cover. This was Putin’s line in the sand to Biden from the off, and nothing has improved since.

    With Germany in bed with Russia over their gas supply and with many Ukrainians believing their country should, in fact, be a part of Russia, who is really going to stand up to him, certainly not our cowardly administration. So, that leaves just Nato – I won’t be holding my breath.

    Ms. Bates is uncommonly perceptive!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/01/10/standing-putin/

    1. My Comment:-

      Robert Spowart
      2 MIN AGO
      Message Actions
      Is it any wonder that the Russians do not trust the west?
      After the collapse of the USSR, didn’t the US President, Bush I believe, promise the Russian Government that NATO would not extend East?
      Yet within years not only had several ex-Warsaw Pact countries joined, but former Soviet Republics.
      About time we stopped the rhetoric and stopped poking the bear with a sharp stick.

    1. Andrew Neil misses the point.
      The government has got to spend less and get out of our lives.
      Good morning Anne.

      1. Sadly, Bonsall Towers is not aligned to see the morning sky unless I open the bathroom window or go outside.

    4. Those have evanesced here and the thin stripe of gold on the horizon is being subsumed by the banks of dark cloud.

    5. And again, here at Lake Lodge it is grey, damp and gloomy. I have to go to the shop a bit later and I’m not looking forward to it.
      On GB News they keep telling us the weather is sponsored by the Canary Islands….never mind sponsoring the weather, send us some!

  21. Good morning all from a lightening Derbyshire. A whole 1°C above freezing and it’s not raining!

    Yet.

    1. Correct me if I’m wrong but I thought Canada has plenty of space, you know, prairies and all.
      This person has shown his stupidity many times, now he shows another side of his badly warped character: that of a very dangerous and evil fool bent on creating a totalitarian regime. Today, a compulsory “vaccine” allegedly to deal with SARS-02, tomorrow…

  24. The West has a rare window to put Putin in his place. 10 January 2022.

    The West goes into next week with so many strategic advantages over Russia, it should on paper be relatively easy to force Putin’s hand toward deescalation in the east of Europe. However, Putin hasn’t remained in power for over 20 years for no reason.
    If the West is to successfully leverage its position at this critical moment and cut Putin down to size, its unity must be uncrackable. A repeat of the mistakes of 2014 could create an even more dangerous version of the Russian leader if he is able to stare down the most powerful alliance on earth.

    It should tell you something that even though the West possesses so many advantages that Putin is still prepared to face up to them! Vlad is now 69 years old and common sense dictates that the end of his rule must be within sight. He has performed wonders for his country and people that no leader in the West can remotely approach and one suspects that he would like to do it and them one last service before retiring. This is to protect it, and his legacy, from the Globalist Encroachment that threatens the whole world. He is the last of the Nation State patriots. Make no mistake he’s not bluffing here! There’s no avenue of retreat that will not be seen as defeat. If he should go away unsatisfied then it will be War over Ukraine and perhaps something much larger!

    https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/09/europe/nato-russia-meeting-intl-cmd/index.html

    1. “mistakes of 2014?” I’m baffled. Apart from that what has Putin ever done to upset the West? (The USA – yes. Just breathing is enough to upset the USA.)

  25. Good morning all.

    I wonder how mild a variant would need to be for the government to finally concede that the ‘war’ on Covid is over? If it turns out that the next variant cures baldness and impotence, and has an IFR rate of 0.0000000001% would we be allowed to have our lives back then? Or would SAGE still come up with models showing newly hirsute and sexually-active males dropping down like flies?

    The emperor has no clothes. The jig is up. Let’s take back our lives and move on from Covid.

  26. 343920+ up ticks,

    Monday 10 January: It’s time to challenge the nonsensical claims of the Covid pessimists

    As with a great many issues far to late, this eliminated those of the unjabbed brigade shite should have been physically shoveled up & ditched at the outset via incarceration for inciting to do harm to innocent party’s.

    As with many issues the peoples once again MUST have
    a multitude of dead before any action is taken then what many consider first is ” will it put the party in a bad light”

    Political might should be a beneficial asset to a Nation, we
    are still guaranteed political SHITE in continuing to support this lab/lib/con mass controlled illegal immigration, paedophile umbrella coalition, your choice.

    2. Haven’t watched tennis for years, but at least he’s fighting the system. I might keep an eye on his progress, if he makes any.

      1. I have always had a rebellious spirit which is why I was not made a prefect at school but for some strange reason it did not stop me becoming a housemaster! I hope Djokovic wins the tournament – not because I like him but because he has cocked a snook at the tyrannical Aussie state.

        1. Thousand upticks.
          We have too many recent historical examples of how a compliant population can cooperate with authority.

      3. His family and Bro are also on the case and being being interviewed by the Serbian media.
        Basically another example of not only our own political classes effing up everything, but just about as far away as you can get from Westminster.
        Apart from the other Cuckoo in NZ.

  29. Reposted from midnight last night:

    Monday 10th January, 2022

    Hopon

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/315acdb13e1bb101911b1b9b0fdeb805847b47065b8d5098a98037d7986eed43.jpg

    And many more joyous celebrations for many more years to come

    With very best wishes from

    Caroline and Rastus

    Please visit us more often in 2022 – we need the young blood! According to our list there are just seven Nottlers who were born in the 1960s – so you are definitely one of these:

    (This was released on 11th January, 1962 when you had just celebrated your second birthday!)

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

    3. Happy birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 Hopon – I hope we will see you here today 💖

    1. Fascism arrives, not with a bang but a whimper…or rather a letter to health service Chief Executives.

  33. What price now for the emergency? Is Johnson going to take note of these figures and monitor their progress and if they hold, or if they drop further, take credit for them, drop all restrictions and get the UK back to mid 2019 normal? If he does act sensibly he may improve his standing – not with me – and that of his lack-lustre party. His other option is to soldier on with his globalist scam and awaken more people to what this last two years has really been about. Then…

    https://twitter.com/statsjamie/status/1480131077607931907

    1. Possibly because so many procedures, which would have required such beds, have been cancelled due to Covid.
      Heart/transplant/cancer and other surgery.

    2. I’ll tell you who thinks like that – the sort of Fascist sympathiser who would have welcomed the Nastys if they had managed to get here in 1940!

    4. Perhaps, if for every person shown to have died as a result of vaccine side-effects one of these pro-vaccine dictatorial Twitters was selected at random to be used as a guinea pig for future experimental drugs, they might not be so keen. Particularly if said drugs had a high probability of leaving them with serious, life changing, complications or even death.
      1,000 deaths, 1,000 Twitterers. It’s for the good of mankind.

