Monday 14 March: We in the West stand by and watch the destruction of people’s houses

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

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

751 thoughts on “Monday 14 March: We in the West stand by and watch the destruction of people’s houses

  1. Morning, all.
    First!
    Arranged an Amazon delivery for Sister-in-Law late on Saturday (before I forgot) for her birthday next week. Darn me, but they delivered it yesterday! What a pity government agencies don’t work that quickly.

        1. Well, I woke up, so that’s good! The old man’s ankle is still broken, though!

          1. Meh! I had the twins here and the first thing we saw was him hobbling past the window!

    1. Lovely day here too, Bob. Waking up to sunshine is the best start to a Monday. Didn’t frost too badly last night, either, just -9C.

  2. Good morning all from a somewhat chilly, with -1°C on the thermometer outside the back door, but otherwise a lovely clear morning.

    I’ve a run to North of Manchester to pick up a dividing head for t’lad’s lathe that we’ve picked up cheap off an auction. Tempted to do an overnight stop. B&B rather than camping in the van as it’s not “quite” warm enough for that.

    1. Good morning all, and Bob.
      Just a thought, have you ever thought of using a pop up tent inside the van?

      1. Good idea, Tim. But he’d also need to put his yard inside the van, so that he could pop out of the tent the following morning to check the temperature in the yard without leaving the van. Lol.

  3. The Revenge of History. Spiked. 14 March 2022.

    The devaluation of the nation and the national interest is closely linked to the diminishing status of patriotic values, such as duty and responsibility. Little wonder many Western commentators find the heroism and resistance of the Ukrainian people difficult to grasp. Some of them are probably asking, what if we were attacked – would our people put up such a fight?

    What would they be fighting for? The UK military would fight because that is their job.The people? That would require Patriotism; love of country and its beliefs, a faith that has been deliberately and systematically eradicated over the last forty years. The Elites actively oppose and despise it. If push comes to shove we are toast!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/03/13/the-revenge-of-history/

    1. The coach firm hopes to ‘bounce back’. That would depend on its insurers. Wonder if someone had overcharged a battery and it led to thermal runaway? (thanks google)

  4. Morning all

    SIR – In response to the war in Ukraine, the West has used three main weapons: sanctions, squeezing the oligarchs and pressing charges for war crimes. It is argued that none of these will imminently stop Vladimir Putin, and that historically only military intervention works.

    Mr Putin has played his trump card of threatening nuclear war. Western leaders have fallen over themselves retreating from red lines (invading a sovereign state, attacking nuclear power plants, targeting civilians).

    They give Mr Putin carte blanche to do as he wishes, in the naive hope that having taken Ukraine he will cease his war. This wasn’t the case with Crimea. When an emboldened Mr Putin bears down on a Nato member (such as a Baltic state), his trump card will still be on the table.

    Will a fearful West retreat from another red line and surrender, or belatedly stand and fight? If the latter, then all that our leaders are doing now is postponing the inevitable – and while they dither Ukrainians die.

    Tim Davenport,

    Auckland, New Zealand

    SIR – President Joe Biden said that for America to intervene militarily “would mean World War Three”. To put that another way: “Provided Putin pretends he is mad, he can do what he chooses.”

    Ukraine’s agony aside, those words invite Mr Putin to invade other neighbours with no fear of reprisals except for sanctions that don’t deter him. It isn’t Mr Putin who is crackers. It is us.

    Rod Tipple,

    Cambridge

    SIR – If Poland is not allowed to supply warplanes to Ukraine by air, then let them be pulled over the border, as America did for Britain in the Second World War by letting warplanes be towed by lorry or horse over the border into Canada, thus retaining US neutrality.

    Sir Gavin Gilbey Bt,

    Dornoch, Inverness-shire

    SIR – Letters published in the Telegraph seem to be putting the blame for the Ukraine war on the shortcomings of the West. Should we not start laying the culpability firmly where it belongs: with the Russians in general and Mr Putin in particular.

