Monday 14 December: After four years the Government ought to be ready for a no-deal Brexit

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/12/14/letters-four-years-government-ready-no-deal-brexit/

668 thoughts on “Monday 14 December: After four years the Government ought to be ready for a no-deal Brexit”

  1. Mornings, all Y’all. 🙂
    Don’t know how it does it, but it’s even darker today than it’s been all December so far.
    Hope you had a good zed and feel fit-for-fight this Monday morning!

    2. Yo Ol

      I am waiting to scream at the firat person to mention the shortest day.!!!!

      Apart from the Leap Day in 2000 all days are exactly the same length 24 hours

      1. Hmm, surely even amongst the most pedantic the longest day would refer to the greatest amount of daylight hours?

      2. Scandi languages make the distinction between day and daylight – so døgn for the 24 hour period that starts at 00:00, and dag for the daylight period.
        So, døgn doesn’t change with the seasons, but dag does.

      5. Good morning OLT. Exactly how long was February the 29th earlier this year? More (or less) than 24 hours?!?!?

        1. A reference, perhaps, to the leap second often added at the end of the year, to account for the Earth’s slowing rotation.

    1. I say!
      Don’t forget to follow the advice posted recently about washing up before and after… I didn’t understand the bit about rimming, I think it was a typo for rhyming, but why that might cause infection remains unclear to me.
      Morning, Bob!

        1. Morning Bob – I had that problem with my putting many times. Thank heavens for that Bob. I had visions of some disgusting bedroom activity. I have a very sensitive nature.

  3. Yo All

    The reality was a long stretch of private housing that eventually led to a heather-covered, hilly piece of common land. I went there often, but
    one day I noticed that some wag had chalked in a letter “t” and,although I couldn’t suppress a giggle, my dream was shattered.

    Just feel sorry for the residents of ‘Shilbottle’

    1. ‘Morning, Rick.

      .Where’s an Astute class when you need one!!

      .Where’s a Full glass when you need one!!

    1. Did someone spy him?

      Some of his stuff was good – but some less so. I liked his early work before his books got fat.

      1. Morning Bill – JlC was his nom de plume . His name was David Cornwall. I did not know that.

  7. Good morning, all. Clear skies – so far as I can see through the dark.

    The negotiations to continue for ever…what a blessing.

  8. Windrush compensation to be raised massively. £10000 and in some cases up to £100000. BBC Radio 4 News.

    1. Thousands, shthousands! The National Debt is £2000000000000. We can afford to borrow it. No different to the PPI racket, which kept finance lawyers in Bollinger for decades. The stupid young can pay the Chinese Magic Fairy when he, she or it asks for the money back. Plenty of fish in the sea.

  9. Morning everyone. The UK is finished. The World is coming apart at the seams and the Apocalypse looms! Nothing to report!

    1. 327453+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      Planet of the apes reality, the three monkeys via the polling booth certainly, without a shadow of doubt, took this Country apart.

  10. Sizewell Nuclear plant in Suffolk looks likely as government starts negotiations to build it. Pressure from the greens to ban sale of petrol and diesel cars before 2029. Plenty of problems for the government in 2021. Radio 4 News.

  11. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    No rain, no fog, and a promise of sunshine this morning…

    Here are today’s Brexit letters:

    SIR – I voted for Brexit and still strongly believe it will be to the benefit of our country in the medium to long term. What staggers me, however, is the blind belief by our politicians that the European Union would agree a deal that gives us unfettered access to its market with none of the obligations.

    If for no other reason, pure vindictiveness by the EU will make sure we are punished for our decision to leave in order to deter others from following suit. It was clear, therefore, that trading on World Trade Organisation terms was the most realistic outcome. Our Government should have been preparing for this for the past four years, not scrambling to make provision at the last minute.

    Terry Lloyd
    Derby

    SIR – In October, Lord Frost, Britain’s chief negotiator, announced that there was no point in continuing to discuss a deal, as Brussels showed no sign of compromise. It sounded strong.

    But then talks resumed. Why? It was obvious then, as now, that the EU has no intention of accommodating the UK with a sensible deal. The opportunity was lost to stick to our guns, give the EU time and an incentive to rethink, and avoid this last-minute humiliation.

    Jennie Naylor
    East Preston, West Sussex

    SIR – The number one rule in sales is that, once you lose a market, it is almost impossible to regain it.

    The EU crows about how the UK will have to pay an import duty of up to 70 per cent on meat and 30 per cent on vegetables, and so on, after leaving the market. No we won’t. It might take some time, but virtually everything we currently buy from the EU can be bought elsewhere, and once the UK has re-sourced its requirements, the EU will have lost forever one of its biggest trading partners.

    Bruce Murray
    Hayling Island, Hampshire

    SIR – From 1999 to 2000 I was the Commanding Officer of HMS Shetland, engaged on fishery protection duties in British waters. My ship, though old, had a cannon, several machine guns and plenty of other small arms.

    As one of three British sea fisheries officers on board, I had powers of arrest and detention for the purposes of upholding the European fishing regulations of the time.

    We conducted numerous boardings and arrested and detained four fishing vessels (two French, one Dutch and one Irish if I remember correctly). This involved placing three of my excellent ship’s company on the detained vessel and requiring its skipper to follow us into the nearest UK port, whereupon there was an investigation and, usually, a swift appearance in court.

    So was I then an “English nationalist” (“Boris Johnson branded ‘English nationalist’ by former Tory chairman”, telegraph.co.uk, December 13), or is it only now, when such actions are associated with Brexit, that some perceive them as wrong?

    Capt Dr David Reindorp RN (rtd)
    Warwick

    1. “If for no other reason, pure vindictiveness by the EU will make sure we are punished for our decision to leave in order to deter others from following suit.” – The EU has been clear about this point for a long time. Why is it still even discussed? They reinforce it daily.

      1. 327453+ up ticks,
        O,
        We as a nation are imo being punished in many respects by the governance party’s, former eu assets, rubber stampers, for the 24/6/2016 result.
        They also reinforce it daily.

    2. I don’t think there’s much of a shock factor in discovering that the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is full of Chinese.

      1. All of us who have seen the very “leftie” TV adverts by HSBC for the New World Order have worked that out already.

  13. SIR – Since the beginning of the first lockdown my vet has declined to do home visits, even for euthanasia.

    Our dog had to be handed over at the door of the veterinary practice and we had to wait outside during the “consultation”. This happens even when a pet needs to be put to sleep. In my case my dog will have to travel to an unfamiliar site and be with unfamiliar people at the end of his life.

    If I can have a plumber come and work in the house, why not a vet?

    Jane Gould
    Whitley Bay, Northumberland

    Our last consultation, a few weeks ago, took place in the car park with the patient in the boot of our car. It was a relatively low-key affair, with minimal precautions. A few weeks before that one, with another practice, it was the full Monty, with our hound taken indoors after the vet’s brief conversation with us. The whole episode was remote and, frankly, OTT.

    1. Our cleaner had to experience that a few weeks ago.
      Her little dog was a great character and Spartie’s chum.

    2. Jane Gould – get a new vet.
      Our cat’s vet was thoroughly practical. Face nappies on, only 4 in the waiting room, otherwise business as normal.
      When you book, they ask you to wait in the car until your appointment time, that’s all.

    3. Why limit to dogs? When it comes to my own euthanasia (when I am noticed as a grumpy old sod and need to be put down), then why should I put in jeopardy social distancing in the PFI Special Measures Centralised NHS unit, when they can just send out a van bearing the lethal injection that can be administered by a delivery driver, registered as an “essential worker” and therefore expendable?

      1. Fine in principle, but we share the same house and postcode with another in the next road…so plenty of wrong deliveries here. I would be a bit put out if euthanasia was to be one of them…

        ‘Morning, JM.

  14. SIR – Since the beginning of the first lockdown my vet has declined to do home visits, even for euthanasia.

    Our dog had to be handed over at the door of the veterinary practice and we had to wait outside during the “consultation”. This happens even when a pet needs to be put to sleep. In my case my dog will have to travel to an unfamiliar site and be with unfamiliar people at the end of his life.

    If I can have a plumber come and work in the house, why not a vet?

    Jane Gould
    Whitley Bay, Northumberland

    Our last consultation, a few weeks ago, took place in the car park with the patient in the boot of our car. It was a relatively low-key affair, with minimal precautions. A few weeks before that one, with another practice, it was the full Monty, with our hound taken indoors after the vet’s brief conversation with us. The whole episode was remote and, frankly, OTT.

    1. Our “friends and partners” eh? I don’t think so (and never did, come to that). Our attempt to divorce the EUSSR has, if nothing else, opened a few eyes.

      ‘Morning, Rik.

    2. Our “friends and partners” eh? I don’t think so (and never did, come to that). Our attempt to divorce the EUSSR has, if nothing else, opened a few eyes.

      ‘Morning, Rik.

    3. Not amongst the Lefty europhiles. Those people are telling me that we shouldn’t have left and that this is why, and that we deserve it after all, they are saying, why should we continue to access something we pay for?

      The last bit seems to confuse them entirely, as if the provision of a product must end because of political disjunction. It really is odd inside their heads.

    4. Seems to me that we will have return all the nuclear waste to France .if French farmers can dump their sh1t we can dump their sh1t.

  16. SIR – As a lad I cycled around Sheffield’s suburbs exploring the characters of each area. Once I came upon a road (Letters, December 12) called Far Lane. Having a dreamy sort of mind, I had visions of cloudy mountains, Chinese temples and other wonderful regions that would be mine to visit.

    The reality was a long stretch of private housing that eventually led to a heather-covered, hilly piece of common land. I went there often, but one day I noticed that some wag had chalked in a letter “t” and, although I couldn’t suppress a giggle, my dream was shattered.

    Joseph Read
    Derby

    That’s nothing, J Read; you should see what they do to the sign for the River Uck near here. Even with the sign shaped to deter such an addition, it doesn’t stop them.

    1. Morning, Hugh.

      SIR — Joseph Read’s reminiscences (Letters, December 14) about amusing graffiti on road signs reminds me of a location off the A17 in Lincolnshire called Penny Hill.

      The residents are weary of finding the ‘P’ converted into a ‘B’ by passing wags.

      A Grizzly B…

  17. SIR – Admiral Lord West (Comment, December 10) rightly criticised the disgraceful decision to suspend all Royal Naval Reserve activity until April 2021 as a budget-saving cut, and referred to the possibility of calling on reservists if there emerges a greater need for the Royal Navy to patrol our coastal waters in regard to fishing.

    Unfortunately, he seems to have forgotten that the Ministry of Defence decided to sign up to the International Maritime Organisation’s STCW-95 regulations, which require bridge watchkeeping officers on all commercial vessels to maintain a minimum of 12 months actual sea time in any five-year period – a requirement impossible for most volunteers to comply with.

    The Royal Navy was under no obligation to implement this for watchkeeping officers on warships, but it did so to allow the qualifications of regular officers to be transferable to the commercial sector.

    In so doing, it ended the longstanding and highly effective service of volunteer reservists operating small warships. Consequently, the Royal Naval Reserve no longer trains executive-branch officers to carry out bridge watchkeeping or sea-command roles.

    This would therefore prevent the Royal Naval Reserve being called on to provide extra patrol capacity, even if additional vessels could be found.

    The regulations could, of course, be cancelled or suspended in relation to warships, but the expertise now no longer exists in the Royal Naval Reserve, other than with officers of List 1 who hold civilian mercantile qualifications and currently serve in the Merchant Navy. They are unlikely to be available for such a role unless called up for compulsory service.

    Cdr Ian M Dunkley RNR (rtd)
    Rochester, Kent

    3. The current Paymaster General is a Royal Navy reservist and could be called up to safeguard the fish. She is also a Leaver, a former Defence Secretary, and one of the more able members of the Cabinet.

  18. SIR – I was not entirely surprised by the report (December 9) that English teenagers are missing their targets in science. Along with the shortage of suitably qualified teachers, there are other factors that have affected science teaching and learning over the past decade.