      2. As John Milton wrote in ‘Paradise Lost’:

        ‘All is not lost, the unconquerable will, and study of revenge, immortal hate, and the courage never to submit or yield.’

        This is from the debate in Pandemonium where Satan and his fallen angels discuss how they must cope with their expulsion from Heaven

        One of the “A” level essay questions which cropped up was: “Milton’s language in Paradise Lost suggests that he was of the Devil’s Party without knowing it. Discuss.”

    7. What should be done to him? Perhaps he should be forced to attend courses on the Rights of the Individual?

    10. Morning all.
      Perhaps people like this obnoxious creature need to face up to the facts and responsibilities of all the deaths of all people who have obviously died due to just being ‘vaccinated’.
      Now I believe known as ‘medical incidents’. Those relatively new very well paid managers who were brought into the NHS just around the beginning of this now seemingly planned crisis are working over time on the cliches.
      I just hope that the call for our children and grand children to be ‘vaccinated’ will not come into fruition.
      And have all the boats people now been jabbed…..some how i doubt it very much. No body really knows who, where they come from and or what the actually are. Now costing our tax payers more than 100k per year each to keep. No wonder the government has run out of our money again.

    1. Look at the spikes 1) in Spring 2020 and 2) Late 2020 – early 2021 and ask yourself what two events took place in those high death rate periods.

    1. But if you take into account his mental, rather than chronological age, then he’s the toy boy for a thirteen year old.

    3. Let us hope that this story comes to light if it is true and it is given full MSM coverage.

      I pasted the list of the ages of consent in various countries yesterday. The average age is 16 though there are several countries in Europe where it is younger (France 15, Italy 14, Germany 14, Austria 14 etc. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_Europe ) However maybe Trudeau is in the clear if the event took place in Nigeria where the age of consent is 11.

      1. It’s yet another straw in the wind and why I think Epstein was killed.
        There are probably hundreds of these rich and powerful child molesters getting away with it as we write, worse than a Masonic or Satanic cabal.

        1. That said, it appears there is some doubt whether it’s true.
          There was a similar, discredited, accusation against his brother.

        2. Isn’t there some rich and powerful man who likes fondling little girls and smelling their hair? I can’t quite recall his name but it’s like one of the Seven Dwarfs – Dopey or Dozey. It’ll come back to me sometime.

  38. Why did I get divorced?
    Well, last week was my birthday.
    My wife didn’t wish me a happy birthday.
    My parents forgot and so did my kids. I went to work and even my colleagues didn’t wish me a happy birthday.
    As I entered my office, my secretary said, “Happy birthday, boss!”
    I felt so special. She asked me out for lunch.
    After lunch, she invited me to her apartment.
    We went there and she said, “Do you mind if I go into the bedroom for a minute?” “Okay,” I said.
    She came out 5 minutes later with a birthday cake, my wife, my parents, my kids, my friends, & my colleagues all yelling, “SURPRISE!!!”
    while I was waiting on the sofa.. naked.

    1. The battle is between The State of Victoria and The Australian Government.
      Novak is merely the catalyst.

          2. He isn’t Plum, he is “genesen” – he has the antibodies from a recent covid infection, which is a valid thing in many countries including Australia.
            They’re just trying to make him a scapegoate because he’s not jabbed, but he’s fully within the law.

          5. He’s not such a bad guy…

            In 2007, Djokovic founded the Novak Djokovic Foundation. The
            organization’s mission is to help children from disadvantaged
            communities to grow up and develop in stimulating and safe environments.[401] The foundation partnered with the World Bank in August 2015 to promote early childhood education in Serbia.[402][403][404] His foundation has built 43 schools and supported almost 20,800 children and a thousand families.[405][406]

            He participated in charity matches with the aim of raising funds for the reconstruction of the Avala Tower, as well as to aid victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake and 2010–11 Queensland floods.[407][408][409] Starting in 2007, he has established a tradition of hosting and socializing with hundreds of Kosovo Serb children during Davis Cup matches organized in Serbia.[410] Djokovic was selected as the 2012 Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year, for his contributions through the foundation, his role as a UNICEF national ambassador and other charitable projects.[411] In August 2015, he was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.[412]

            During the 2014 Balkans floods, he sparked worldwide financial and media support for victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia.[413] After winning the 2014 Rome Masters, Djokovic donated his prize money to the flood victims in Serbia, while his foundation collected another $600,000.[413][406] Following his 2016 Australian Open
            victory, Djokovic donated $20,000 to Melbourne City Mission’s early
            childhood education programm to help disadvantaged children.[414] After the COVID-19 pandemic spread to Serbia
            in March 2020, he and his wife announced that they will donate €1
            million for the purchase of ventilators and medical equipment to support
            hospitals and other medical institutions.[415] He also made a donation to Bergamo, Italy‚ one of the worst-affected Italian provinces, as well as to Novi Pazar, Serbia and North Mitrovica, Kosovo.[416][417][418]

          6. He fights for freedom from the state with the rest of his family. They know all about state control of your life.

    2. Well how’s that ?
      No one else can be blamed for this continuing bout of absolute political stupidity, politicians have backed off and passed on the verdict.
      The Judge will now be on a large fat retirement bonus.
      New balls please Australia.

    3. Apparently several young, but not well-known, footballers have died as a consequence of being given the Covid vaccine. Of course the PTB are keen not to accept that there is a causal relationship between vaccination and death.

      But, say, if a very wealthy and very high-profile sportsman such as Djokovic, reluctantly agreed to be vaccinated and then died suddenly on the tennis court would there be a proper autopsy or would they continue to refuse to accept the link?

      1. Of course not. It is FAR too dangerous to do a PM on a suspected covid sufferer. The virus lasts for centuries…

        I suggest you take it up with your pal, Toy Boy!!

  40. 343920+ up ticks,

    May one ask, are YOU supporting these political overseeing illegal immigrant importers, you do understand what you are signing up for, being of sound mind I take it
    or will you be claiming temporary insanity EVERY polling opportunity day ?

    An Afghan illegal migrant managed to escape Austria to Britain by posing as a refugee following gang rape and child murder accusations.

    Raculi Zubaidullah, 23, has been accused — along with three other suspects — of gang-raping and killing 13-year-old Austrian girl Leonie Walner on the 26th of June 2021, a British extradition court heard on Thursday 6th of January 2022.

    breitbart,
    Zubaidullah faces extradition back to Austria — after fleeing to Britain posing as a refugee and hiding in a migrant hotel in London — for the charges of rape and severe sexual abuse of a person under the age of 14.