    Barry Southern,

    Sutterton, Lincolnshire

    SIR – David Elstein writes suggesting billions in reparations from Russia to repair Ukraine (Letters, March 12). Unfortunately, our experience with such a scheme involving Germany after the First World War suggests that an impoverished Russia would lead to more conflict.

    Marshall Aid, as after the Second World War, with an economically successful and peaceful Germany, is a better precedent.

    Michael Staples,

    Seaford, East Sussex

    SIR – Can’t someone smear something nasty on Mr Putin’s front-door knob?

    Trevor Cook,

    Stone, Staffordshire

    SIR – A Marxist dictum was: “When it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will sell us the rope”. The modern version is: “When it is time for Russia to invade Western Europe, the capitalists will pay for our weapons”.

    An immediate embargo of Russian oil, gas and other minerals by all Western states is now essential. The United Kingdom must become self-sufficient for its energy needs as soon as possible.

    If this requires a short-term increase in the production of North Sea oil and gas, fracked gas and coal, so be it. We cannot provide Russia with the sinews of war.

    N V Todd FRCS,

    Whitburn, Co Durham

    1. Not one sensible word in the whole bunch of letters. Horse drawn aeroplanes?
      Let’s be clear. Are they really suggesting that they are happy to have Cambridge, and the rest of the UK, obliterated to prevent a Russian government in Latvia? Mr Davenport of New Zealand seems happy to have Europe destroyed.

  5. Spokes in our wheels

    SIR – The Government plans to reach net-zero carbon by reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels, without any idea of what they will be replaced with.

    It is determined to have electric vehicles, without a structure to charge them and at a cost too high for most people to afford.

    It sees household phone landlines cut off, with no concern for those without mobile coverage.

    It is to ban gas boilers and offers an alternative that is inefficient, extremely expensive and disruptive.

    Do I detect a theme here?

    Pauline Young,

    Egerton, Lancashire

    SIR – Flood relief? Send in the Forces. A strike in essential services? Send in the Forces. A Covid hospital to be built quickly? Send in the Forces. Issuing refugee visas? Send in the Forces.

    There seems to be a pattern here.

    John Clark,

    Credenhill, Herefordshire

    1. The Chelsea Pensioners just cannot keep up with their Task List

      Judging by Recruiting adverts on TVand the Programme about HMS Northumberland, the RN is staffed by Wimmen ‘n Bames

  6. Good Moaning.
    I’m a cynical old bat and it takes a lot to surprise, let alone shock me, but ….
    Last night we were watching the first half of a programme on the Jeremy Kyle Show. To describe it as bear baiting, is too kind to that appalling entertainment. Who on earth thought it was a good idea – for fourteen years – to treat the most stupid and vulnerable in society as if they were patients in the old Bedlam hospital? The young staff admitted they deliberately hyped up the victims, lied to them and deliberately chose the most disturbed.
    At the back of my mind, I realised that such things went on, but to see it laid out so graphically made me feel sick.
    I’ve always been aware of the Caliban-like underbelly of human society, but if I’d watched a show like that, a bath in pure acid would not have made me feel clean.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/17e7c3699a8d64393423c8d330aded9d87c06ded6e78b6c2d69f43f34c9744c0.jpg

    1. Morning Anne. I’m happy to say that I never watched it or its American equivalents!

    2. I had a stupid o’clock shift start from a hotel some years back and, as I waited for the taxi, thought I’d have a glance at what was available for insomniacs at that time in the morning and found The Jeremy Kyle Show and fully understand how people can detest the programme yet, like being unable to look away from a tragedy, find it hard to pull their eye’s away.

      1. There was one interviewee, who wouldn’t show his face and whose voice was read by an actor, trying to blame programmes like Little Britain and Catherine Tate for mocking and demonising the working class; I suspect he’d been involved in the disgusting programme and was trying to shift the blame and quieten his own conscience.
        Comedy about class are common to all cultures, not just Blighty. Think of Shakespeare or ‘Cheers’.

    3. Bear baiting is such fun!
      So, Mrs Allan, you admit to being an old bat.
      Can you still fly?
      By the way, do you ever attend Church services?
      What are your opinions on mirrors, garlic and sunlight?