    In my final years of teaching physics I witnessed the introduction of shorter lessons across the curriculum, which affected the time available for hands-on investigative practical work in science. Quite soon it became evident that science students entering the sixth form lacked proficiency in basic practical skills.

    Interactive white boards and computers play a vital part in education but are no substitute for hands-on investigations and practical work. Unless we recognise the importance of allocating time for these in science and technology we shall be doing our students a huge disservice by restricting their learning opportunities.

    What a tragedy it will be if the number of science students declines.

    Irena Morrison
    Crowborough, East Sussex

    Well said, Irena…she is a lovely, no nonsense retired teacher and a supporter of our local church who is always busy.

      1. Back in my prep school days they used to have a large wooden box delivered containing scientific experiments. I think it came from Oxford. It made the classes so much more interesting.

        1. Failing that, if the master was droning on and you only had note-taking to do, there was always a convenient Bunsen burner to gas the class swot.

    3. I like basic practical skills. The two biology lessons that I remember are dissecting a bull’s eye and blowing up a test tube – something to do with analysing the ingredients of a biscuit. BoB would have been proud of me; I bet even he hasn’t managed that one.

  19. Liam Halligan in today’s DT, taking a well deserved swipe at Little Micron:

    As the UK’s Brexit negotiations reach their endgame, Emmanuel Macron’s Napoleon complex has been on full display. The diminutive French president seems determined to derail the talks, appealing to tub-thumbing voters who like bashing les rosbifs.

    Ahead of next summer’s regional elections, and the 2022 presidential contest, Macron is vying with Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National for blue-collar support from those who rally around the flag of French nationalism.

    That explains his outlandish demand that the UK continues to grant EU boats existing fishing rights, around two thirds of the catch in British waters, for at least the next 10 years.

    But even that sounds reasonable compared with Macron’s earlier threat that the EU will launch a devastating energy embargo against Britain if we refuse to capitulate not just on fishing, but other disputed areas like state aid and the “level playing field”.

    The mooted blockade would not only deny UK energy exporters access to EU markets but cut “top-up access” to European electricity and gas pipelines into Britain as well. That risks a supply squeeze during peak winter demand, potentially halting energy imports from Europe altogether.

    The idea of a Putin-style UK-EU energy boycott is ridiculous, even amid a high-stakes negotiation inevitably involving much chest-puffing and brinkmanship.

    Yes, interconnectors from France, Belgium and Holland have supplied around a tenth of the UK’s electricity this year – and the share can be higher during peak usage. But that’s because imported energy is sometimes slightly cheaper, not because Britain lacks back-up capacity of its own.

    The prospect of a French-led energy embargo is particularly mad given that EDF – majority-owned by the French government – is among Britain’s leading domestic energy producers.

    EDF not only owns 35 wind farms across Britain but runs all eight of the UK’s operational nuclear power stations, generating almost a fifth of our electricity. So for Macron to even suggest cutting UK-EU energy ties is an act of unfathomably commercial folly.

    And the French president’s threat could yet look even more ridiculous once the Government publishes its long-awaited energy white paper, expected in the next few days.

    It’s over a decade since the last such white paper. Given the strategic importance of energy supplies to an advanced economy like Britain, and rapid recent technological advances, the lack of a strategic energy framework for providers and investors has gone on far too long.

    The white paper’s central aim will be to put Britain on a path towards decarbonising our entire energy system. Coal use in UK power plants has already plunged from 54m tons in 2012 to under 3m last year. But we’ll be shifting away from oil and gas too.

    In 2019, Britain became the first major economy to pass a “net-zero” law, requiring us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050. This white paper, then, will stress Downing Street’s environmental credentials, arguing the green energy agenda also means new infrastructure construction and solid jobs.

    The emphasis will be on catalysing investment in non-carbon electricity generation, plus energy storage and battery technology – phasing out fossil fuels not just from power generation, but transport and heat as well. There should also be more encouragement for niche markets full of potential, not least hydrogen fuel cells.

    Set against all this, the Tories will need to make clear decarbonisation won’t be achieved on the back of cash-strapped firms and households. End-user energy costs must be kept down over the coming years, to retain both votes and business competitiveness.

    Ahead of next November’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, though, Boris Johnson wants to position post-Brexit Britain as leading the world in the move away from fossil fuels. And the politics of that effort will likely dominate the response to this energy white paper when it finally sees the light of day. The big story, though, could be nuclear.

    Back in 2018, the Government’s National Infrastructure Commission suggested just one more major nuclear facility should be built beyond the new plant EDF is currently constructing at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

    Then, in September, further doubts were raised over Britain’s nuclear future, when Hitachi walked away from plans to build a plant in Anglesey, citing the “severe” investment environment created by Covid-19.

    This followed Toshiba abandoning plans for a new nuclear facility in Cumbria in 2018. On top of this, when Johnson outlined his 10-point plan for a green industrial revolution in mid-November, he didn’t mention large-scale nuclear reactors, even though all the UK’s existing operational plants are due to be decommissioned by 2035.

    Despite all that, nuclear power developers could well renew plans for UK investment once this energy white paper is published. A paper issued by the Treasury late last month stressed the UK should maintain energy options “by pursuing additional large-scale nuclear projects”, with industry observers struck by the use of the plural.

    While environmental purists shun atomic energy, many now accept the industry’s hugely improved safety record means nuclear can make a major contribution to decarbonisation – “filling the renewables gap when the wind doesn’t blow”.

    The reality is that wind power, while accounting for almost a quarter of UK electricity last year, remains expensive, as well as intermittent.

    The mutual benefits of UK-EU energy collaboration are enormous. Energy trade is physically based and meets essential needs. Cross-Channel systems are linked by real-time trade in electricity and gas, common technology and pan-European companies – along with universal environmental concerns.

    Macron’s use of the energy card perhaps smacks of desperation. Certainly, the European Commission has confirmed that, even under a “no-deal” scenario, “electricity and gas interconnectors can of course still be used”. In May, EDF applied for planning permission to build a new plant at Sizewell in Suffolk. With the Chinese out of favour, the French giant could become even more dominant across the UK’s nuclear industry.

    If Macron showed more willing on fishing rights, governance and other disputed areas, lifting his Napoleonic veto on a free trade agreement, the French could profit mightily from the wholesale upgrade of the UK’s nuclear infrastructure. C’est une situation gagnant-gagnant, Emmanuel. What les rosbifs call a “win-win”.

    This BTL comment caught my eye:

    John Wright
    13 Dec 2020 8:29AM
    The reason for the plural is that a national fleet of electric vehicles will require another 9 Hinkleys to power them. Trouble is, Hinkley has taken 25 years to plan, design and finance – and it STILL isn’t commissioned.

    Allowing the eco-looney fringe to intimidate it into abandoning fracking is one of several power-related errors made by Government. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. And it’s all because they are standing too close to the picture. Look…✅ Current CO2 atmospheric component is 415ppm – 250 millions years ago it was more than 1,000ppm✅ The CO2 warming effect is logarithmic – and we are close now to the upper limit of that effect✅ Scientists divide the earth’s temperature history into three periods – Hothouse Earth, Greenhouse Earth and Icehouse Earth. We are currently in Icehouse Earth.✅ In the last 550 million years, the earth has only had ice at both poles for 9% of that time.It’s all politics, folks, wealth redistribution politics.

    1. A really cold, windless winter plus an EU energy embargo might wake up the Greens and the Government to the crass stupidity of their current proposals and pie in the sky timescales.

    2. This seems quite coherent, yet is nonsense. We need to control, and own our power generation. We need to discard carbon targets as they are meaningless. Fracking is a bad idea unless it is carried out offshore. Hydrogen cells are as practical as perpetual motion machines.
      Please note that tripe like “If Macron showed more willing on fishing rights, governance and other disputed areas” is like saying that we should help a burglar load our our valuables into his sack.

    3. Shifting away from oil and gas to a ‘low carbon future’.

      Well we might be – one where we have no buildings, food or clean water. We need energy. Lots of it cheaply. If government insists on pursuing the idiocy of green then it must first pay the price – let’s turn all their boilers off, then have dirty water from their taps and deny them medicine.

    4. To that I will add; CO2 is plant food – stop building on green fields – CO2 increase LAGS temperature warming and above all, everybody breathes out CO2 so if you want to become zero carbon you’ll have to exterminate everybody, including animal and plant life.

  20. Good morning all.
    A dull & overcast but, so far, dry morning.

    I got to thinking last night, as much as I am looking forward to seeing the back of this disastrous year, I am viewing the oncoming year with considerable trepidation.

    The prospect of continued lockdowns destroying what is left of our small business sectors, pubs remaining shut, the majority perhaps for ever, and the possible turmoil in the USA giving China free reign in South East Asia does not look encouraging.

  21. I wasn’t aware of the Cartoon Museum (London W1) and might well have included a visit to it when next in that area, but perhaps not now they have lost their marbles. (And, before anyone asks…no, I have no idea what ‘cisgender’ means either,)

    William Hogarth out of favour as Britain’s cartoon museum says its displays are overrepresented by ‘white cisgender men’

    Exclusive: An audit, ordered by curators in the wake of Black Lives Matters protests, will address the ‘inherent bias’ in its displays

    By
    Craig Simpson
    13 December 2020 • 9:00pm

    Officials at the UK’s Cartoon Museum are preparing to strip back displays of some of Britain’s best-known satirists because the galleries are over-represented by “white cisgender men”.

    Curators at the London institution say they are currently “interrogating” its collection of more than 6,000 cartoons and comic artwork to address an “inherent bias” which largely favours white cartoonists.

    The audit, ordered in the wake of Black Lives Matters protests, is designed to highlight more “modern and diverse” work with a view to re-select works to display in the gallery.

    It means pieces by artists such as Georgian satirist and painter William Hogarth are likely to feature less prominently in future, but museum bosses insist it was not seeking to remove cartoons by famous masters.

    Director Joe Sullivan said: “The climate of BLM has opened the eyes of decision-makers in museums to the necessity, and public appetite, for properly interrogating our collections

    “From our perspective, our collection – like many museums – is over-represented with works by white cisgender men, which of course includes essential and significant works from artists such as HM Bateman, James Gillray, William Hogarth.”

    “Our responsibility is to acknowledge the inherent bias that is created by the situation that historically certain groups have had better access to participating in and collecting significant artworks.”

    Hogarth became widely known for lampooning British society during the 18th century during his work, taking a satirical look at themes including alcoholism, prostitution and social climbing in his prints and paintings.

    It has been claimed that the artist also included subtle digs against the racism of his contemporary slave owning society through his inclusion of black figures in his works.

    Work on display at the museum includes pieces from the satirical Victorian magazine Punch along with artwork from The Beano, Watchmen, and Rupert the Bear.

    The Telegraph cartoonist Bob Moran is also represented in the vast collection of material.

    The Cartoon Museum said it is not seeking to remove works by famous masters of the artform from the site, but to balance out the representation in its displays by going through its items one by one.

    Mr Sullivan explained: “The current work we are doing on this is an audit of our collection to inform a new collecting policy that will guide what we collect in future and why.

    “From my point of view, and The Cartoon Museum, we are definitely moving towards displaying less Hogarths and more modern and diverse work.”

    The curator added that this “doesn’t mean we aren’t displaying Hogarth” and similar old masters “are incredibly important in the story of cartooning” and the “backbone of our collection”.

    The review will go through the collection item by item and will begin in 2021, with a possible rehang of the gallery by 2023.

    3. I believe that there may be a, “public appetite, for dismissing buffoons such as Mr Sullivan”.
      Contrary to the BBC view of social history, the blacks in this country were of no significance at all, and their presence was not noticeable. In the sixties, I may have known by sight most of the nonwhites in Edinburgh.

        1. Indeed so. Yet there were lots of them at King Arthur’s Court and other places of antiquity such as Londinium. What happened to them?