    UK May Deport Afghan Who Raped and Murdered Austrian Child, Fled to UK by Boat.

    Take note “may”

    1. The books have run out of steam recently, but if they use his early novels the series might be entertaining.

        1. I keep receiving a new hardback each Christmas of hie latest book. He writes them with his son or something now.
          Don’t have the heart to tell the person to stop. I can give ’em away.

    2. Here’s hoping Amazon don’t screw it up. They’ve ruined the Wheel of Time (or wheel of wokers) and no doubt will the upcoming Lord of the Rings (they’ve brought in Isildur’s sister… a character not existing in the book).

      The Left haven’t realised that Game fo Thrones was great because it kept to the plot of the books. When the books ran out, the show became rubbish. Ignoring the books from the outset – as the wheel of woke has – has produced excrement, as the writers are simply not Robert Jordan.

    3. Here’s hoping Amazon don’t screw it up. They’ve ruined the Wheel of Time (or wheel of wokers) and no doubt will the upcoming Lord of the Rings (they’ve brought in Isildur’s sister… a character not existing in the book).

      The Left haven’t realised that Game fo Thrones was great because it kept to the plot of the books. When the books ran out, the show became rubbish. Ignoring the books from the outset – as the wheel of woke has – has produced excrement, as the writers are simply not Robert Jordan.

  43. I wonder if the govt of Australia will appeal..

    If not, it seems to be a net gain. Though a bit of a racket.

    2. Just why would anyone think such monstrosities are appropriate especially near to busy roads.

  45. The new order is something different. As managerialism has slowly displaced the old liberal idea of government, the administrative state has slowly taken control of the relationship between the citizen and his government. The bureaucrats running the vast administrative state now make the rules and enforce them. The political class is a vestigial adornment to provide the veneer of legitimacy.

    Another good one from the Z man.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/prisoners-of-the-new-order/

    1. 343920+ up ticks,
      S,
      It still requires collusion from the peoples
      and via lab/lib/con member / voters it is receiving just that.

      A very serious peoples reset is what is required.

    2. “There are those under the care, custody, and control of the administrative state and then there are those who are noncompliant. This is more than just a tick on an official form. It is a moral designation.”

      Good article. Thanks for posting it.

      1. I enjoy takimag, it has a number of perceptive journalists and I find that I disagree almost as much as I agree with their articles, even when by the same writer; always a good sign for me.

    3. “It turns out that people who like exercising absolute control over others tend to be sociopaths”.

    1. I’m a gentleman,I helped my sister search the house this morning for the choco I ate last night……….

    2. I know of a stash (a box of Green &Black small bars) in the house. I don’t usually eat chocolate but in this case…

  47. https://twitter.com/True_Belle/status/1480521191140085760

    Michael Gove spends more than half an hour stuck in a LIFT at the BBC during round of interviews… and jokes that many people wanted him to stay there longer
    Michael Gove was stuck in lift at the BBC for half an hour during interview round
    Cabinet minister joked that many people would have wanted him stuck longer
    Mr Gove said he had finally been ‘levelled up’ in reference to his Cabinet title

      1. One time when my ex was away on business, he managed to get stuck in the hotel elevator. The technician was called and released him. That evening he managed to get stuck again and when the repair man arrived, he got the doors open and saw my ex. God, not you again was the response.

    3. That lift looks crowded. We plebs are only allowed in the lifts three at a time under covid regs. I’ve had my share of being stuck in lifts. First when I worked in Selfridges and then later in the old Television Centre. Was in one that was stopping and starting between floors once and the only other occupant was Jeremy Paxman. I recall the panicked expression on his face each time the lift shuddered.

        1. She was only the fishmonger’s daughter but she could lie on a slab and say ‘fillet’.

    4. Stupid woman. MH wears so many jackets and woollies you’d think he was heading off on an Arctic expedition!

      1. So does my Moh, he wraps up with so many layers, et all through the summer he wears shorts especially on the golf course .

        I like a few windows open , and he shudders and shivers, we are so different , it is a blood group thing , I think.

          1. I don’t know, but I’m O rhesus + and I can cope okay with the cold (given appropriate clothing, of course!).

          2. I’m the same. Mind you, I don’t think any blood type is going to protect against getting chilled to the bone if wandering around naked in this weather . . . 🤣

    5. I always assume that young women dress like that to ensure that they have a jolly good screw at the end of the evening; “easy access” frocks…

      2. A former neighbour, a teacher, used to describe many of the teenage girls as ‘teenage pregnancies waiting to happen.’

    6. Had to look closely there – thought it was our ex-daughter-in-law and her mother!
      Mind you, the one on the right is rather over-dressed for a night in the toon.

      1. I think one of the ships is leaking badly; the other in dry dock – having been hit by a wicked Rooshian submarine!!

      1. The one eyed trouser snake under his codpiece is not only repulsive – it is myopic. .

  50. ‘I’d rather he didn’t play’: Rafael Nadal jokes about Novak Djokovic, branding situation a ‘circus’
    With the Australian Open a week away, Nadal proclaimed that ‘justice had spoken’ after his rival won a court battle to prevent deportation
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2022/01/10/rather-didnt-play-rafael-nadal-jokes-novak-djokovic-branding/

    BTL

    I am sure that Nadal would rather beat Djokovic on the court than avoid having to meet him owing to crass Australian tyrants’ decisions.

    The best wants to prove he or she is the best by beating his or her closest rivals. For Nadal to win with Djokovic out of the competition would inevitably diminish Nadal’s achievement if he goes on to win it.

    1. A bit like that Chinese-Romanian girl who won the US Open when most of the top players were absent….

      1. And the Wimbledon tournament when the best players boycotted it and the Olympic Games when the best athletes weren’t there.

  51. We must have as many babies as possible
    The West is moving towards under-population. The Pope is right: we need to breed to have a future

    Tim Stanley : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/10/must-have-many-babies-possible/

    BTL

    When my grandfather, a doctor, moved to Devon in the last decade of the 19th century he had a very large house built for him. When asked why he wanted such a big house he replied saying he wanted to fill it with little Traceys. When asked why he wanted to do that he replied that the country needed a better quality of people in it. He went on to have eleven children all of whom had very successful and useful lives.

    What an arrogant man my grandfather must have been – but he was probably right!

        1. Funnily enough I spent two years in between leaving school and going to university working as a trainee in an advertising agency in Mayfair. I had good enough “A” levels to apply for a redbrick university but – because I had been a lazy hound at school – not good enough to go to St John’s College, Cambridge where my father had been a foundation scholar.