    4. Poor Tom’s a-cold

      Edgar disguised himself as a Bedlam beggar and joined King Lear and The Fool in the storm to conceal his identity because his father, the Duke of Gloucester, believed that he was to murder him for his riches.

  7. SIR – In 2006, when John Reid (now Lord Reid of Cardowan) was Labour Home Secretary, he said that the Home Office wasn’t fit for purpose. Has anything changed?

    Colin Streeter,

    Fletching, East Sussex

    1. Put another way, who can identify any government department that is operating well and providing a cost-effective service?

      1. Morning Hugh.

        Just wondering whether government business is outsourced ,Passports, DVLA, Inland Revenue , Home office stuff etc etc or if it isn’t perhaps all imported Indian Techie types have brought their Red Tape slowly slowly methods here?

        As far as I am concerned that this is why the NHS is so slow and cumbersome , who are the ones running it and making decisions ?

  8. Male and female

    SIR – I fear the subject of gender identity (report, March 13) will go on for years. One thing I do know: XX chromosomes = biological female; XY chromosomes = biological male.

    No amount of hormone treatment and surgery can ever change that.

    Hilary Jarrett,

    Norwich

    1. ‘Morning Epi. It is almost amusing watching Labour MPs tying themselves in knots as they try to re-define ‘female’. I’m willing to bet that they desperately wish this can of worms had not been opened. The rest of us know what makes male and female but they have yet to understand the basics!

      1. Whatever you call them, they atre just a shower of CNUTS or KIRPS.

        They can choose, just do not expect me to agree

      2. Whatever you call them, they atre just a shower of CNUTS or KIRPS.

        They can choose, just do not expect me to agree

      3. The old riddle was :

        Q. “How do you tell the sex of a chromozone?
        A. “Pull down its genes.”

        The old willy test used to suffice – but now, it seems, you can keep your willy and still be a woman.

  9. The hate crime obsession has broken British policing. Douglas Murray. 14 March 2022.

    That question was not theoretical for Sir Tom Winsor, the outgoing chief inspector of constabulary. And thank goodness for what he said as he went out of the door. Foremost among Sir Tom’s complaints was his frustration with the way in which the police have in recent years taken it upon themselves to come up with crimes rather than policing crimes. The job of the police, says Sir Tom, is to “enforce the law, they do not make it”.

    He was right to pick up on this. Our bobbies have made boobies of themselves, and far worse, in recent years. In few ways has this been so obvious as in their decision to police wrong-think. Think of cases like that of Harry Miller, who had police turn up on his doorstep asking to check his thinking after he tweeted something which police said could be interpreted as “transphobic”. There is “no such thing as a thought crime” says Sir Tom in his report. Nor can police chiefs simply “declare something that is not a crime to be a crime … It is not illegal to think anything.”

    Perhaps he also has in mind stunts like that in Merseyside last year when the police stood menacingly (all masked, naturally) beside a travelling billboard declaring that “Being offensive is an offence”.

    What Sir Tom does not say, but perhaps your columnist may, is that there is a clear reason – indeed incentive – that the police have jumped into the whole hate crimes business. Real crime is messy to police. Tackling knife crime in London, for instance, is painful, laborious, politically tricky and physically arduous work. Tackling “hate crime” by contrast is a relatively restful affair.

    You may, for instance, sit at a computer and search through your “replies” on Twitter. You may occasionally turn up at the home of an entirely blameless individual and interrogate them over what they might have been thinking when they made a particular joke. In other words the hate crime industry is good for business while being light on footwork. Perhaps Cressida Dick’s successor, among others, will reflect on this. And on the force´s priorities more generally.

    Like most British Institutions the police have been broken by the imposition of Cultural Marxist values. This evil and venomous doctrine has destroyed everything in its path. Both Freedom and Democracy have been sacrificed to its poisonous embrace. It is of course the Religion of the Elites.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/13/hate-crime-obsession-has-broken-british-policing

    1. Also, if you pick on a white man for online “hate crime”, nobody is going to accuse you of racism. If you go after a pakistani rape gang or black drug gang on the other hand….