          Sources: Guardian , BBC, historical TV programmes made this century…

    4. Bring forth the cartoons that should be included, but are not.
      Make a judgement as to which of the hung & unhung cartoons are best representative of development, politics and the like.
      Hang the best cartoons.
      WGAF who drew them?

    5. ‘Morning, Hugh.

      cisgender
      /sɪsˈdʒɛndə/
      adjective
      denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex.

      2. cisgender = a non word. Cis may be applied to molecules. The Romans applied it to Gaul. It should not and must not ever be applied to persons.

        I do not care how others choose to identify themselves but I see no reason for the vast majority to be re-defined in the light of a tiny minority. If they wish to define themselves as “trans” so be it, they do me no harm. But when they decide that they have the right to re-define everyone they have gone too far.

        We are not molecules. WE ARE NOT CIS.

    6. If there are any they don’t want, I can find spaces on the walls of Allan Towers.

      Any chance in 2023 of a re-hanging of Mr. Sullivan?

    1. Rose Hudson – Wilkin is the first Cof E black woman bishop, is the Honorary Chaplain of Roedean . She is also Bishop of Dover.

      Hudson-Wilkin has been outspoken about the poor representation of black and minority ethnic people in leadership positions in the church, accusing it of institutional racism. She is one of four minority ethnic bishops out of more than 120. The most senior, John Sentamu, archbishop of York, is retiring next year.

      We can only guess how much influence she exerts at Roedean.

    2. Maybe, if we ever get our business going again, we should bar any pupils from woke schools from coming on our courses for fear that they would corrupt and indoctrinate the other students. And yes, in the past we have had students on our courses from both Eton and Roedean!

    3. I liked this BTL – Don’t forget Madame Tinubu, a Nigerian slave trader. One section of a Tinubu biography, referred to as the Amadie-Ojo Affair, captures a slave trading deal gone sour in 1853 (notably after the 1852 Treaty abolishing slavery in Lagos) wherein Madam Tinubu tells another slave trader (Domingo Martinez) that “she would rather drown the slaves [20 in number] than sell them at a discount”. Will that be in the new history book?

    4. So has The Sky At Night – this week’s episode was decrying the pale males who make up the science’s history and hobbyists. A woman, whom I hadn’t realised was less than 100% white (bit like Mrs Sparkle) was moaning she didn’t see anyone like herself in the field. Can I help it if we’re all nerds?

  24. Will Covid-19 vaccinated individuals be required to self isolate and be tested for Covid-19 if they are found to have been close to a Covid-19 confirmed case? If so can the Covid tests differentiate between a vaccinated individual and a confirmed non vaccinated case? If not, will that cause problems for Track and test? I think it will.

      1. If it has Bill, I must have missed the announcement. The number of positive cases is rising but Covid death rates are levelling off . Care workers and their patients are to be vaccinated now. Whether the care home patients are given the choice of refusing the vaccine is doubtful. The whole thing is a mess.

        1. Speaking to friends who have a relative in a care home then the answer is yes, they have the choice to refuse. If they do not have capacity to make a choice then whoever holds that legal capacity on their behalf has a choice.

  26. More businesses which have done reasonably well in the year are returning the money which the government gave them to survive the lockdown.
    Will MPs who really didn’t need the tax free £10000 given to them to enable them to work from home follow this trend and return the money to the Treasury.
    I reckon that would be around £6million. After all they only needed to add ZOOM at no expense to their computers.

      1. Good morning Peddy

        Our ‘order book’ is almost completely empty for 2021. A couple of provisional bookings for the summer but nothing yet for the spring.

        We are living on our savings – and are getting little help from the French state.

        Our avaricious and greedy politicians both in Britain and here in France are beneath contempt. And those in the public sector who still want pay rises have the Je suis toute droite, Jacques (as they don’t say in France) and allez vous faire foutre (which they do) and is not very polite.

      2. But only if you don’t want a sensible answer.

        I’ve made the position re MPs’ allowances clear above. They will not be having a pay rise (they have no control over it) because for next year it has been dropped.

      2. Morning Horace, my elder son in Texas set up a ZOOM connection for a three-way connection between his brother and me. We had to cancel the connection because my younger son, a physics teacher, had totally different political views which easily led to quite heated discussions between the three of us. I don’t know if the Chinese spies could fathom what we were talking about. My elder son contacts me weekly on my i-pad now.

      3. The free version only lasts 30 minutes then you have to log out and log on again. If you want unlimited time (as for Parish meetings and AGMs) you need to buy a copy.

        1. I am a member of a group that has monthly meetings. They are now on Zoom and so I do not, cannot, participate.
          I have only ever downloaded one program (app or whatever) to my Mac, the Ninox Database.

    3. The MPs were not “given” anything, nobody handed them a blank cheque. Their office allowance was increased, but those who did not require it will not have claimed it… it could only be claimed, through the proper channels, for appropriate equipment. In the main that was equipment for their staff to work at home, the provision of laptops and small home printers. The MPs themselves already owned the necessary portable equipment, but most of their staff did not. It is not permitted to carry out MP’s casework on an insecure home computer (that’s not a rule they MPs make, it is one they have to abide by).

      1. If they had to submit receipts and the claims were properly audited, then I give a reluctant fair enough.
        HOWEVER, given the past history of the way MPs have kicked the arse out of their expenses and the slack regime they appear to be under, I will not criticise anyone who has suspicions over this allowance.

        1. They have always had to submit receipts. Claims are now far more thoroughly audited. There never was a “slack regime” and there is a much tighter one now.

          HOWEVER, you should be aware that the “expenses scandal” was 95% fiction. It was confected by the Daily Telegraph with a view to discrediting the then government… a fact which is clear from the tiny number of actual cases which were brought. MPs had been encouraged – nay ordered – to maximise their expenses in lieu of a proper pay rise. In addition many of the supposed bills were bill for many items where one or two items only had been claimed – the DT showed pictures of lists of items not claimed and actually lied about those claims and pretended they were other than they were.

          I’ve known several MPs over the years, of all colours, and the vast majority a) are granted very little power to change anything and b) are honest men and women doing their best. It should be noted that doctors and other professionals who stand for parliament frequently take a pay cut to do the job. If making money was all that interested them, they wouldn’t do it.

          If you believe what you read in the press…. I reserve the right to be very critical of those who are sceptical only when they wish to be.

  28. A couple of ConHome articles:

    https://www.conservativehome.com/localgovernment/2020/12/mark-shelford-independent-police-and-crime-commissioners-are-less-accountable-than-party-politicians.html?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Monday 14th December 2020&utm_content=Monday 14th December 2020+CID_1a07b1d107d9f7301d49b4b1c76bc6a2&utm_source=Daily Email&utm_term=Mark Shelford Independent Police and Crime Commissioners are less accountable than party politicians

    https://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2020/12/john-redwood-why-we-would-be-better-off-with-no-deal.html

      1. 327453+ up ticks,
        AS,
        The submissive, appeasement route they are taking tis in the operating manual as a must.

    1. And the answer is yes of course they can. Vaccines don’t make you immune from disease at all, they make you quick at fighting it off, often before symptoms have arisen.
      When you first catch a virus it can be days while you remain asymptomatic. It takes several weeks for the body to kick into gear to fight off a newly encountered bug. Vaccines give that a kick start for the future, just like a natural infection would but with less risk for most nasty bugs.
      Your body will still encounter these bugs, you’ll just fight them off much quicker, before they can make you ill in general.

      1. But it still means someone who isn’t vaccinated holds no greater risk of transmitting it than a vaccinated one. So they should be worried, if all it does is give them a VERY mild case of it. The only way they can limit their expose to not catch it at ALL is for THEM, not everyone else, to stay at home and have no contact with antone. Hopefully the idiots writing into the DT making these stupid claims will save us the bother and stay away from everyone else whilst we go about our lives – with or without vaccines.

        1. ‘Immunity’ from diseases seems poorly understood in general. There is never real true immunity, only rapid response because it’s something that’s been encountered before.

      3. So even if the whole population is vaccinated, we should still stay 6 ft apart and wear masks? To avoid passing on the virus?

        1. If the whole population is vaccinated then covid-19 will go the way of measles and largely be so mild an illness hardly anyone notices they have it.
          Vaccines don’t give you true immunity, they give you rapid response. We just call that immunity because we don’t notice the bugs we catch that we’ve been vaccinated against, but we do still catch them and could possibly transmit them.

          2. Covid-19, the natural illness route to ‘immunity’ kills quite a few people and a lot more get quite sick and stay sick for a week or two because when the body encounters a bug it hasn’t seen before it takes a few weeks getting itself up to speed on how to fight it.

            A vaccine will in essence mimic a disease. It makes your body think you have a disease so you spend the next few weeks after vaccination learning how to fight it, so when you do get the real bug the body is prepared from day 1 to deal with it resulting in much milder illness to the point of usually being asymptomatic.

          4. I think (and I know I will sound madder than usual) that there is a gigantic plot under way to subjugate the indigenous populations of western Europe. The Plague (a nasty ‘flu) has nothing whatever to do with it EXCEPT that, miraculously, it provides the New World Order with a wonderful “excuse” to beat us into submission.

  33. Russia suspected of hacking into US Treasury as part of ‘huge cyber espionage campaign’. 14 December 2020

    The US government has not publicly identified who might be behind the hacking, but three of the people familiar with the investigation told Reuters that Russia was currently believed to be responsible for the attack. Two of the people said the breaches were connected to a broad campaign that also involved the recently disclosed hack on FireEye, a major US cybersecurity company with government and commercial contracts.

    Hackers broke into the NTIA’s office software, Microsoft’s Office 365. Staff emails at the agency were monitored by the hackers for months, sources said.

    The hackers are “highly sophisticated” and have been able to trick the Microsoft platform’s authentication controls, a person familiar with the incident told Reuters.

    “This is a nation state,” said a different person briefed on the matter.

    “Three of the people.” “Two of the people.” “Sources said.” “A person familiar.” “A different person.”

    In other words it’s all bollocks!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/13/foreign-backed-hackers-break-us-treasury/

    1. They (the Dems, media chums and never Trumper allies) want to change the narrative from the Hunter & Jow Biden dossier to distract the public.

  36. It made me larf to read that the sinister Hitlerine with seven children is an ANGLOPHILE – as is, allegedly, Barmier (sic)

      1. Is he wearing a blue suit to try and ingratiate himself with Biden rather than a red one which would suggest affinity with Jeremy Corbyn and the extreme left wing of the Conservative Party which is rapidly becoming mainstream.

  38. Good afternoon from a Saxon Queen with sharpened long bow and blooded axe.
    No more ‘ negotiating ‘ no more gerrymandering no more nonsense from the EU and remainers. We leave in January with a hard Brexit and fully free of EU shackles .

      1. Hello Mr Viking, okay thank you, well under the weather for awhile now and being quiet ( for a change:) but basically okay. I hope everything is well with you ? And that the Covid stuff isn’t being too much of a pain.

      1. Hello Hugh, the Saxon Queen has been on her dark age travels of course:)
        Its nice to see you, I hope all is well with you .

        1. It is, thankyou. Your absence has been noticed…have you been on a fizzer for ‘delivering’ yet more GBH to those stroppy Vikings?

    1. I’m still unable to see at my profile or notifications nor anybody else’s! It’s blooming frustrating as I have to use old mans laptop to check it out! Hope I haven’t offended anybody – do let me know!

      1. You couldn’t possibly be offensive. That takes someone who is bitter and doesn’t value their self worth. 🙂

      2. Yeah! I don’t mind telling yer! I’M offended! BIG time! OK? I’m a sensitive sole at best and I’m OFFENDED!!!!!!

        Er … what am I supposed to be offended AT?

        1. Love it Grizz! It was a “just in case” as my access to this wonderful site and its fabulous contributors, is severely curtailed and its jolly frustrating! It is less than “immediate” !