          A girlfriend of mine at the time who was applying to go to university had a spare UCCA form so I filled it in and sent it off in an idle moment. To my surprise I received an offer not from a redbrick university but a sparkling new concrete one, UEA, which was being constructed on the outskirts of Norwich. The press enjoyed being pejorative about it and the Eastern Daily Press reported that they had destroyed a second-rate golf course in order to to build a third-rate university.

        2. Funnily enough I spent two years in between leaving school and going to university working as a trainee in an advertising agency in Mayfair. I had good enough “A” levels to apply for a redbrick university but – because I had been a lazy hound at school – not good enough to go to St John’s College, Cambridge where my father had been a foundation scholar.

          A girlfriend of mine at the time who was applying to go to university had a spare UCCA form so I filled it in and sent it off in an idle moment. To my surprise I received an offer not from a redbrick university but a sparkling new concrete one, UEA, which was being constructed on the outskirts of Norwich. The press enjoyed being pejorative about it and the Eastern Daily Press reported that they had destroyed a second-rate golf course in order to to build a third-rate university.

  52. A wife comes home late one night and quietly opens the door to her bedroom.
    From under the blanket, she sees four legs instead of just her husband’s two.
    She reaches for a baseball bat and starts hitting the blanket as hard as she can.
    Once she’s done, she goes to the kitchen to have a drink.
    As she enters, she sees her husband there, reading a magazine. he says,
    “Hi darling, your parents have come to visit us, so I let them stay in our bedroom. Did you say hello?”

    2. Well, just throwing this out there – if they’re brought in by plane, but the plane doesn’t *land* but the gimmigrant does…..

      Aside from the mess, I’m not seeing a downside.

  54. We are assured that nothing can go wrong and we should not worry:

    The level 4 microbiology lab in Winnipeg has announced that while the covid pandemic continues, staff can work from home.

    This is the lab that works on goodies like Ebola. Two Chinese scientists that had been working at this lab were expelled after they were caught sending samples back home to Wuhan.

    No sir, nothing to worry about there.

    1. Ah, good old level 4. Hermetically sealed labs, low air pressure, staff in fully sealed Noddy suits with air supplied by tubes, air locks in and out and spray down with serious cleansing materials on exit.
      The UK government decides that home made masks will work just as well.

    2. Not a good day for Gove, what with blackmailing developers into paying for cladding removal.

      1. 343920+ up ticks,
        Evening P,
        Old govee played a blinder as the assassin in the treacherous treasa placement farce, the current member / voters found it highly credible.

  56. Despite the references to you-know-what, an article too sensible for the establishment.

    Gas is the only answer to our self-imposed energy crisis

    It is in abundant supply, has lower emissions than coal and oil, and is the ideal transition fuel in the move to a lower carbon economy

    GEORGE TREFGARNE • 7 January 2022 • 6:00pm

    Like Germany and Japan in 1944 or Sir Edward Heath in 1974, Boris Johnson is discovering the hard way that there is nothing so vulnerable as a modern state desperately short of energy. What is surprising is that the Government has yet to do anything meaningful about our current crisis.

    When it comes to energy there are two competing principles. First, it is no use saying that the Government should not intervene. Governments have always been the biggest players in the energy market, here and around the world, and the shortage has been caused by Government policies. The reluctance to follow the EU’s lead in designating natural gas and nuclear as “sustainable” for investors and continued delays for the 18 North Sea fields awaiting approval, are all naïve.

    The second, contrary principle is to admit that despite governments’ dominant role in the global energy market, it is still a market. In the end, supply and demand have to balance via the price mechanism. In one of Theresa May’s many catastrophic decisions, she created an energy price cap, which has undermined investor confidence. The cap was raised by 12 per cent in the autumn to circa £1,277 per household. The surge in wholesale energy costs since means the next time it is set, in February, the cost is likely to rise to nearly £2,000. This would be politically intolerable so we should assume it is unlikely to reach that level.

    If the market is to balance and domestic prices are not to hit astronomic levels, the Government can do one of two things. It can depress demand, as Sir Edward Heath tried with the three-day week in 1974. Or it can increase supply. The latter is the most palatable option, but it requires the Government to rustle up some cheap energy supplies urgently. It can do this by giving energy firms subsidies or cheap loans, or it can do so itself, by buying in the stuff directly. There are no other choices.

    What sort of energy do we need? There is only one readily to hand: natural gas. This accounts for more than half our primary energy consumption, more than half of which is now imported after our North Sea production started to decline 20 years ago and onshore fracking for gas was wrongly banned in 2019.

    Natural gas is, contrary to myth, abundant, including in the North Sea, which is why Norway and the Netherlands have stepped up exploration and production there. Natural gas has lower emissions than coal and oil. And gas power stations can be readily turned on and off, making it the perfect transition fuel in the move to a lower carbon economy. The simplest short-term fix would be for the Government to go into the market itself and secure adequate supplies from respectable sources which it can inject cheaply into our domestic market. Such a multibillion-pound expenditure on behalf of the taxpayer is, of course, far from ideal and should be a one-off.

    In order to ensure it does not set a precedent, Kwasi Kwarteng, the most sensible energy secretary for a while, must bang heads together at the Oil and Gas Authority. It needs to expedite approvals for new North Sea fields and for exploration west of Scotland and for onshore fracking in the Midlands and the North (where the deposits are). Even if these supplies are not in the end required, identifying them and creating a clear legal framework for their exploitation would help us to avoid future crises.

    Global warming is indeed a threat and moving to low carbon energy would loosen our dependence on unsavoury regimes. However, the specific “net zero by 2050” policy, thus far, has proved to be a racket to raise prices for consumers. That is a long-term problem. In the next few months and years we will need natural gas, and plenty of it.

    George Trefgarne is chief executive of the Boscobel & Partners consultancy

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/07/gas-answer-self-imposed-energy-crisis/

    BTL:
    Group Captain Lionel Mandrake
    No George, Global Warming is not a threat!
    A 3-mile-wide asteroid heading to the earth is a threat
    Nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists is a threat.
    A man holding a gun is a threat.
    A destructive energy policy is a threat.

    Flash Harry
    “Global warming is indeed a racket”

    1. If only the Telegraph would carry sensible articles like this one without the obligatory bow in the direction of the “climate emergency” scam!

    2. Hunterston “B” nuclear power station closed last week. Hunterston produced enough electricity for 1.7 million homes.

      1. With last week’s closure of Hunterston B, there is only one remaining operating nuclear power station in Scotland – Torness.

        ‘Nippy Sweetie’s Parliament’ voted 63–58 to support the policy of opposing new nuclear power stations.