      1. My concern is receiving a 3 am visit from the police and being incarcerated because the National Association of British Butchers takes offence at a post of mine when I call someone a Silly Sausage. Lol.

      1. They probably do but recognise that we belligerent lot would welcome having a pop at the ‘thought-police’.

        Don’t go there, matey, they’ll eat you alive.

    2. Murray refers to recent statements by Tom Winsor.

      Hating people is not a crime and shouldn’t be treated as one, says police watchdog

      Sir Tom Winsor, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, says officers must enforce laws, not make up their own

      By Martin Evans, CRIME CORRESPONDENT • Thursday 10 March 2022 • 3:38pm

      Hating people is not a crime and the police should stick to enforcing the law rather than trying to create offences that do not exist, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has warned. In a stinging rebuke, Sir Tom Winsor said there was no such thing as “thought crime” and he reminded senior police officers it was not their job to declare someone’s hatred of another as an offence.

      A number of police forces now treat misogyny and transphobia as hate crimes, reflecting increasing public concern about such behaviour. The trend was led by Sue Fish, the former Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police, who declared misogyny a hate crime in 2014, pledging to treat wolf-whistling and cat-calling as harassment. But in his final State of Policing Annual Assessment, before standing down as HMIC later this month, Sir Tom said it was Parliament’s job and not the police’s to create law.

      He said: “It is not appropriate for senior police officers, serving or retired, to assert the right of the police to declare anything criminal, least of all what people might think. They have no legal power to create criminal offences in their police areas or anywhere else. It is important no one is misled, the police enforce the law they do not create it.”

      Sir Tom said with many competing demands, the police had to prioritise what offences they chose to investigate and he acknowledged they could not investigate every crime. He said: “The public, through their elected representatives, must decide how much risk and harm they are prepared to accept, and whether they will pay more for higher levels of public safety.”

      But at the same time, he said it was vital the police did not drift into investigating thought crimes and hate offences that were not against the law.

      He explained: “We do not have thought crime in this country, it is not illegal to think anything. If you take those thoughts and you translate them into an offence then that, of course, can be an aggravating factor and should be reflected in sentencing decisions.”

      He went on: “From time to time, one turns on the radio and hears retired chief constables declaring certain things to be crimes which are not crimes and I think it is necessary for me, as Chief Inspector of Constabulary, to make it perfectly clear that the police’s job is to enforce the law, they do not create the law. So for a former chief constable or any police officer to say ‘in my police area such and such being a thought is a crime’ is completely unsustainable… just thinking something is not a crime and should never be a crime.”

      In his report, Sir Tom also criticised police forces for failing to take certain crimes seriously enough. He said: “It is unjustifiable for any police force to decline to attend and properly investigate crimes of a serious nature such as burglary or domestic abuse.”

      Sir Tom was also highly critical of the police response to tackling cybercrime and fraud which now accounts for 53 per cent of all offences.

      He said: “The detrimental effect of fraud is as great today as it has ever been – if not greater – yet fraud indefensibly continues to be treated as a low priority.”

      He went on: “Too many victims still receive a poor service and are denied justice… many police forces aren’t taking their responsibilities to prevent and investigate fraud anywhere seriously enough… these thieves almost always get away with it.”

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/10/hating-people-not-crime-shouldnt-treated-one-says-police-watchdog/

  10. SIR – Can’t someone smear something nasty on Mr Putin’s front-door knob?

    Trevor Cook
    Stone, Staffordshire

    Nice idea, Mr Cook; are you volunteering?

    1. ‘Reason for visiting Moscow’.
      ‘To see the 47.5 metre spire of St. Basil’s cathedral.’

    1. I turned my central heating down 2 degrees yesterday. Not only to save money but to save the planet. It was bloody freezing in my bedroom this morning. And i had condensation on the windows. The planet can burn !

      Good morning. Sunnyish here too. :@)

      1. ‘Morning Phiz. We run ours at 15°C for a couple of hours morning and early evening, and, unless we have guests, our bedroom radiators stay off. Mind you, we are on yer soft sarf coast, which probably helps.