      3. There is stuff about clearing cookies and history – but I know nothing – ask an expert NoTLLer.

        1. Thank you Beagley Bill! I know even less about these things than you! However my OM has run a diagnostic? and a sooper dooper virus checker and its clean! Apparently…

          1. Clearing cookies etc is nothing to do with whether your PC is clean and/or virus free). As I understand it, clearing them unclogs bits of the engine that prevent you, for example, getting full access to Discurse.

            I was unable to see BTL comments on The Grimes. Their “helpline” was as unhelpful as most helplines are. Eventually, I “re-started” and the problem was solved.

            Click on “power -(bottom left). There should be three options. Choose “restart”. See whether that makes any difference.

          3. Then I cannot help you. Someone round here can probably explain how to “re-start” (NOT turn off and on) even an Ipad (whatever that is).

  40. I suggest, when you have a while, viewing Dave Cullen’s latest video on the pandemic and the PR scare tactic campaign. It’s not on his YT channel (besides, YT is apparently down at the moment anyway) but on BitChute:

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/Hmxo720ccw4V

    Its about an early 2019 lecture given by the Belgian pandemic ‘supremo’ about what he did to get the public ‘on board’ as regards the Swine flu ‘pandemic’ (which wasn’t) back in 2011. A certain professor we all now know makes a cameo appearance attending – coincidence?

  41. I thought it was just my laptop unable to access my emails but apparently it a total outage of all Google services everywhere!

  44. That so-called University professor pretending like the situations in NZ and the UK are comparable as regards what we should’ve done as regards lockdown (or otherwise) etc just shows how naive and ill-informed much of the supposed intelligencia are, and the entitlement culture that pervades academia these days. NZ is roughly the same size (geographically) as the UK, but has a sixth of the population (likely quite a bit more, given estimates of illegal immigration put our total at 80M not 68M), a lot less tourists, a huge amount less business travellers and goods due to it not being a worldwide business and travel hub, plus it is 1000 miles from the nearest nation, Australia, which itself is quite isolated.

    He has a guanateed job where he’s seen no decrease in pay, whilst most others working in the private sector will have at the very least had to endure a 20% pay cut if furloughed, real-life pay cuts or redundancy due to less work being available to their employers and likely the government wanting their money back via increased taxes for those who were furloughed.

    That he is apparently some leftist eco-warrior does not surprise me. God help those he ‘teaches’ (more like indocrinates). And the DT continues to publish this rubbish and seemingly support it in its own propaganda pages.

    1. You can make any argument appear valid if you only pick a few points to validate your cause.

      For example: The UK will never be able to emulate NZ while there are so many lorry drivers crossing the channel each day, add in the immigrants and you cannot reach the level of isolation NZ achieved.

      1. Not sure if you are arguing aagainst or for my point, but you appear to be doing both – against in the first paragraph, and making the case for mine in the second.

  45. Having claimed a few minutes ago that my account doesn’t exist, Google has now opened my gmail but there’s still an error message about not recognising contacts. Sent an e-mail to my BBC address just to test it and that hasn’t arrived. Deep joy.

        1. Good afternoon, Our Susan. Does the chap at St Barts use the Propers from the BCP? Or the modern lectionary?

          1. The Sunday morning Eucharist is a traditional language service which uses the order of the Common Worship version but takes the individual elements – the Creed, confession, Lord’s Prayer etc – from the BCP. The choir sing the Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus Dei in Latin but the canticles in the evening are mostly in English. All bible readings for all services are from the King James Version and of course Evensong is pure BCP. .

      2. YoyTube was also down for much of the UK, but is now ‘back up’. Lots of problems yesterday on that platform – poor buffering on livestreams from the UK, slow loading, etc. I’m sure they’ll blame Brexit, conservatives, ‘anti-vaxxers, ‘climtae-deniers’ or the Russians.

    3. Denial of service attack on Google and other sites.
      Apparently the Deep State is trying to delete all Hunter Biden’s e-mails!

  46. 327452+ up ticks,

    breitbart,
    Farage Criticises ‘Dangerous’ Govt Open Migrant Camps After Several Illegals Abscond,

    Considering he aided / abetted johnson to an 80 seat win why the crib ?

    The ovis surely know the pedigree of the lab/lib/con coalition by now after witnessing the consequences of mass UNCONTROLLED immigration

    ie Mass CONTROLLED, concealed for 16 plus years paedophile actions,
    under the racism, submissive,appeasing, pcism umbrella tells me that the real danger merchants are in point of fact,and on evidence before your very eyes, the lab/lib/con coalition party.

    Why does the same voting pattern NEVER alter from decade to decade ?

    1. Ogga, old troop, d’ya know what – we’ve actually got the message about the same old, same old voting pattern?

      Until there is a viable alternative, despite your pissing and moaning, nothing will change so, please, find something else to comment on.

      Repetition is so boring and causes a great turn-off.

      1. 327453+ up ticks,
        Afternoon NTN,
        It is a fact that has to be repeated time & time again for the next 3 decades at least to
        counteract the last 3 decades of the three monkey
        voting pattern.
        That pattern gives carte blanche to the continuation of mass murder, mass knifings / acid scarring, and imo the most damaging of ALL mass rape & abuse of children which then
        condemns them to a lifetime of mental suffering.

        I see paedophilia receiving more attention via cover-up than attacking the odious paedo plague
        by the governance party’s.

        Do you really mean “until there is an alternative we will continue to vote for the coalition”

        If so more kids will suffer, mass murder/ knifings & acid scarring will continue etc,etc.

        How about “we” support an up & coming party
        as many of us was, in regards to the real UKIP under Gerard Batten until treachery took a hand.

        In my eyes supporting & voting lab/lib/con is a serious health risk & has been known to kill.

        So I will continue, as those did for the last three decades when they were amassing the countries current fortunes via the ballot booth.

        LEST WE FORGET.

        1. For all your bluster, Ogga, you still offer no viable alternative other than not voting, which would let more of the left-wing socialist in, to do their destructive worst.

          And don’t preach “LEST WE FORGET” to me; as the son of a soldier who fought in both World Wars and who himself spent 10 years himself serving his country, I need no preaching from you about duty.

          Until there is a VIABLE alternative and not a craven NEC, interested in its own welfare, I shall do as my conscience dictates without repetitive boring homilies from you.

          1. 327453+up ticks,
            NtN,
            “Bluster” facts,many cannot face are you really saying that a chap who fought in two world wars
            would support this treacherous lab/lib/con political tripe that the ovis keep returning to power ?
            I say with confidence, I find that very hard to believe.

            By the by who is your choice of party,an answer is optional.

            “Craven NEc” if you mean UKIp then you are being to kind, many of us left when Gerard Batten was denied a candidate place for the leadership elections after already proving himself a very able leader for a year successfully rebuilding the party.

            Many are in abeyance waiting either Ann Marie Waters or Laurence fox but for sure NOT any of the toxic trio.
            Different ball game now than in Tommy Atkins days
            Lest we Forget.

  51. SIR – Sherelle Jacobs (“Lockdown-sceptics can still win the argument”, Comment, December 10) calls the precautionary principle “the most dangerous orthodoxy to invade the West’s institutions since Marxism” and suggests that it is responsible for a “50-year corrosion of common sense”, particularly when it comes to the UK response to Covid-19.

    I must dispute this in the strongest terms. The truth is the very opposite: the precautionary principle is far from being an orthodoxy – indeed, it has rarely been observed. Had it been deployed earlier and with more force at the start of the year (as my colleagues and I campaigned for), Covid would have been stifled at birth, as happened in New Zealand and Taiwan. Instead, the Government’s lukewarm response to the crisis – essentially pushing the insane gamble of herd immunity without a vaccine – in the first three months of 2020 resulted in tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths and, ironically, a greater infringement on our liberty over time than has occurred in New Zealand, Australia and South Korea.

    The precautionary principle is vital to the safety and well-being of humanity and the planet. Often described using proverbs such as “look before you leap”, at its heart the precautionary principle is a safety net in an uncertain and often precarious world. It is common sense.

    As Ms Jacobs suggests, there will be more pandemics; far from finding a “better approach”, the precautionary principle must play a decisive role – in a way it definitely hasn’t in this case – in policy about serious environmental and public health threats.

    Professor Rupert Read
    University of East Anglia

    One of the leading BTL comments:

    Matt CC
    14 Dec 2020 12:39AM
    Ah “Professor Rupert Read”: [AKA extinction rebellion] despite the cuddly child-evoking name he is a climate changer zealot who has air time at the WEF. “Agenda: Moi?”

    Why the DT can’t be bothered to check nor ask contributors to be candid is beyond me. But there you go.

    I suggest he takes that beam out of his eye before we take the mote out of ours.

    [East Anglia: jolly hockeystick curves; remember that?]

    1. If Professor Rupert Read thinks that folk in the UK have suffered a greater infringement on their liberty than those in Australia, it’s clear he has never watched Avi Yemini’s podcasts from Melbourne.

    1. Highlighting, Anne, what we NoTTLers have been saying since June – the government figures and pronouncements are a classic example of bullshit baffling brains.

    3. I sang that in my school choir as well as Stenka Razin, a Cossack song. I actually enjoyed singing both of them.

      1. When I was learning Russian we had to learn Russian songs (not as daft as it sounds as it helps with the pronunciation and rhythms of the language) and Stenka Razin was one of them, along with Kalinka and Katyushka.

  54. Bookies hint Britain is odds on to see its first festive flurries in five years as December is set to be COLDEST on record. 14 December 2020.

    Britain could be in for its third white Christmas in the past decade next week after the odds were cut to just 1/4.

    The UK has not seen snow fall on Christmas Day since 2015 when it was observed at a tenth of weather stations, which itself was five years after widespread flurries fell in 2010 during the coldest December for a century.

    Many parts of the UK have already seen snow at the start of this month amid widespread sub-zero temperatures, and now there are hopes that it could return with cold air set to push south towards the UK by Boxing Day.

    Good God! Doesn’t that make them Climate Deniers or something?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9050755/UK-weather-Bookmakers-hint-Britain-White-Christmas.html

    1. If you point out to the Climate Change luvvies that the weather patterns in the UK don’t actually appear to be changing very much – warmish in summer and coldish in winter, damp most of the time and windy here and there – the usual retort is that weather is NOT climate BUT, BUT, shirley climate is just the accumulation of weather patterns?

      3. Sue, I may suggest that there is a very strong correlation between weather and climate in that slightly unusual weather usually results in a climate of hysteria….

      4. The luvvies invented the specious term “climate change” because they couldn’t sustain the argument for its former name of “global warming”.

    3. Ironically, this brings predictions into line with those of climate scientists of 40 or 50 years ago who were forecasting the onset of another Ice Age.

      1. Caroline’s father, a geologist, was sure that we were heading for another ice age. On the other hand he was an enthusiast for the EU.

        But the best thing about the excellent relationship we had with each other was that any differences in political opinions we might have had did not affect our warm friendship.

      2. I well remember that fear in the seventies. It made the Great Global Warming Scam difficult to swallow.

    4. I will enjoy listening to the greenies moaning about the cold and asking why the government doesn’t do something.

      Obviously, at that point they will have no viable solution other than ordering diesel generators for themselves.

    1. Bunch of ignoramuses, Sue. I would ignore them other than saving the good stuff to gloat over the black man’s discomfort.

      1. I think it’s a great idea that they send the Hogarth collection over to St Barts but they won’t of course. Selling it and making a fortune seems far more likely?

    2. #MeToo but three slices of Scottish smoked salmon – two in a sandwich and the rest on a piece of brown bread with lemon and paprika.

      Totally sated, after washing down with a postprandial whisky and water.

    3. Lunch was a pitta bread filled with grilled bacon and scrambled egg, followed by a stroll for an hour to walk off the calories.

      1. Lunch was 3 slices of sourdough toast with duck pâté, washed down with cranberry juice..

    4. I’ve only ever bought two Cornish pasties that lived up to the hype.

      1. At the Turk’s Head pub on St Agnes, Isles of Scilly (the pub with the best view in the world).
      2. From Byford’s delicatessen in Holt, Norfolk.