        Very probably, this will prove fatal for Scotland’s long-term industrial development.

        This – together with an unnecessary cutback in Scotland’s domestic natural gas supplies – is ignorant, irresponsible and bordering on the insane.

        All in the name of Virtue Signalling …

    3. 343920+
      Afternoon WS,

      Gas is the only answer to our self-imposed energy crisis

      Agreed, but can you induce lab/lib/con
      political hierarchy & leading support members to take a shower ?

  57. Despite the references to you-know-what, an article too sensible for the establishment.

    Gas is the only answer to our self-imposed energy crisis

    It is in abundant supply, has lower emissions than coal and oil, and is the ideal transition fuel in the move to a lower carbon economy

    GEORGE TREFGARNE • 7 January 2022 • 6:00pm

    Like Germany and Japan in 1944 or Sir Edward Heath in 1974, Boris Johnson is discovering the hard way that there is nothing so vulnerable as a modern state desperately short of energy. What is surprising is that the Government has yet to do anything meaningful about our current crisis.

    When it comes to energy there are two competing principles. First, it is no use saying that the Government should not intervene. Governments have always been the biggest players in the energy market, here and around the world, and the shortage has been caused by Government policies. The reluctance to follow the EU’s lead in designating natural gas and nuclear as “sustainable” for investors and continued delays for the 18 North Sea fields awaiting approval, are all naïve.

    The second, contrary principle is to admit that despite governments’ dominant role in the global energy market, it is still a market. In the end, supply and demand have to balance via the price mechanism. In one of Theresa May’s many catastrophic decisions, she created an energy price cap, which has undermined investor confidence. The cap was raised by 12 per cent in the autumn to circa £1,277 per household. The surge in wholesale energy costs since means the next time it is set, in February, the cost is likely to rise to nearly £2,000. This would be politically intolerable so we should assume it is unlikely to reach that level.

    If the market is to balance and domestic prices are not to hit astronomic levels, the Government can do one of two things. It can depress demand, as Sir Edward Heath tried with the three-day week in 1974. Or it can increase supply. The latter is the most palatable option, but it requires the Government to rustle up some cheap energy supplies urgently. It can do this by giving energy firms subsidies or cheap loans, or it can do so itself, by buying in the stuff directly. There are no other choices.

    What sort of energy do we need? There is only one readily to hand: natural gas. This accounts for more than half our primary energy consumption, more than half of which is now imported after our North Sea production started to decline 20 years ago and onshore fracking for gas was wrongly banned in 2019.

    Natural gas is, contrary to myth, abundant, including in the North Sea, which is why Norway and the Netherlands have stepped up exploration and production there. Natural gas has lower emissions than coal and oil. And gas power stations can be readily turned on and off, making it the perfect transition fuel in the move to a lower carbon economy. The simplest short-term fix would be for the Government to go into the market itself and secure adequate supplies from respectable sources which it can inject cheaply into our domestic market. Such a multibillion-pound expenditure on behalf of the taxpayer is, of course, far from ideal and should be a one-off.

    In order to ensure it does not set a precedent, Kwasi Kwarteng, the most sensible energy secretary for a while, must bang heads together at the Oil and Gas Authority. It needs to expedite approvals for new North Sea fields and for exploration west of Scotland and for onshore fracking in the Midlands and the North (where the deposits are). Even if these supplies are not in the end required, identifying them and creating a clear legal framework for their exploitation would help us to avoid future crises.

    Global warming is indeed a threat and moving to low carbon energy would loosen our dependence on unsavoury regimes. However, the specific “net zero by 2050” policy, thus far, has proved to be a racket to raise prices for consumers. That is a long-term problem. In the next few months and years we will need natural gas, and plenty of it.

    George Trefgarne is chief executive of the Boscobel & Partners consultancy

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/07/gas-answer-self-imposed-energy-crisis/

    BTL:
    Group Captain Lionel Mandrake
    No George, Global Warming is not a threat!
    A 3-mile-wide asteroid heading to the earth is a threat
    Nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists is a threat.
    A man holding a gun is a threat.
    A destructive energy policy is a threat.

    Flash Harry
    “Global warming is indeed a racket”

  58. Boris should seize his Thatcher moment to take on the selfish unions ruining our schools

    The trade unionists’ mindless demands are making a full return of children to the classroom impossible

    JULIET SAMUEL • 7 January 2022 • 8:00pm

    Now this is one school strike I can get behind. Faced with a demand to wear masks all day in lessons, pupils are in revolt. In one school in the north of England, reportedly just 67 out of 1,300 students are complying. The others sit down at their desks and, asked to mask up, say “no”.

    God knows, this has been a long time coming. Seemingly at every turn in this pandemic, children’s interests have been sacrificed for the good of adults. In 2020, pubs reopened before schools. Nearly two years later, office workers, nightclub and restaurant-goers can go mask-free, but secondary school pupils are meant to cover up all day. We are living in backwards-land.

    Masks are just the start. The jungle of Covid bureaucracy has ensnared us all, but it is schoolchildren who are caught in its darkest heart. Schools are tied up in a thicket of pointless checklists and constant re-interpretations of rules and procedures. A conspiracy of Government cowardice, administrative incompetence and union obstructionism has left children wandering in the Covid wilderness, while the rest of us return to normal. This cannot be allowed to stand.

    The mask mandate is just one example of how precious learning time and energy are being wasted on Covid processology. Masks in schools are a policy the Government has previously said it would avoid, because they damage education. Yet the latest guidance declares that all secondary school pupils ought to wear them – except, er, in situations where someone “relies on … clear sound or facial expressions to communicate”.

    The confusion doesn’t end there. If a disobliging teenager refuses to wear her mask (a situation seemingly considered so unlikely that it isn’t even covered by the guidance), the advice states that “no pupil should be denied education on the grounds that they are not wearing a face covering”. This is a recipe for conflict and chaos.

    Given the stupidity of a rulebook that turns teachers into powerless enforcers of a bad policy, you might think the teaching unions would be the first to object. Think again. The unions’ only problem with the amount of bunkum being chucked at our schools is that it doesn’t go far enough. What they want instead is a ratchet of Covid requirements that appears specifically designed to ensure as much disruption as possible.

    The country’s biggest teaching union, the National Education Union, for example, is not content with the recommendation that teachers and pupils test for Covid twice a week. Testing, it states, should “ideally” be “daily”. Such a regime, it adds, would require “a staggered start for the new term”, which is another way of saying that schools should not fully reopen when they’re meant to.