          1. A stove and an AGA. We have always had those. In previous years, we had them on AND the CH. That’s the difference this year – thanks to Global Warming…!!!! God bless the Swedish Muppet.

        1. Good morning. I’m on the south coast too. But i have poor circulation and feel the cold easy.

  11. 351364+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 14 March: We in the West stand by and watch the destruction of people’s houses,

    We in the United Kingdom suffered the same fate in 39 / 45 the majority
    of the people stayed in place with the royals leading examples.

    These last four decades via the polling booth & with the peoples majority consent have seen a multitude of adults / children killed, raped & abused
    and in general run over roughshod by the lab/lin/con overseeing politicos
    who are working to another agenda, not recognised by the peoples BUT with their consent.

    Seemingly the guts has been removed from old Blighty via the voting pattern & with the peoples consent in the leveling up campaign the fat turk & co are running the United Kingdom original prize herd is being diluted daily via DOVER plus, with the peoples consent via the ballot box..

    We as a nation are on crutches, with the majority of the electorate & the political fraternity trying to kick them away, successfully in many quarters via the party before Country mode of voting

    In short we as a Country are in NO shape to help anyone..

    1. In short we as a Country are in NO shape to help anyone.

      Morning Oggy. That’s not going to stop them! It’s full speed ahead to History’s Toilet!

  12. Russian cities are returning to their Cold War state. 14 March 2022.

    On Saturday night, at 3am, I ran down totally empty streets searching for the last cashpoint that would work with my British Mastercard. Bank machine after bank machine sent me away empty-handed, until I found one that obviously hadn’t got the memo. I stood there making withdrawal after withdrawal – snatching each 5,000 rouble note as though it would vanish in front of me – until it told me I’d reached my limit for the day. Being cut off completely from money that you know you have is like being separated from a parent as a child. It’s terrifying.

    Nottlers should not ignore this warning. The UK economy is going to come under severe stress in the coming year. A supply of ready cash as well as grub may well prove essential!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/russian-cities-are-returning-to-their-cold-war-state

    1. Goodmorning Minty

      The word is out that there will be a shortage of diesel next month , therefore fuel rationing will kick in .

      Re repeat, not fade away, history repeating itself , I fear.

      1. Morning Belle. by the end of this year a large proportion of the poorest indigenous Brits will be reduced to absolute poverty while the incomers bask in government generosity!

        1. When I was a young mum in the early 1970s when Moh was away for months on end , times were tough, but even tougher for elderly people and many young families , before the trend for single mothers kicked in ..

          Old people were old and stoic , they existed on pennies , cold old homes , and limited nourishment . I helped out with meals on wheels. I saw lots of stuff .

          I guess we were still a recovering post war society with a severe oil crisis and high interest rates .

          One of the other things I helped out with was the WRVS childrens holiday scheme , where very poor impoverished children from the big cities would be allocated a host family down here in Dorset for a few weeks .. purely altruistic .. and these children were little white ragamuffins , coming from poor parenting and bad living conditions , but it gave them a taste of hope for the future .

          There was a WRVS clothing store , and the kids would be given fresh clean 2nd hand clothes and shoes and a few books , and probably even a haircut etc .. A good diet , fresh air , some seaside fun , maybe some countryside experience .. They would leave refreshed and happy children , with a few extra bits and pieces , like an Airfix model , or scrap books and postcards ..

          During those years, Wednesday was market day , and the office was kept very busy .. Tramps .. old men tramps , some who had fought in WW1 .. proper old fashioned independent wandering tramps .. with horrendous foot problems used to arrive for a cup of tea and a chat and were given a fresh set of 2nd hand clothes , shoes and a few pairs of woolen socks .

          Sometimes a doctor would arrive to check up on the old chaps .. the men had lived for years on the goodwill of farmers, local people as they travelled around the county, either sharpening garden equipment knives etc , or selling carved sticks . All they wanted was a barn or sheltered outbuilding and some hot water for a brew .