      1. I’ve been to the Turk’s Head – we stayed three times on St Agnes in the early 90s. Before I met him, my OH was the postmaster on St Agnes for a couple of years in the early 80s. He left, and his then wife stayed for another 10 years or so.

        1. We used to go to Tresco for a week in May in the late ’70s, staying in an apartment in the castle. Then the whole island went ‘timeshare’, so that was the end of that, but we visited most of the islands.

          1. May in Scilly is a lovely time of year, especially if the the weather is clear. Well, it’s the best time of year anywhere……

          2. In those days it was ‘between the seasons’, so very quiet. We always had very good weather, but sometimes a bracing breeze.

        2. I visited Scilly first in 1992, twice in 1993, 1994 and 1995 and once in 1997. I’ve not been back since. Who knows, we may have passed each other?

          I always stayed on St Mary’s but spent considerable time on St Martin’s and St Agnes, and occasional time on Bryher and Tresco.

    5. When they first started out Ginsters were excellent.
      Then, when they began promoting themselves as THE Cornish Pasty, the quality plumited.

    6. For reasons best left unsaid down here in Somerset in the ’60s they were known as badger pies, probably based on some urban myth but they did seem to consist of a grey/brown lumpy slurry contained in a chewy outer case of cardboard.

  57. OT – life in the Quercy (France) in 2019.

    Brother and sister living in the house in which they were born. Making garlic and bread soup….. The fire provides all the heat in the house. There are French subtitles (as the couple speak Occitan) – but you don’t really need any words. I have wracked my brain – but cannot think of anywhere in England where people still live like this. And are happy. As the lady says towards the end, “Too much comfort is bad for the World”.

    https://youtu.be/JaVpaRK55ag

    1. Lovely film. When staying in Brittany we visited a little restaurant that cooked over an open fireplace, very similar to the one shown.

      1. The friends who live in Normandy, which whom I usually stay, have an open fireplace with a pit and they cook lots of stuff on that. The house is modern(ish), but very traditionally built.

    2. Bill, I don’t know if you have ever heard of Hannah Hauxwell. I remember seeing the original program years ago. She lived alone on her farm here in England – conditions terrible. Quite a bit on you tube on her. The program reduced people to tears to see this old lady struggle the way she did. Well worth a watch if you didn’t see the originals. She ended up in a warm care home for her last few years before dying.

      2. There was a news special on her put on by BBC Look North, Leeds, a few years back when she was still alive.

    3. Youngsters, should we be reduced by the Great Reset to living like, this would be all at sea. They wouldn’t have an idea where to start!

        1. It will be a steep learning curve. I hope I’m there to say, “told you so, but you wouldn’t listen” 🙂 Not all youngsters are signed up to the green agenda. My twenty-something neighbour, to whom I was chatting this morning, is very sceptical, particularly about electric cars and where the power is going to come from.

    4. Apart from the fact that on the boat I have diesel central heating a 4 ring induction hob, fridge, washer drier, bread-maker and a bath I can relate to this couple….

    1. It was on the 15.00 News bulletin. Possibly Herts too. Hancock to make an announcement within the hour.

    2. It will almost certainly guarantee that thousands of businesses will go bust and London will become a wasteland of closed premises.
      And all for what?
      To save a relatively small number of already very old or very poorly people, most of whom will in all probability be dead within 18 months or thereabouts.

      In exchange, unemployment will rocket, mental health will deteriorate, people will lose their homes, divorces will increase, suicides will rise.

      It is time that somebody started to say enough is enough, we are going to have to sacrifice a few for the good of the many. It is what happens when a country is at war and at the moment we are surrendering to the enemy within.

      And yes, I do appreciate that this is callous.

        1. That’s the problem.

          Perhaps Welby could get out and say it’s actually the Christian thing to do.
          “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

          The Duke of Edinburgh springs to mind, or another high-profile oldie, like David Attenborough.

          1. You can read Professor Schwab’s book about the Great Reset.

            He talks about taking advantage of any pandemic that might occur.

            He also invented the phrase “Build Back Better”,

      3. And on top of this (Covid-induced) economic disaster, lo! ‘We can’t risk a no deal Brexit’. You heard it here first.

          1. My nasty, suspicious mind keeps thinking this has been the plan since late last year (when the first cases, although not acknowledged, started to appear).

      4. London will look like North Shields but it will take more than a bus ride to escape.
        :-((

      5. Cov-19 is the flu and people always die from it. In 2014 more than 28,000 people died from the flu. No headlines, no lockdowns, no face nappies.
        This is This is about two things. Big pharma making billions from probably useless vaccines and the elites taking firm control of their populations. Build back better, new normal and such carp.

        They tried it in 2009 with so called swine flu which the WHO wrongly nominated as a pandemic. The plan failed partly because a number of people were injured permamently by the vaccine and were compensated by their governments because big pharma had been indemnified. Sound familiar? two things. Big pharma making billions from probably useless vaccines and the elites taking firm control of their populations. Build back better, new normal and such carp.

        They tried it in 2009 with so called swine flu which the WHO wrongly nominated as a pandemic. The plan failed partly because a number of people were injured permamently by the vaccine and were compensated by their governments because big pharma had been indemnified. Sound familiar?
        Edited because it went before I had finished,

        1. This is about two things. Big pharma making billions from probably useless vaccines and the elites taking firm control of their populations. Build back better, new normal and such carp.

          They tried it in 2009 with so called swine flu which the WHO wrongly nominated as a pandemic. The plan failed partly because a number of people were injured permamently by the vaccine and were compensated by their governments because big pharma had been indemnified. Sound familiar?

        2. I am sure that it is deadlier for certain sections of the population.

          It’s supposed to have killed 60,000+ although I think that figure is bollocks.

          BUT, I also think the country has gone completely mad.

          1. I think it was during the 1968-69 flu epidemic that 60,000 died and no-one knew except relatives and friends because occasionally that is what ‘flu outbreaks do. Everyone got on with their lives and there was no hysteria from the media. The 2008-2009 epidemic H1N1 was a much lower key outbreak, but also it highlighted the folly of a rushed vaccine.

          2. Agreed.

            What we are seeing now is policy-making by social media.
            Whip up any sort of twitter-storm and you can change pretty much any policy overnight.

      6. I don’t think it’s callous I think it’s realistic. I certainly don’t want to hang onto a thread of existence I would rather depart quickly.

        1. I feel the same, but it could be that many people would take issue with me, as in effect I am stating that they or their very elderly relatives’ lives or quality of life, should be sacrificed for my younger ones quality of life

  59. Alok Sharma was asked by Nick Robinson on BBC Radio 4 News this morning what Boris meant by an Australian deal. He asked Alok if Australia had a tunnel or a ferry to the UK. Alok ignored the question but I felt I could punch Robinson on the nose for his nonsensical questions.

    1. If the EU wasn’t so vindictive, and the UK so full of anti-democrats trying to cancel the referendum result, we could have had a Japanese or an Australian style trade deal from the off and then negotiated all the “unwinds”, restoring full sovereignty, fishing, services etc. and it could probably all have been done and dusted a couple of years ago.

      1. Bluddy Robinson wittering on about our having a physical tunnel to Franece as a reason why we should trade with it.

        Dear life, the absurdity of these people.

  60. The headlines in the DT today make it pretty clear that Boris Johnson has given up trying. The only politician who seems to to have grasped this is Anne Widecombe.

    Here is a post I made very late last night and so, with apologies to Peddy who had probably gone to bed when I posted it , here it is again:

    A deal is likely, but Britain and the EU must learn to trust again
    Brussels is guilty of moving the goalposts, but an agreement is in sight and Britain will be free to go its own way

    NICK TIMOTHY

    “Britain should be free to diverge from the European Union regulatory framework, but if divergence causes significant, demonstrable harm to its member states, the EU will have the right to take action.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/13/deal-likely-britain-eu-must-learn-trust/

    This is unbelievable. If a deal is agreed on this basis then Brexit has been completely betrayed

    I saw Anne Widecombe on the SW BBC New. She said that the one thing that was sure was that we would have a fudge “deal”.

    The only question to resolve now is will it be Vanilla, Chocolate or Walnut Fudge?

    1. “The only question to resolve now is will it be Vanilla, Chocolate or Walnut Fudge?”

      Decisions, decisions …… let’s leave it to the fudge-packers in Westminster, they’re the experts.

      1. They are now going to examine the possibilities of making a fish-flavoured fudge. However, there will have be endless debate as to whether that fish flavour should be that of mackerel, herrings, plaice or pollocks. Pollocks looks like the most likely at the moment.

    3. Nick Timothy – the man who aided and abetted Treason in wrecking the Conservative Party. I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire.

    4. Morning all.
      And giving the Brussels mafia the right to place the goal posts where ever they want at any particular time.

    5. I have NO doubt any “deal” will include open borders. Merkel demanded them every time she spoke. They want to invite millions into Europe – then shove them ALL over here. Only one end result.

  61. Had a letter today inviting me to take part in the “January 2021 Covid 19 testing research study”. Its from Imperial college London. Apparently they have chosen me “at random” and taking part is voluntary ( till the next step I bet ). First option is to go to a website – register all my details – THEN tell them if I want to take part ?? – – – – OR I can phone them to register (Nope). If I register a small swab kit will be sent for me to self-swab – then a courier will pick it up from my home – result sent in a week it says.

    Then there will be a “short” online survey – – no doubt wanting to know everything from my eating to when I have my hard-as -tank-armour toenails ground down by the chiropodist.

    From – -Lord Bethell of Romford, Professor the Lord Darzi, FRS and last but not least Kelly Beaver ( NO Naked Gun jokes please ). I hope they don’t hold their breath.

    5. For the toenails – soak in very hot water for about 30 minutes. Top up if necessary. The nails soften and are easier to trim.

  62. Latest headline on DT live feed:
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/12/14/brexit-news-latest-no-deal-talks-update-today-boris-johnson/

    Brexit latest news: Michel Barnier says deal can be done this week if UK compromises on fish

    Here is a BTL comment I could have made myself:

    “Here is a compromise for fishing which is far better than the deal which was given to British fishermen when Heath surrendered and betrayed them:

    EU fishing fleets should be diminished by 20% each year for five years so that after five years they will have all gone.

    After that EU fishermen will be able to fish in British waters only if they are given a licence to do so by the British government who will be entirely responsible for making the decision.”

    1. Mr Barnier is being more subtle than most realize.

      He is once again pointing out the determination of the EU to never compromise.

      Once this principle is established, all future negotiations with Britain, even into the far future, will be happier.

    4. Remainers wanted to sneer at the fishing industry as consisting of a couple of elderly, right wing peasants that should be ignored, but it seems the EU doesn’t share this opinion.

    5. The key should be in the quotas allowed to be taken and where landed and processed, not the number of boats.

      Unless the commenter means to take today’s 20% and use that absolute number (and absolute quota deduction each year), his proposal would still leave them with nearly a third of their fleets.

        1. It’s similar to the way people look at a 50% drop in a value and forget that it has to rise 100% from the lower point merely to get back to where they started.
          If we ever get a recovery it’s going to be a long hard haul back to where we were at the end of October last year.

    6. Mr Barnier is being more subtle than most realize.

      He is once again pointing out the determination of the EU to never, ever compromise.

      Once this principle is established, all future negotiations with Britain, even into the far future, will be happier…for him anyway.

    7. My comment would be “What part of foxtrot Oscar does this ignorant, arrogant prat not understand?”

  63. N V B K I T H E K L O P F
    I N V E N T O R Z S F O F
    T H E E F G H J I O L P L
    Y Q W O R D S E A R C H
    H A S J P O D I E D G W

    R.I.P George Raventos.

    2. I used to generate my own word-searches with the relevant* French vocabulary for my pupils (I always incorporated games in my language teaching and that’s what I did my MPhil thesis on).
      *Relevant for their level and the topics that were being taught.

    1. “Look at the astonishing success of Great Britain from 1880 to 1900.”