    The union also wants its members to demand “updated risk assessments” with “revised procedures” for handling omicron. These measures, it suggests, should include banning school assemblies and parents’ evenings, sending twice-weekly spam texts about testing, “staggered timings for lunch breaks” and re-imposing “bubble” systems whereby pupils are not allowed to mix outside small groups.

    As for managing Covid teacher absences, the NEU is adamant that “teachers should not routinely be expected to cover for absent colleagues”. Schools should not be allowed to merge classes, it claims, and teachers should certainly not have to teach children online at the same time as teaching children in school because this would supposedly mean “doing two jobs”. Union officers should take heart, meanwhile, from its “success” case studies. In one, a teacher recounts how she won the right to mute the microphones of all pupils studying online. Another recalls the glorious denouement of a hard-fought campaign to get lidded bins in all her school’s classrooms.

    That’s all before we come to the ventilation farce. Schools are told by unions and Government that they ought to be constantly monitoring air flow in every classroom. If it isn’t sufficient, the NEU regards this as the perfect excuse for classes to downsize or move out. And if you’re wondering how to monitor air flow, the union links to a 134-line spreadsheet comparing different air purifiers so that members can flag it to their managers. No wonder so many teachers are at their wits’ end and have simply decided to open all their classroom windows and let everyone freeze.

    Most teachers want to do a decent job in difficult circumstances and are trying to get on with it. Not so their unions. Page after page, their checklists and campaigns read like the work of obstructionist, selfish bureaucrats thinking up ways to make life more difficult for schools and all who rely on them for the sake of the lazy few and the political hacks who champion them. As for the children missing months of class time and social contact, from the disadvantaged falling behind on basic maths to those in chaotic or abusive homes, they can go to hell.

    To defend their racket, the unions naturally need to portray schools as a horrific battlefield where teachers are being exposed to terrifying risks. The evidence simply doesn’t stand up. Neither official statistics nor scientific studies show any increased risk of Covid death for teachers compared with any other adult in the same age cohorts. Indeed, a recent study of 12 million people published by the Government shows that even adults who live with children are at no greater risk of Covid hospitalisation or death than anyone else under 65. Schools are not, it seems, the deadly petri dishes we are led to believe.

    No one can claim that it’s an easy time for schools. Teacher and pupil absences are bound to be higher than usual for the next month. But the Government should be throwing everything at the effort to protect education and get life back to normal for schoolchildren, rather than piling on more bureaucracy and endless rounds of guidelines. Rather than obsessing over the risk children pose to adults, we should be raging against the catastrophic loss of potential and opportunity that occurs every time a schoolchild is sent home. Rather than engaging in facile debates about how to measure classroom CO2 levels, unions should be at the forefront of the battle to save our schools from becoming a national disgrace.

    If instead they choose to act like petty teenagers, the Government should stop pandering and stop passing the buck to overwhelmed head teachers and parents. It should implement a clear policy of sending Britain back to school as normal immediately and then back schools and teachers to the hilt to implement it. Scrap excessive isolation periods, over-testing, masks and the endless procedural rigmarole and let teachers teach. If Boris Johnson is looking for his Thatcher moment, this is it. Does he have the guts to seize it?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/01/07/boris-should-seize-thatcher-moment-take-selfish-unions-ruining/

    2. Now that the teenagers have finally got a strop on they could also refuse to be taught by teachers belonging to the NEU.

    3. “…open all their classroom windows and let everyone freeze…” Many pupils will become ill. Cold draughts are a recipe for serious illness. Schools have duty of care. That does not include forcing pupil to risk pneumonia.

      1. They want the pupils to become ill with chesty coughs and upper respiratory infections. This will worry the parents, and they will be stampeding their children off to the vaccination tents like there’s no tomorrow. Government and schools’ actions do not make sense because it is not about a virus, however much they want to make us think that it is. It is about keeping those cases up, up, up.

      2. I have taught ages 4-16 at different times. I always had a window open slightly for a few reasons. Some secondary school girls are not all as hygienic as they could be; not always their fault and the area of Manchester the school was in was very mixed. Some quite posh houses but also council houses and other basic dwellings. One lovely Chinese girl in my 5th year Language class reeked of Chinese food as her parents ran a take out. She used to help in the shop in her uniform and picked up the smell. She was a darling and achieved Grade 2 CSE but some days the aroma of chop suey etc was overpowering.
        Primary school is another thing….this is not meant to be a sexist comment but children of that age are not hesitant about expelling gas, shall we say, and little boys are far worse than little girls. Sorry but it’s true.
        So a slightly open window but not to howling gale levels.

        2. I was never a teacher but I remember being a pupil – at primary school there were smelly children – the odd bed-wetter and also a boy who was actually quite a nice chap but he smelt horrible.

          At the all-girls’ school which followed, there were people who smelt quite bad if they were on their periods; and others who just weren’t very clean. I do have quite a sensitive nose.

          1. And it must be said that some little boys simply do not like washing. My son, who now showers daily, had a small sign on the noticeboard in his bedroom.
            Rules: Eat, play games, don’t wash. Main rule: don’t wash.
            Of course, once I got the little sod into the tub he didn’t want to get out!

  59. 343920+ up ticks,

    breitbart,

    Britain Will Lead World in Learning to Live with COVID, Says Govt Minister

    My aching sides, black macabre humour surely, says overseeing minister of daily orders & instructions department.

    You are being conditioned at this moment in time to learn to live under this type regime, lab/lib/con current members / voters are proving very successful in submissively taking the lead.

  60. Arsenal now wear a white kit to protest against knife crime, but take
    the knee in support of the black community responsible for most of it.

    Next week they’ll be protesting about lung cancer, and wearing gold
    strip in support of Benson & Hedges.

    1. Why don’t footballers just get on and play football instead of all these virtue-signalling gestures?

      1. Because they are not very bright? Because someone pays them even more to do such daft things? Because there are no crowds to boo them and call them tossers?

        1. Millwall supporters booed Crystal Palace players when they ‘took the knee’ before the start of the FA Cup 3rd round match on Saturday 8th January. Millwall FC made the decision not to kneel before matches several months ago. Needless to say, the TV commentator criticised the fans for expressing their disapproval of this loathsome gesture.

      2. Because they see themselves as influencers and role models. As in how to take cocaine, get pissed up and multiple rapes.

  64. 343920++ up ticks,

    The lab/lib/con mass illegal immigrant daily intake supporters / voters, have really excelled themselves now by allegedly giving 5 star succour to, on the run murderers.

    AFGHAN WHO RAPED AND MURDERED AUSTRIAN CHILD FLED TO UK BY BOAT, what are the GOB & fat turks take on the issue ?