          Those old bods were ex servicemen.. but not alcholics or druggies .. they were virtually penniless and had slipped between the cracks and melted away .. No so called social workers or mental health experts helped , very few ot them in those days .

          1. Your good heartedness saw their reality from one side. George Orwell’s ‘Down and out in London and Paris’ was an eye opener for me about the way these poor discarded people barely survived.

          2. Hi Phizzee

            Have just Googled the book you mentioned .. my goodness, and thanks .

            I made a similar comment on DT letters in response to rough sleepers. and got cancelled .. why , maybe too harsh perhaps?

            ” Nearly five decades ago , the only rough sleepers I observed were very elderly tramps , ex servicemen who had served in the first world war.. they were countryside tramps , and depended on the goodwill of countryfolk. They sharpened garden equipment , knives , scissors and provided some lovely carved thumbsticks .
            They would arrive on market day in small county towns .. The WRVS used to provide them with 2nd hand clothes , socks and shoes .. their feet were usually in a bad way .. and they would be given warm drinks .. they were NOT beggars nor alchoholics nor drug takers. They had dropped out .. no net to catch them , no ex service associations , the government cared not a jot for war wounderd or those with problems .
            I don’t think their lonely situation was self inflicted unlike many today.”

          3. One cycle of songs I would love to perform in a concert one day (and I sing them as well as anyone, including Bryn Terfel) is Vaughan Williams’ ‘Songs of Travel’, set from poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. If I recover from Covid in time, I am booked to do one of them at a concert in Malvern next weekend (‘In Dreams’, since the programme is about loss and consolation and it fitted rather well between Paul McCartney’s ‘Yesterday’ and Amanda McBroom’s ‘The Rose’).

            These are nine songs that tell a story of the life and thoughts of such a traveller. I find them much more interesting than Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’, which really only has one theme – a miserable young fellow whose mistress he fancies won’t let him in the house.

            I went into some detail into the unfolding drama, and placed them in four chapters:

            1. In ‘The Vagabond’ (the most well-known of the songs), the young man is on his travels and is full of himself. Nothing will stop him. Freddie Mercury had a similar message in his song ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’. The Queen song carried with it the warning from Brian May at the time that Freddie was trashing his life, which also appears in this cycle later.

            ‘Let Beauty Awake’ validates this decision as the traveller wakes with the beauty of the dawn chorus.

            2. This section explores the alternative vision, as the traveller ponders the merits of settling down, and creating a home.

            Whilst ‘The Roadside Fire’ is superficially developing the joys of the open road, it is now being seen in the context of a home and the companionship of marriage. He is hoping that the love of his life will join him on the open road, and savour its freedoms.

            ‘Youth and Love’, which in some respects carries the least interesting melody, is the pivot of the whole cycle. The man must make a decision between the journey and the destination – the housewife at the garden gate, or the more godly aspiration of the journey. Which is it to be? He cannot have both. In a throwaway line, he decides on the journey, and he is gone.

            ‘In Dreams’ is a bitter song. The jilted woman at the garden gate expresses her feelings at this rejection of true love, with a dark warning that in the end, he will not forget.

            3. Here, in middle age, the burden of regret takes over.

            ‘The Infinite Shining Heavens’ – the man is on the open road still, and tries to evoke the joys he experienced in ‘Let Beauty Awake’, looks up to the stars and does indeed experience the wonder of the night sky, but all he sees is a shooting star falling to earth, and in so doing extinguishes its wonder.

            ‘Whither Shall I Wander’ is a song where his decision to abandon the joys of domestic bliss with his beloved hit home. He sees the cosy villages, both from the road and especially in his memories before he embarked on this adventure, and they are like hearing someone else’s party and only bring a feeling of loss for what might have been.

            4. We are now either side of death.

            For much of the 20th century, the cycle ended with ‘Bright is the Ring of Words’. Here, he sums up the poetic nature of his journey and realises that each artist can be proud of the art he created and must not regret life when it passes. The parting phrase, considering what happens (both in the story and in real life) next is one of my weepies that nearly always brings me to tears of emotion “The lover lingers and sings, and the maid remembers”.