      Just love this bit. Fighting in South Africa for gold, pillaging much of East Africa and India for resources and flooding China in opium was much of the basis for that success. Does the dingbat forget we had a massive empire at the time?

        1. We could always send a gun-boat to get it back.

          Oh, wait a minute, they’re all in the Channel preventing illegal immigrants or…

      4. However it was achieved does not stop it from being an astonishingly successful period.

        I cannot think of a single Empire that did not do similarly in places that had been conquered and then using the resources captured/exploited to drive further success.

        I get utterly pissed off by woke halfwits trying to denigrate Britain at every opportunity and extremely annoyed by fools who try to judge the past by the standards of today.

        That is not to justify them nor to suggest that if they were happening today that we should just shrug our shoulders, merely that times and standards of what is and is not acceptable change.

        1. I am just reading about The Kaiser’s Holy War (Wilhelm’s attempt to turn the muslims against the British Empire). It wasn’t as successful as the Germans and Turks thought it would be, because, particularly in Egypt, the disaffected preferred the easier-going British to prospective Turkish rule. We weren’t all bad.

        1. Me three – I was already in the Army and otherwise preoccupied. Just as well really, shoulder-length hair and “Figaro” moustaches were frowned upon by the Regiment.

      2. It’s not too late for a hedonistic lifestyle of Peace and Love Brother.
        Who needs all this corona/Brexit crap we could start our very own Hippie commune. You’re either on the bus or off the bus

    4. I was too busy, Plum, serving my country in the Royal Air Force in Germany and training on the side, as well as keeping our aircraft flying, to drive trucks in Operation ‘Doffer’ to evacuate families in the event of a Russian invasion. So I was well turned on and tuned in but didn’t drop out.

      1. I was beginning to think I was the only aging Hippie on NoTTlers….!
        I didn’t drop out, I loved my job but I did tune in and turned on at the weekends. I embraced the whole Hippie culture….even wore flowers in my hair. Thought i was the bees knees…..

        1. I too was one but as South Africa was 10 years behind the times, I only got going in 1974 at he age of 17. The late 60s and early 70s produced the finest music ever IMHO.

      2. You have my sympathies – I was doing much the same sort of thing in the Far East. I am afraid that free love was for only those back in the UK; In “the Far”, think that it was around $10 Malay short time and $40 all night (so I was told).

      3. I was in Gütersloh at that time, Sundern, opposite side of the town. Only saw the RAF base when passing through.

    6. I spent the summer of 1967 – after my first year at university in Norwich – in St Mawes sailing and enjoying a fantastically good social life. However my group of friends were not at all druggy.

      1. That summer, and a few others around those years, I was enjoying the weekly regattas/celebrations where money was being offered for the swimming contests in the small harbours.

        Thank you all, it paid for all my “treats”.

    7. I wasn’t born yet 🙂

      Missed my era. Pot, LSD, free love and some great music.

      You lucky old fogeys 🙂

    8. I had just passed the 11+ exam and was set for the same grammar school (St.Philip’s) which my Dad attended 1923-1929.

    9. I was defending the West against incursions of the mighty Soviet Empire – well, píssing it up in German Gasthäuser (pubs) mostly.

    10. Looks like a converted yellow US school bus,
      On our trip to New England and Cape Cod in September 1999. I managed to satisfy one of my ambitions. We arrived by The Island ( the ferry used in the film Jaws) Queen Ferry from Falmouth harbour at Martha’s Vineyard and for a small fee an old boy was driving tourist around the Island on the old yellow school bus. I loved it. All of New England and the Cape was lovely, it seemed like home to me. Except everyone seemed to vanish soon after sundown.

    11. I was 20 years old then , and I was a student Naval nurse , (QARNN) spending my second year of training in a Royal Naval Hospital overlooking Grand Harbour in Malta , with all my other nursing friends . We had nursing quarters with lovely views of the harbour.

      We grew up pretty quickly, and in particular having to nurse many branches of the armed services .. and memorably service men who were badly injured when terrorists in Aden blew up several Army landrovers, and the badly injured men were flown to Malta , they remained with us for a few days then were flown back to either Germany or the UK for specialist treatment.

      Off duty days were good fun, but Hippie stuff was in another world .

      Malta in 1967 was grand , busy , delightful and not infested with the sort of tourists one sees nowadays . Loads of parties and entertainment , probably the best ever year of my life .

      All three services kept it alive , and then of course the American Navy and Italian Navy visited also.

      1. I was 19, thinking about getting engaged………I had two boyfriends that summer and had to make a choice.

        I said goodbye to the farmer and plumped for the soldier. Got engaged the following New Year’s Eve, and married him in 1969.

        Not a happy marriage, though it wasn’t all bad and I had two sons.

        1. A farmer would probably have been far preferable for you , J.

          I got married in 1968 .. I defied my parents , who were already settled in South Africa.. I had no intention of living there , had had enough of Africa when I was a child, so I guess I knew best!!!!!

          I made the right choice settling down in Britain , despite all my other adventures .

  66. Hancock reporting that a new variant of Covid may be behind the fast spread in England. Ye gods. The Independent again.

    2. The stupid man Hancock is drunk on power. He did not cry on TV but was laughing himself to crocodile tears because he has just pocketed a lot of Gates’ and Soros’ money.

      The testing is a charade and the mRNA vaccines dangerous.

      I think a few boards of pharmaceutical companies including their Chinese owners should be arrested along with Hancock and his medical advisors before they completely ruin the country.

  67. Here are two outstanding articles about Mr Gates from Conservative Woman………

    ”The Megalomania of Bill Gates”

    ”MONEY doesn’t necessarily corrupt but power certainly does. The demoralised and broken West is now fair game for powerful individuals with Messiah complexes. The most obvious is George Soros, about whom I have written before. But the man of the hour is now Bill Gates, surely the most hypocritical of all the current megalomaniacs we have the misfortune to endure”.

    ”How much more can good-natured Britons take before they rise up and resist the venal and grandiose green dreams of Gates and his like? That the government insists on promoting his destructive climate change solutions shows we are being led by a bunch of woke social justice warriors, drunk on power, and not serious politicians. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s the necessity for scepticism concerning the dangerous and selfish witterings of the elite, who are usually wrong about everything”………………….

    Part One……..

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-hypocrisy-and-megalomania-of-bill-gates-part-one/

    Part Two……..

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-megalomania-of-bill-gates-part-two/

        1. It works now!
          I think PT posting that and my tryin g to watch it coincided with a massive denial of service attack apparently aimed at Google.

  69. Perhaps rather than lockdown Lundin, the Government could sell indulgencies to people who live north of Watford (In the late Middle Ages indulgences were used to support hospitals).

    Matt Hancock-up could be Minister of redemption.

  72. That’s me for the day. Glass in hand. It was a nice, sunny day and we did three bike miles. It is supposed to be nice again tomorrow..

    Enjoy your evening. We are watching “The Queens Gambit” or something like. Weird. Totally unbelievable. Though the chess “nerds” are nicely done. The unattractive girl lead spends her whole life on drugs – yet is the greatest chess player the world has ever seen. I do drop off from time to time…and it is nice to have G or P on my lap. But, I ask you!

    A demain.

    1. The book of ‘The Queens Gambit’ reads very well. Haven’t seen the TV version yet. I expect they left out quite a lot.

    2. It’s loosely based on Bobby Fischer and his rivalry with Boris Spassky.

      The best chess player of his time, probably as good in the sixties as today’s best players, and quite mentally afflicted.

    3. Yo, Bill. Managed to stay awake through most of the first episode of the Queen’s Gambit last week. Or perhaps the previous week. I know bugger all about chess, but I think I may watch this to the end. When I have time…

  73. Afternoon (just about), all. The government has had plenty of time to ready itself for a proper exit from the EU; the problem is, it has never wanted to and kept hoping that something would turn up so we could stay in. Democracy is well and truly dead.

  74. Much talk in the MSM about Covid Tiers and a Third Wave following hard on the heels of the second.

    Stevie Smith best summed it up:

    Not waving but drowning!

      1. If Boris waives from a firm position Britain will cease to rule the waves in its own international waters..

    2. No surprise,
      Once people go out a bit, they can infect each other again.
      I forget who prophesied multiple tiers, but it seems logical. Probably go on until spring sunlight becomes noticeable – rather like last year.

    3. Summit News reporting that Bill Gates (who’s made a fortune from the pandemic and through HIM encouraging lockdowns) is wanting lockdowns to continue into 2022. Amazing his knowledge of medicine – that is until a non-MSM (real) journalist bothers to ask a real searching question, especially about the Great Reset.4th Industrial Revolution and him and his ilk draining wealth from the masses and gaining (unelected) power at the same time.

  75. Although I have little energy for going online much, this is not helped by the fact that that now my laptop simply will not start. It has taken me 40 minutes this p.m.

    So, my dears, if I am off for a while it is simply because IT is playing up. XXX to you all!

    2. When you say ‘will not start’ what do you mean? What do you see? Does Windows load? Is there an error when Windows loads? A blue screen?

      1. It has just started working again. I used to get the light switching on, and then it went off straight away – nothing had time to load. Then I moved the laptop to a different surface, and it now seems to work (for the time being, no doubt). No, I can’t understand it either, I’m just grateful!

      2. Hello again wibs!

        From simply being completely dead (no light when I pressed on switch, it suddenly started working again. Then all yesterday the light went on when I switched on, but nothing on black screen. Today seems to be working but I can’t trust it to work Blast and blow!

  76. I wonder if they will be cancelling Easter next year, I hope they give people plenty of notice so they don’t waste their time giving things up for Lent

    3. Just in case, I have been wishing people happy Christmas, new year, valentines day and easter.

      Being an optimist, I omit happy Thanksgiving from the list. However, boy wonder has only organised 250,000 doses of the vaccine so I might need to go back and revise the greeting.

    4. I think we can take it for granted that Easter will be cancelled, because the only people upset by that will be Christians.

  77. 327453+ up ticks,
    breitbart,
    …MERKEL WANTS BRITAIN TO ’CRAWL ACROSS BROKEN GLASS’

    Seemingly the lab/lib/con coalition party are very willing to oblige.

    2. My brother in Richmond’s going to be mighty upset. His local had sorted out a system where bowls of cold chips were doled out on entry and returned on departure.

  81. I chatted to an acqaintance today.. He told me his daughter was recovering from Covid .. she was really ill for 3 weeks , she caught it from her boyfriend who works in a hospital.. they live on the Kent coast , where illegals come ashore and where there is a camp for illegals!

    1. The camp for illegals was meant to have been for a bunch of newly arrived Gurkhas, who have had to double up in the resident Gurkhas’ accommodation.

    1. What a depressing video.

      We’re being stuffed by the Government and its mickey-mouse scientists.

      1. We need a Star Chamber to sift through the official covid version and those qualified to counter it and then pronounce!

          2. I’d pass on burning them at the stake but I used to wonder how our forbears could be so cruel as to watch once powerful men being hanged, drawn and quartered when regime change came around. Now I know.

            I did read once that the inquisition targeted the Jews because they were viewed as collaborators, having survived the Mohammedan occupation by paying the jizya tax, while the Catholics, most of whom couldn’t afford it, suffered horribly.