  65. Afternoon all. Son looking and sounding much more like his old self this arvo. Good steady progress. He is back sleeping upstairs but is a bit short of breath when he gets to the top. D-i-l dropped him off at the golf club for a while yesterday to sit and chat with some of the members and really enjoyed being somewhere different. Apparently there was a round of applause for him when he showed up. Great to have such mates. Goes for short walks when it’s not raining.

    Alf now has a worsening cataract in his (detached retina) eye and has been referred to the RSCH. Had a letter on 8th December to say they would “be in touch”. Great we thought he’s at least on the list. He rang them this morning to find out anything he could and was told “it will be at least 35 weeks”. 35 weeks! It was suggested he contacted his doctor. Blooming Ada. What on earth is going on at these hospitals?

    1. Don’t mess with his vision – get a private appointment. The system doesn’t give a fig, so sort it yourself.
      Believe they can be done in a day; mother was in overnight because of the anaesthetic. Retina is an outpatients job, according to Aussie mucker.

      2. The retina was sorted quickly but the cataract has deteriorated rapidly and us getting worse.
        Will explore private op.

        1. Mother had it done about 10 years ago, with (IIRC) an overnight – but if you can be taken home and cared for, likely can be done as an outpatient.

        2. Do it John.just as my sister and BiL had to get their knee and hernia done privately or face years of pain
          It’s an utter disgrace but your sight is more important
          It’s time all politicians were denied any access to private care and were forced to rely on the NHS with no jumping the waiting lists
          Then we might see some progress!!

          1. OH would still be waiting for the initial consultation with the surgeon if he hadn’t decided to pay to get his double hernia sorted.

          3. Not sure if it was double the cost of one or not… but he had both done by the same surgeon on the same day. Next door neighbour has just had his done at a local private hospital, but via NHS referral. He had been waiting nearly a year though.

    2. Don’t mess with his vision – get a private appointment. The system doesn’t give a fig, so sort it yourself.
      Believe they can be done in a day; mother was in overnight because of the anaesthetic. Retina is an outpatients job, according to Aussie mucker.

    4. Good news and bad news day for you. I thought detached retina was classed as a medical emergency needing treatment as soon as possible.

      1. I had the detached retina sorted very quickly, less than 2 days, but the cataract in that eye has deteriorated rapidly and getting worse. The vision is quite impaired. I’ve been advised to go back to the doctor so that they can write to the hospital to tell them exactly what I told them!

          1. My experience of the RSCH, and that of friends and relations has been somewhat mixed. Before I moved, I was more or less midway between there and Frimley Park, and I have rather more positive views about the latter. The Royal Surrey almost killed our former Rector, totally missing what Frimley spotted the following day. My dear departed Mum had a less than satisfactory stay there 20-odd years ago while visiting me. What was prolly a TIA was dismissed as ‘a virus’. FP works in partnership with the MoD, and I think the military discipline rather rubs off on the civvy staff.

            However, since I moved closer to Guildford, the RSCH is the default horse spittle. The business with numbness of the right hand (Ulnar nerve thickening, possibly AZ vaccine reaction) was dealt with promptly, albeit I had nerve conduction studies at the RSCH, an ultrasound scan at Cranleigh, then saw a surgeon at Haslemere. I had another session of nerve conduction studies last Thursday, which were extremely thorough. I have a telephone appointment with the surgeon in February. My view is that the feeling has returned to the extent that I can live with the hand indefinitely. Surgery is an option, but it could make things worse. so I’m inclined not to go there.

        2. That’s something I guess. My brother paid privately to get his cataracts dealt with in 2019.

        3. I hope it gets sorted out for you. On the plus side, everyone I know who has had a cataract operation has had a very successful one.
          Good luck.

    5. It’s good to hear there’s steady progress. Hope Alf gets his cataract sorted soon. Thirty-five weeks is appalling.

  66. A run to Derby today to get started on cleaning Stepson’s flat.
    I’ve been trying to get some response from a number of agencies and they are not interested!

      1. Cleaning.
        The place isn’t too bad, but needs a good clean before he comes back, but after cleaning this place and a previous place I’m not in the mood to be doing it a 3rd time.

        1. Google was my friend when I wanted an agency for cleaning Mother’s house.
          They do a good job, and are now also house-sitting. They just forwarded me 3 months of her post for attention… and sorted some laundry as well. The star rating you see in Google Maps seems reasonable, go for a small private company, and call them to discuss the job with them.
          And – good luck!
          ;-))

        2. I was going to suggest that Phizzee.
          I love Queen of puddings , it is memorable and delicious , my late aunt used to create a masterpiece , and she would use either stewed blackcurrant or raspberry reduced down to a nice thick liquor.

          Delia has a nice recipe that I enjoyed making in the days when we ate puddings .

          Funny how puddings bring back lovely memories .

          https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/collections/delia-online-cookery-school/queen-of-puddings

    2. Galette des rois, using the traditional fava beans so she can eat Harry and Andrew’s livers.

    3. I am thinking about a Victoria sandwich but made with chocolate cake, thick whipped cream and raspberry jam in the middle. The Queen is a fan of chocolate apparently.

  68. That’s me for today. Grey, dreary and drizzly. Same tomorrow. Then – allegedly – a few sunny days.

    Have a jolly evening. Unless you find loud, over made-up Essex women attractive, I should avoid the Beeboid “documentary” on Dubai – actually a film made by the Dubai Tourist Board to promote the interests of the impoverished Sheik

    A demain.

    1. MB watched one programme.
      Let’s say, by the end of it, I was a seething combination of Hyacinth Bucket, Mme Defarge and Rosa Luxemburg.

    1. This is just disgusting. What a can of worms HMG has opened up. Quite deliberately setting the jabbed against the unjabbed and encouraging companies to ramp up the feelings of the self righteous jabbed zealots. Where will it all end?

      1. When it turns out that the vaccinated are acting as a petri dish for worse new variants bypassing the vaccines will the promulgators be hurt?
        I doubt it, but they will deserve execution should it happen.

    2. What has happened to the Left of old, had this happened back in the day half the country would be out on strike.
      They appear to have turned into national socialists.

      1. Quite.
        Essentially the left are and always were, they just disguise their various flavours of totalitarianism.

      1. There’s a link in the article saying similar if jabbed, yet the jabbed are just as likely to pass it on.

        People in England who are fully vaccinated – with at least two doses of most of the approved vaccines – are not required to self-isolate if they have been in close contact with someone infected with Covid-19. However, unvaccinated people contacted through the government’s test-and-trace system must still self-isolate by law.

        from August:
        https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/11/no-need-for-fully-jabbed-covid-contacts-to-isolate-from-monday-confirms-javid

        2. I wouldn’t accept it when we had Covid in the house. I told them we’re not supplying any more information when they phoned and cajoled.