            Ursula Vaughan Willams was 40 years younger than Ralph, and they were lovers for many years before his crippled first wife died and they were able to wed formally. It was a short, but extraordinarily happy marriage, even though she was a widow for a very long time.

            He died in 1958. While looking through his papers, Ursula found an epilogue to this cycle ‘I Have Trod the Upward and Downward Slope’, which was added to the cycle and a new edition published in 1960.

            This short song sums up from the grave the whole story, where the traveller is philosophical about his life and bids farewell.

          4. Good morning JM

            I am truly blessed to be in the company of very knowledgeable talented people on our Nottler forum

            There are many things I know nothing of , so I feel very limited responding properly to you .

            Thank you though for aiding my curiosity , and will soon be familiarising myself with Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel and RLS poems .

            I do hope your voice recovers sufficiently to enable you to enjoy singing in the Malvern concert .

          5. As for children getting out into the countryside, I think there’s a similar scheme running these days called County Lines, or something.

    2. Some severe shocks to the economy are in train. Silence from the gov. Guns and ammo plus cans of beanz stockpiled. My chickens are to be tuned for rapid lay.

      1. I rather suspect that this is what our sadistic government wants. They want to terrify and punish us – it gives them a kind of orgasmic pleasure far beyond what Marie Antoinette can give their leader.

  13. SIR – The Government plans to reach net-zero carbon by reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels, without any idea of what they will be replaced with.

    It is determined to have electric vehicles, without a structure to charge them and at a cost too high for most people to afford.

    It sees household phone landlines cut off, with no concern for those without mobile coverage.

    It is to ban gas boilers and offers an alternative that is inefficient, extremely expensive and disruptive.

    Do I detect a theme here?

    Pauline Young
    Egerton, Lancashire

    You certainly do, Ms Young! Spread the word now in the hope that the rest of the population gets the message.

    Oh, and you forgot to include the ban on new/replacement oil-fired boilers which is due in 2025.

  14. Is it just me, but I’m getting the feeling that most of the refugees coming here because of the war in Ukraine will not in fact turn out to be Ukrainians

    1. Morning Bob. Yes there’s a large contingent of Somalis, Iraqi’s etc. attached. Those foolish enough to volunteer accomodation will find themselves sitting over the breakfast table to those who most hate them.

      1. I’m disqualified under the Safeguarding procedure, and would refuse anyway to submit to the Enhanced Disclosure & Barring intrusion. I doubt the Somalis, Iraqis etc claiming to be from Kharkiv would have to be subject to Safeguarding.

      2. The grandmother of our younger son’s ex-wife is one of the deluded, ‘ the rapeugees are just like us, normal family people’, hand wringing do-gooder types who frequently appears to support these savages – will she take in any of the alleged Ukrainians? She lives in Leeds so should be wise to the true nature of the enrichers.

    2. Morning Bob. Yes there’s a large contingent of Somalis, Iraqi’s etc. attached. Those foolish enough to volunteer accomodation will find themselves sitting over the breakfast table to those who most hate them.

      1. Not many pale Slavic faces, either.
        Who knew so many Africans and Asians had settled or chosen to study in the Ukraine?

    3. Good morning Bob

      Why are you so cynical? At the election Boris Johnson promised to get on top of the problem of immigration and surely he is a man of his word?

    1. Wonderful! I’ve always wanted to die as a meaningless vaporised blob in a war started by someone I never heard of in a cause I knew nothing about.

  15. SIR – BT has finally admitted that its switch to digital telephony (VOIP) could lead to people (not just the “vulnerable”) having no service in the event of a power failure. BT’s Chris Howe (Letters, February 28) seeks to pass the buck to energy providers, but forgets that unreliable electricity supply was the reason that the Post Office Telephone System originally provided a 50V DC supply, supported at the exchange by banks of Leclanché cells. This proven, reliable system is to be ripped out and replaced with a flaky digital system.