  83. A speil picked up from Faceache:-

    These days many wealthy city folk are moving to the country. Fair play and good luck.
    However, it is an unfortunate fact that many find it hard to assimilate. One of the major reasons for this is the actual countryside is a place where people live and work, not the large leisure park most city people have experienced thus far. Thus the reality is not always what our new neighbours expected to find and, often, they don’t like it as much as they thought they would.
    In the spirit of public service, then, here is your handy print-out-and-keep guide to a comfortable new life in the sticks.
    1. The Roads: They are covered in shit. This is a function of drainage ditches being full, of animals on the roads and of large agricultural machinery dropping muck everywhere. This is fine. It is not “a matter for the Parish Council”.
    2. The Parish Council: This will usually be made up of folk who’ve lived in the village for years and also some newer blood. That’s a good thing. It is not a replacement for your Kensington bridge club, or meeting your girlfriends in Harrods, and there is no need for you to join it and try to change everything in order to fill your long afternoons. Unbelievably, we’ve managed so far without you for more than 500 years!.
    3. The Village Pub: A fine and wonderful place which is to be treasured and used. The best thing about it is it’s a real leveller – doesn’t matter who you are, you’ll be judged on how you treat others and nothing else. If you’ve got anything about you, you’ll come to love this about it above all else. On which note, then, please don’t come in and grumble about dogs running around, or about the fact you can’t get St Tropez scallops fried in yak’s butter at 4.30pm or that they may not be able to make you a Brandy Alexander. Also, best not to only come in twice a year, the second occasion being Christmas when you address the landlord like an old friend and loudly call him by his christian name to impress your friends visiting from Hampstead.
    4. Animals: There are loads, and we kill and eat quite a lot of them. Many are quite noisy, especially cockerels. This is also not “a matter for the Parish Council”. Equally, some are a problem and will be killed by your fellow inhabitants from time to time; others will be killed by each other or by cars. There is not a “little man” who comes along to pick them up. Just drive around them. Finally on this one, please don’t feed the foxes. They’re not “cute” and they kill all our chickens. This makes us all quite angry.
    5. Your New Dog: Obviously you will have bought a pedigree mutt to go with your new house. Enjoy. However, it’s worth taking the time and making the effort to train it properly so it doesn’t chase sheep or deer, or dive in to areas of nesting pheasants. In the north of the country somebody is likely to shoot it for chasing the former, in the south for chasing or doing the latter. Despite having a Kennel Club name longer than most people’s address, your dog will still be turned inside out by a hand-loaded .243 cartridge. If it’s a gun dog and you intend to work it there’s no need to pay someone £3000 to train it for you. Ours are all rubbish too.
    6. Your New Gun and Togs: Over the years you’ve enjoyed a bit of corporate shooting, and good for you. However, you now have a bit of an issue. Your £18,000 English side-by-side and the £7,000 worth of kit you bought from William Evans on St James’s mean you really need to be able to hit a cow’s arse (NB: cow – large bovine animal found in fields and, occasionally, running down the road for no obvious reason) with a banjo. Actually nobody cares if you’re rubbish, so long as you can laugh at yourself and take a bit of ribbing, so pop the expensive stuff away and go and buy a working gun whilst you get your eye in.
    7. Your Trousers: Those yellow or blue cords from Oliver Brown on Sloane Street don’t make you look like landed gentry, they make you look like a derivatives trader on a long weekend away. Just don’t.
    8. Your New Community: A village is just like a city, only smaller and therefore more intimate. That means it’s made up of people from all sorts of backgrounds. This is a good thing. If you take the time to get to know them you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the breadth of experiences and knowledge. Lamenting loudly that nobody you now know has been to see the Chuck Close at Tate Modern is not the best way to achieve this. Nor is making rude assumptions about them and living behind your closed front door all week until the next set of visitors from London arrive for the weekend. You’re missing the best bit of being here, the people.
    9. Your Nickname: Everyone in the village will have a nickname. Most are well meant, if a little brusque. When you discover yours is “Honking Giles” don’t move house, it’s a sign of acceptance. It’s the people without one who need to worry.
    10. Finally: None of the above points apply to west Wales where the FTP (Fucking Tipping Point) has already been reached.

    1. 11. We aren’t interested in playing the merrie peasant to your Lord of the Manor act just because you swanned in with your City millions, demolished a farmhouse and built a fake Georgian mansion that you then named “(Village name) Hall”.

      1. 12. I find it offensive that the leaves and other growth such as apples and seeds from your over hanging trees land on my property. Also your arboreal growth at certain times of the day shade our newly installed terrace and quadruple folding doors. Therefore we can’t enjoy or glasses of The Dom Perignon P3 Plenitude Brut Rose in the afternoon sun. ‘Going Forward’, please cut you trees down to avoid further issues. Or we will take legal advice.

        1. That’s the wrong end of the argument, RE. It’s a case of “the trees were here first, so if they shade your poncy drinking sessions, too bad” 🙂

          1. It’s a brief mention of the problems we once had with some new neighbours a few years ago. The champers was exaggerated 😊😊 Instead of putting them in a bag and offering them to us, which is what our solicitor said he should have done. The bastard threw our apples all over our garden because they were dropping on their side of the fence. And the idiot fell off their garage roof and broke his arm trying to cut back some of the other growth but we were away on holiday. They are long gone now. Some one punched him in the face over another incident he created. The police were called in twice.
            They came from Brighton.
            And latterly satisfying Revenge was a dish best served cold, as well.

          2. I have thuggish neighbours to the south. The local police told me not even to make eye contact with them! Incidents have been in abeyance for the last year, though, so perhaps they think my life isn’t such a bowl of cherries now that they don’t need to be envious.

        2. We’ve a dozen or so apple trees at the end of the field. Their apples make scrumpy, apple crumbles and what not. They overhang our neighbour’s garden and as she’s quite an elderly lady we offered to clean them up if the lady wanted.

          My mother cut down the beautiful fir tree in our old garden and I was determined we would have lots of them, so the oaks are only 10 years old and the few firs are coming along nicely.

          1. You have the same attitude as I on trees Wibbers.
            I make cider, I scrounge my neighbours apples, it’s not a bad drop. I have recently discovered a tree hidden away in a garden close to our house that was laden this year and still has lost of apples in the branches. Next year i’ll be knocking on their door.
            Cider is a lot of hard work i have made a press and converted my garden shredder to pulp the apples. I made some cider two years ago with cookers, I had to add a lot of sugar to make it drinkable it exceeded 12%, you couldn’t drink a 5oo ml bottle on your own.

    2. When we moved out of hell and into the cottage the assumption was we were posh city folk.

      The wife still is but the first time I found a cow standing in the pub and not only offered to buy it a drink but practically walked it back to it’s field – getting mud all over and not caring a jot – I was forgiven and accepted. Since then I’ve pulled tractors from ditches, helped lay out fencing (mostly making the tea – I’ve no ability whatsoever) you simply muck in.

      We don’t have a swanky landrover – we’d like one for the horses but a battered Volvo tank that has more than once had a sheep hopped in the back to bring home.

    3. 1. The Roads: They are covered in shit. This is a function of drainage ditches being full, of animals on the roads and of large agricultural machinery dropping muck everywhere. This is fine. It is not “a matter for the Parish Council”.

      No, it is not fine. It is never fine. But don’t waste your time with the idle old farts on the Parish council, it is a matter for your county councillor and should be taken up whenever necessary. Farmers have a legal duty to keep the roads clean. They need to be kept up to the task from time to time, though most are much better than they used to be. The natives hate it just as much as you do because filthy roads are hazardous roads. Don’t complain if it’s mucky when you go out, but has been swept up when you come home. Do complain if it remains mucky.

      I could argue with several of the others too.

      Most notably the issue in West Wales is not those who buy homes to live in, they are generally welcome. The problem is those who buy homes and don’t live in them except for a few weeks in the summer.

    1. Shirley, you just go on bended knee, turn the other cheek. etc
      unless of course the crim is a 70 year old white lady.

      Then you throw the book at her

    3. Looks like attempted murder. (As it would be called if the policeman had been on the receiving end.)

    4. Where were these police men when the black looting mob were destroying private property?

      Oh! I remember. Running away.

      2. There is a third explanation, which is that they don’t have the bottle to uncover the snakepit that is the Clinton-Obama-Biden Democratic party. Better just smooth it over and wait for the next election.

          1. It is the same system they’ve run in the UK since Blair – allow the Tories to rule only as long as they don’t upset the globalist apple cart.
            I knew from my political studies that democracy is an unstable system that never lasts long, but I didn’t think I would see its end in the West in my lifetime!
            Even if we go through the sham of voting, we aren’t going to be allowed a say in who governs us.

            Having read a bit of what Bill Gates has to say, I am strongly against people like him having any say in ruling countries. He is just too far removed from the concerns of ordinary people. He thinks he can think big and strategically – yes, like Mao, playing God.

        2. Exactly. The State is corrupt, through and through and through, riddled with dry rot. “Fraud? What fraud? I seen no fraud!” And for whatever reason, they are all singing from the same songsheet. Under those sort of circumstances Trump did not stand a chance. How could anyone listen to the hearings and say definitively that fraud has not been committed, and at least commence investigation. The starting point should have been the 700+% turnout in some states, followed by the number of dead voting, the republican watchers being kept away from the vote counting, the photographic evidence of the count being stopped and shortly afterward cases being dragged out from under the tables full of Biden votes; the voting machines that flicked Trump votes into Biden votes. I think the Supreme Court was threatened, and such is the degree of corruption there was nowhere for it to turn.

          1. Of course I have no evidence for or against there having been massive electoral fraud. How could I have such evidence when so many US courts cannot seem to find it.

            However the repeated statements by the BBC and other News outlets from the word go that ‘there is no evidence of fraud’ made me suspect that there probably was.

      3. Maybe he did. What’s important to note is that Biden didn’t win the landslide the Left assumed he would.

      5. Trump loses either way.

        His only chance is to prove that the Dominion Tally machines were rigged.
        But if they were, all Hell will be let loose.
        Not a good time for America.

        1. Time to look forward, push for major changes to the voting system, standardize rules across states and make the system acceptable to all sides. It will be tough with the country so divided but real leadership is needed.

          Instead of losing votes by just being negative and complaining, win some votes by positive calls for change.

          CNN tells us that Meagain (her with ginger) is appearing on CNN and increasing her visibility. If she is gunning for president, Trump (or anyone) should walk the next election

          1. She’s too lightweight to get for in the Presidential campaign, I would have thought. She’d need more than cod philosophy and feel good phrases.

          4. Yes but does she know that?

            It would be a gift to the Republicans and remember the dems tried running with Clinton a few years ago, not exactly a well liked candidate..

          5. Oh, I am 100% sure she doesn’t know that! But I can’t see her getting past the first stages of trying to be selected. On the other hand, the Democrats can now put up anyone they want, as US elections are now just a sham decided in advance by whoever runs the voting machines, so who knows!

          7. One of my favourite phrases in John Milton’s Paradise Lost describes Satan’s words of having:

            Semblance of worth, not substance.

            which was a good phrase to append to a specious essay from a pupil.

        2. The Dominion machines are designed to give a bias to one candidate over another. This has been found to be up to 26% on one machine so a single vote is weighted 75% Trump and 125% Biden. The percentages vary between states but the Dominion machines are roughly weighted this way one showing 87.5% Trump and 112.5% Biden.

          It will all come out in the wash. The election fraud is so vast and blatant that it will never succeed.

          I agree with you that the actors in this fraud run wide and deep but Americans are not stupid. Even Democrats admit that the election was fraudulent. It is only those corrupted by Chinese money who are left defending the indefensible.

        3. I could be wrong but I think there will not be a Republican Government in the USA for a decade or more…..

          1. There is a crying need for a centre right government. Look for OAC, Sanders and the other lefties to sour the democrat vote, don’t give up yet.

          2. I don’t have a dog in the fight except how American Foreign Policy impacts us (It hasn’t been too clever in recent years….)

          3. I listened to Mike Pompeo giving a talk to Georgia Tech. He is a most impressive and accomplished man and an excellent speaker. He combines a deep knowledge of geopolitics with a gentle humour.

            I lost the link but it is on YouTube.

          4. By and large under the Trump administration the US has from memory, not engaged in overt new foreign ‘adventures’. I think the Dems will do everything in their power to welcome democrat supporting immigrants over the next 4 years to help cement a majority for Dem control.

          5. Biden is a stooge for Obama. If Biden assumes the presidency and avoids civil war, which appears doubtful given the widespread distrust and revulsion across America, we can expect a resumption of the previously disastrous Obama policies.