          1. Tell them that three of the occupants died within 24 hours of being vaccinated and who do you sue.

    5. The founder of IKEA was a Nazi sympathiser.
      The company apparently knows how to create ‘the other’.

          1. It is said that talking to oneself is a sign of madness.
            That’s not correct, the only person I know who is almost always right is me. He tells me this all the time during our discussions.

        1. This was on here a couple of weeks back.

          A lawyer writes. It will come to nothing. You read it here first.

          3. You never know. Hope springs eternal. There is something in the air, I sense distancing and backpedalling.

          4. Until those who make the decisions are held to account, with prisons sentences if they can be shown to have been negligent or malfeasant, nothing will change.

          5. I agree. The MSM is suddenly becoming rather sceptical. Apart from the DT, which is schizophrenic. I have a gut feeling that Bill and Melinda have bunged them another few £m.

  72. Evening, all. Just passing through briefly as I have a Parochial Church Council meeting shortly.

      2. Thankfully, the people who are the yea or nay committee to choose the new Rector are very traditional. They’ve already turned down several applicants because they weren’t of the “right stuff” and long may that continue! We’ll have an update tonight. We won’t get anyone who isn’t okay to carry on with the BCP Wednesday service, I’m sure.

        1. Do let me know what happens. We have a “process” about to start.

          Though I no longer attend,my heart sank when the ultra-trendy woman “bishop” said that she had “Just the person for us….”

          1. Our church wardens (feisty women, both) have decided – and correct – ideas about the sort of parish priest we need. I am sure they won’t accept anything less than the right candidate for the job, even if the vacancy continues for another year.

          1. The update is, we’re still looking. Nobody “suitable” has applied. We need a traditional parish priest (my vote would go to a bloke, given my experience with vicarettes and bishopettes) who is happy with the BCP, realises it is a rural parish and will take part in all the activities (the last priest learned to ride so he could take part in a pageant).

          2. Not many people like that are going through vicar school under Welby, I think. Our last curate gave sermons that could have doubled as party political broadcasts for the Labour party. We have had previous incumbents who were left wing, the difference was that they spoke in normal language; this one can’t open her mouth except in left wing buzzwords.

          3. We’ve had the climate change fanatics preaching “the science is settled” – what? No, it isn’t! The bishopette of Berk and head who told us rural erks to get out of our “gas guzzlers” and then got into her Porsche. Then there are the “we must welcome refugees” crowd – you first, mate! Even the ex-RAF chap who, I used to think, was pretty sound, went on about what we can learn from islam! How to blow people up, you mean?

          4. It’s the way they always assume that everyone in the congregation is as privileged as they are!

          5. Not particularly privileged, but the assumption was that we would be on board with the climate change/green/eco lunacy! We’re a rural parish, with lots of farmers and several hunts who care for the land and the environment anyway. What made it worse, was it was Harvest Festival and we didn’t have traditional Harvest hymns like “We plough the fields and scatter”! That caused much unhappy muttering in the pews.

  73. Isn’t Michael Gove an odious little squirt who is getting himself off on the thought that he has demonic power?

    I don’t kow much about the rights and wrongs of the cladding issue but I saw a bit of the BBC News today and in parliament he was telling people:

    We’re coming to get you!

    His tone and his air of gloating relish at the chance to threaten people was foul to see. The nasty little piece of excrement needs a damned good hiding!

    Added to this he stated in the Torygraph today that he thinks that Blair was “a great statesman”. I bet that Sarah Vine must be delighted to have this monster out of her life.

    1. I once used to think that he seemed quite level headed and a good speaker, but now he has gone full globalist

      1. Even if you put gold plating on him his essence will remain the same and it can’t be polished.

    3. Gove was the most militant socialist imaginable at university. It is well documented that many people have never found him a particularly convincing Conservative. I wonder if we shall see a gradual drift back to the left as his opportunities for one of the great offices of state diminish. It wouldn’t at all surprise me to see him back in the Labour party at some point.

    1. All those in power should have to walk home each night, without protection details, through the areas they represent.

        1. And that’s just why I would insist upon it.
          Until these toads get what they impose upon others, nothing will change for the better.

  77. Nigel Farage’s programme on GB News this evening came from Belgrade and of courses concentrated on Djokovic.

    I haven’t yet seen a tabloid headline about

    No-Vax Djokovic

    but it must surely be in the pipeline.

    3. About 20 years ago, ‘The Guardian’ were doing a major push for new subscribers, and dropping a complete weekend edition through every door (or was it selected doors?) in my area. The main story in the REview was by two blind parents … headline “We were so pleased our child was born blind”. I knew this was not the newspaper for me …. into the bin.

      1. That’s as caring and loving as two parents who had deformities from Thalidomide insisting on the woman taking Thalidomide to ensure they could be pleased that their child was also born deformed.

      3. Makes them feel they are “important”. Shows they are insecure, actually (writes someone who can boast a triple barrelled name if need be) 🙂

      5. It’s not just black people- many white people have double barrelled names. Tom Parker- Bowles for example. There are many more but I can’t be bothered to list them.

    2. For you to read in the morning NtN

      Q: What does the receptionist at the sperm clinic say when clients are leaving?

      A: “Thanks for coming!”

      2. When I ban them (in every possible way), I also set the ban to delete all past posts. Maybe that’s what you’re seeing.

    2. These are the illegals coming in via the Channel in rubber boats. When is this government going to open its collective eyes and see what the f**k is going in this, OUR country?
      Doesn’t fit in with the agenda though, does it?

    3. 343920+ up ticks,
      Evening LD / murphy,
      lab/lib/con true colours have been unfurled is what has happened.

      Every vote for them now is giving the voters consent.

    1. My question is

      If you are unvaxxed and/or un-boostered, will the NHS force those injections on you, if you end up in their (tender hehehehe) care

    2. S is just doing as directed. It doesn’t have anything to do with science it just has to do with his bank balance.

      1. I have just tried my usual poker sites on JPJ and DBB UK and there is no access. Bitcoin has also crashed through the floor.

      1. He’s been much better on that score of late. I’m hoping that it’s finally beginning to sink in! He does seem to be extremely slow on the uptake, though. I told him tonight he was as thick as half a dozen short planks and the RAF could turn civilians into airmen in less than 6 weeks’ basic training – he’s had six months, so Two Six!

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