            More wars in the Middle East, jobs exported to China in return for kickbacks, no trade deal with the UK, a Supreme Court increased in number and stacked with Democrat ‘judges’, more chiselling and corruption enriching the elites at the expense of the average American worker and the invitation to Mexicans and other immigrants to come in and provide both cheap Labour and votes for the Democrats.

    1. I might send the top photo to our local parish council, who in a moment of totally misguided ‘wisdom’ and apathetic indifference to all local dog owners, have seen fit to remove all the dog waste bins in the village. We know have to put it all in the green waste bins with the rest of the general street waste.
      At least the dog bins were out of the way on footpaths and had lids. It’s going to be interesting next summer with the open sided bins when the flies are out again.
      Hang ’em High.

      1. Ah ha! You can now get those sort of bin liner jobbies that knot up with strings on the side. They’re dry and normally used for cat litter trays but I’m working on getting his Mongoness to go on them, making poo collecting much easier.

        Jerry has no concept of potty training. He just looks at me funny as if the idea of having a toilet, even a cloth paper one is idiotic.

    2. Mongo passed his therapy dog training last year. I did it mainly so he could go places a normal dog couldn’t.

      I tried to take a photo of him acting as a side table for one of the war queen’s law books but Junior tripped on the stairs and the dog went – as did most of the books. Thankfully the new desk arrives tomorrow – sadly it also means an office swap. I lose my view of the field and trees and get one of a wall. Yay.

    1. Well, didn’t I write that yesterday?

      At least I can copy the Matt cartoon for distribution.

    2. Under orders from their doctor Our middle son (In Tier 2) and his wife have to take their 10 month old son to have another covid test at 8 am in the morning because as was the case when he had the a runny nose and sniffles back in August, he had a cold last week and the D i L has an appointment at her doctors surgery Wednesday. You really couldn’t make it all up could you.

        1. The same son went for a test a couple of weeks ago and the result was not forth coming. The test centre seem to have lost the result !! He’s okay now though, but felt a bit unwell after he had to travel into London to his office to spend the day in meetings.

          2. He’s been working 12 hour days working from home since lock down. I think he’s had enough of it all by now.

          3. When I used to teach in a fairly minor public school I always arranged an extra class for my “A” level English set whenever a Staff meeting was scheduled.

            When it was not an exam term I used to do the crossword ostentatiously – I was not popular with the headmaster but as my classes’ exam results were usually pretty good he had to resist the temptation to fire me.

            .

        1. Heyup!
          I did pick up on a site that stated the C-19 Wuhan Virus was little more than a mutated variety of the Common Cold.

    1. Yet they won’t be immediately imprisoned and deported, will they? No, they’ll go to some nonsense panel which will give them a cushy hotel and be pandered to.

      How did they get past border control? Who checked that lorry?

    4. Perhaps the answer is to give them some food and a drink and pop them back in the lorry and the police to escort the vehicle back to port of entry and see it on its way…..

  89. I am pleased to see that the first person in the US, a nurse, has received the vaccine. I am sure that she is a splendid lady but can you imagine the riots if the first person had been white?!

    1. Me too. Don’t forget that it will be properly cooked when the internal temp reaches 55ºC for medium rare. :•)

    1. Hancock is already bought and sold by the pharmaceutical industry funded by Soros, Gates and the Chinese Communist Party. It is bloody obvious to any attentive observer of events.

      The mRNA vaccines have not been properly tested and the side effects of these potentially dangerous vaccines are unknown although suspected to cause long term irreversible harm to the immune systems of recipients and other allergic and life threatening disablements, especially those relating to infertility, the Gates’ aim after all.

      Hancock is a fool entranced by the prospect of the enormous kickbacks we know to be given by the drug companies and is unable to resist their charms. He is a charlatan and traitor. I wish to see him prosecuted for crimes against humanity, tried in The Hague and gaoled for an indefinite period and his assets seized.

  96. Got to laugh….. unfortunately…….

    Now Boros has given the ”green light” to Sizewell C which is exactly the same potential trojan horse as Hinkley Point C in west Britain using very troublesome nuclear tech totally dependent on Chinese goodwill and Chinese expertise……. which has only ever worked in China.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9050475/Government-gives-green-light-Sizewell-C-nuclear-power-station.html

    Remember how Joe Biden was taking bribes from the Chinese to give them great deals ?

    That’s how it works with China all too often to draw nations into their ”Belt and Road” program as part of Chinese global expansionizm and global control.

    What better than a nuclear power plant in the UK only they fully understand and have ever made operational ?

    Will Boros retire extremely rich with a huge a/c at Bank of China ?

    Looks like it !

    1. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6522/1263

      When you have finished reading this very long interesting article, the small phrase that really sticks out is:

      “It is a very carefully executed and carefully thought out strategy,”says Stephen Morrison, who directs the Global Health Policy Center at
      the Center for Strategic & International Studies. “A strategic goal of the Chinese government is to achieve hegemonic influence in the
      bioeconomy within the next decade.”

  97. Breaking news – After the recent death of Des O’Conner, the WHO have put out a health warning about a new strain of covid that attacks elderly singers from the 1950’s, they have called it crooner virus

  98. Shame about the death today of author – David John Moore Cornwell.
    He was also a legendary golfer, he could drive a ball over 300 yds over lakes, rough and trees even with an old hickory wood, hence his pen name, John le Carre

  99. ‘There is movement’: Ursula von der Leyen hails ‘new beginnings with old friends’ amid hopes of Brexit breakthrough as she says talks are in the ‘very last mile’ – but Tory MPs warn Boris must QUIT if negotiations collapse with No Deal.

    DM Story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9051317/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-fuels-hopes-Brexit-breakthrough.html

    As Antony said to the crowd after the murder of Julius Caesar:

    “If you have tears prepare to shed them now”

    So poor old Boris Johnson is finished no matter what he does:

    Either he sticks to his guns and we leave the EU with ‘No Deal’ and his Conservative MPs kick him out but at least he leaves Downing Street with his head held high.

    Or he slithers away in ignominy, shame and humiliation having given in to the EU blackmail and then is kicked out by all the party supporters who trusted him to get a proper Brexit done!

    Let us hope he leaves office with his some shred of integrity and self-respect left.

    Who thinks he will? Who thinks he won’t?

    1. Why on Earth should ‘no deal’ be seen as a defeat? If anyone should resign it’s those treasonous Tory MPs.

      2. It is only a defeat as far as the extreme left wing of the Conservative Party is concerned. Sadly it looks as if the extreme left-wing of the Conservative party now thinks of itself as mainstream.

      1. 327453+ up ticks,
        Evening JJH,
        In my book he isn’t, I do believe him to be the nose cone of a semi re-entry missile.

    5. 327453+ up ticks,
      Evening R,
      When the knife went into Mrs Thatcher the treacherous route taken was for ALL to see.
      If the lady kraut said “OK leave on a no deal basis” the johnson would still fight for a deal, IMO he needs a deal
      as a tie to be strengthened at a later date.

    6. Richard, perhaps you exaggerate ?

      The PM is also facing more pressure at home as a Tory MP* said he should resign if he cannot find a way to compromise with Brussels.

      *Sir Roger Gale, MP – a former Radio Caroline North disk-jockey – pro-capital punishment, anti-hunting and ‘generally against’ membership of the EU …

        1. He sounds a tad self-contradicTory…

          He’s against the EU but wants to still be governed by them?

          1. He’s against the EU but wants to still be governed by rub his arse against them because he fancies being shafted?

        2. It’s a combination of bills the weighting of which determines if they are generally for or generally against.

        3. Sir Roger Gale MP/ Animal Welfarist and Conservationist Bill Oddie at the launch of the Commons campaign to ban the importation of ‘ trophy hunted’ exhibits
          Sir Roger says: The pastime of so- called ‘ trophy hunting ‘ is one of the vilest acts of human aggression against animals.
          The idea that the tracking and slaughtering of proud wild animals in the name of ‘ sport ‘ is in any civilised society acceptable is abhorrent .

          If we cannot swiftly end the licenced murder of big cats and other endangered species then we can and should ban the product of that trade from our own country.

          3. I’ve a better idea.

            When a person kills an animal for sport, the state declares that the hunting and murder of that person will not be considered a crime as long as the named person is hunted for at least 24 continuous hours and then slowly disabled before being killed.

            It could go further and say that all access to records will be permitted such as CCTV, addresses, the freezing of bank accounts from the announcement of the hunt, location of family and so on.

            Hunting would take off – I’d happily run down some of these scum.

      3. He seems to be on our side:

        generally against laws to promote equality and human rights
        consistently against equal gay rights
        generally against UK membership of the EU
        generally against a right to remain for EU nationals already in living in the UK
        almost always for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits
        generally for raising the threshold at which people start to pay income tax
        generally against increasing the tax rate applied to income over £150,000
        almost always for more restrictive regulation of trade union activity
        almost always for reforming the NHS so GPs buy services on behalf of their patients
        generally for a stricter asylum system
        always for stronger enforcement of immigration rules
        consistently for mass surveillance of people’s communications and activities (?) (foreign residents perhaps).
        generally against measures to prevent climate change

        1. This refers to his voting pattern; “generally” means he has voted the other way on some occasions.

          1. Or abstained. I don’t know the answer but he has more sense than Boris. I think some left-winger is probably trying to muddy the water.

    7. It’s so much more important than what Boris does.

      Brexit is so incredibly, utterly vital to our future as a free country that Boris could come out whimpering and on his knees, bald and on fire but if he comes out and say ‘They wouldn’t agree to let us choose our tax law so we’re leaving on WTO grounds, with no EU influence or ECHR application whatsoever.’ I’ll run over water to put him out with a fire extinguisher personally and then carry him home again on my shoulders.

    8. ” ‘new beginnings with old friends’ ” – those words show that the EUSSR has won and that BPAPM has capitulated.

      1. The only “old friends” I would like to see “new beginnings” with are The British Commonwealth and EFTA.

        1. Would like to give you more than one uptick for the Commonwealth, although I’m not sure about EFTA.

          1. EFTA was a good idea. In terms of it’s legal status and intent, it’s fine.

            The danger is for those against leaving the EU it’s not enough. For those wanting out, it’s too much.

            It was the rational middle ground but there wasn’t enough information provided as to what such status would mean.

  101. Horse owner is forced to change filly’s name from ‘Jungle Bunny’ to ‘Jungle Bells’ amid racism storm – despite it being named after his grandson’s favourite video game
    The horse ran on Saturday at Wolverhampton Racecourse at 50-1 odds
    It finished sixth but prompted a storm of criticism over its name
    Owner’s wife said it had been given the moniker after game Jungle Bunny Run

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9050891/British-Horseracing-Authority-apologises-amid-racism-storm-filly-Jungle-Bunny-runs.html

    3. As far as I’m aware, you can’t change a horse’s name once it’s run. That’s it. When I worked for a trainer one of the owners bought an unraced horse and renamed it, but was only allowed to do so because it hadn’t been seen on the racetrack.

        2. I should just like to point out that horses’ names (for racing purposes) are limited to 18 characters, including spaces 🙂 Your article was about dogs (greyhounds), though. One of my friends has acquired an ex-racing greyhound, who seems to have settled in extremely well.

        1. It will be interesting to see if they change the rules. I hope they don’t. The BHA is supposed to vet names for innuendo and unsuitability (how Shy Talk slipped through is a question), so they probably aren’t as au fait with slang terms as the woke.

  102. Latest breaking news London goes into lockdown due to new strain of virus.

    Scientists have advised people to wear two masks instead of one, one for each strain .

    1. 👇 Oh, FFS. Hancock announcing this with a straight face. PCR testing and ‘cases’ have been rumbled and continuing the farce would be counterproductive and so a ‘new’ strain appears in the SE of England and this will allow Hancock et al to lockdown London and wherever else they fancy.

      Does anybody believe this BS any longer?

      https://twitter.com/SuzanneEvans1/status/1338539471243972610

  103. Goodnight, all. I’m off to enjoy a dose of Opera (Haendel’s Alcina; I haven’t listened to it for a while).

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