    Where is Ofcom? Ofcom requires BT to provide emergency telephone access in major power outages. As readers point out, BT proposals do not satisfy this requirement and Ofcom should step in to defend the consumer.

    Ian Rolland
    Loughborough, Leicestershire

    Back in the 80s I was asked by the insurers of a groundworking business to urgently attend their construction site alongside the A21 just south of Tunbridge Wells. They had failed to do their homework properly and had dug up, and severed, virtually all of the 999 circuits between London and the south Coast. When I arrived the headless chickens were out in force, most of them staring into the hole with horror to see bundles of exposed wires and lots of muddy water. It took 3 days for temporary repairs to be effected, and the resulting bill ran into several hundred thousand pounds when it was all fully repaired. The company went out of business shortly after as insurance cover wasn’t affordable after that.

  16. Yo all

    Forecourt fuel theft surges 200 per cent as prices rocket

    War in Ukraine has seen cost of petrol and diesel reach over £1.60 and £1.70 respectively, with fears that prices may get even higher

    Meanwhile Wiltshire Police have introduced a number of measures aimed at tackling the growing problem of fuel theft. The measures include
    increased CCTV and posters reminding motorists that they are being recorded.

    Well that should sort it

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/13/forecourt-fuel-theft-surges-200-per-cent-prices-rocket/

    1. As shoplifters apparently won’t be charged for stealing goods to the value of less than 100 GBP, it would be prudent for such drivers to cop for a shoplifting charge. Just before they drive off with their freedoms restored.

  17. Yo all

    Forecourt fuel theft surges 200 per cent as prices rocket

    War in Ukraine has seen cost of petrol and diesel reach over £1.60 and £1.70 respectively, with fears that prices may get even higher

    Meanwhile Wiltshire Police have introduced a number of measures aimed at tackling the growing problem of fuel theft. The measures include
    increased CCTV and posters reminding motorists that they are being recorded.

    Well that should sort it

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/13/forecourt-fuel-theft-surges-200-per-cent-prices-rocket/

  18. Just skimmed The Grimes.

    PROJECT FEAR alive and well.

    “Food shortages”; “Fuel shortages”; “Petrol rationing looms”; “Inflation rampant” – and, of course, “Fears about new covid outbreak”.

    At least the cats neither know nor care about it – and never will – lucky little chaps.

    1. Morning! You have two fine little hunters in the family. I’m sure if meat shortages are engineered, there are lots of delicious rodent recipes to try!

  19. Good morning my friends,

    It is beyond me why the Daily Telegraph pays this disgraced idiot to write this self-exculpating drivel:

    We got the big calls right on Covid
    I welcome the Covid inquiry as a chance to learn vital lessons

    MATT HANCOCK : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/03/14/got-big-calls-right-covid/

    This is the top BTL comment by a chap who calls himself Andy RoadKing

    No mention of Sweden?
    No mention of the policy that deliberately sent infected patients back into care home to infect other residents?
    No mention of turning our soviet style NHS into the National Covid Service: the only country in the world to abandon treatments for other illnesses?
    No mention of the Barrington Declaration?
    No mention of Psy-ops brain washing the population?
    No mention of the destruction of our children when they were not at any real risk?
    No mention of corruption in Covid related contracts?
    No mention of Number 10 parties?
    No mention of disgracing himself?
    Why does the DT persist in rubbing salt into the wound publishing this clown? EDITED

    1. We do not need to “learn lessons” to deal with Covid. We already knew them. We did not apply them.

    2. There needs to be a detailed investigation into all the contracts placed during Covid, especially the two [?] involving Halfcock, followed by prosecutions if there has been ANY corruption involved and/or the kit supplied was unfit for purpose.

        1. As a world renowned dancer, due to my athletic grace I can say these are ‘cool’.

          Flip if I know. I’m shaped like a cow so me dancing is just idiotic.

    3. I welcome the Covid inquiry as a chance to learn vital lessons
      So, the outcome is already fixed known, is it. Colour me surprised. He wouldn’t be looking forward to the truth coming out.

    4. Annoyingly, he was probably paid a good ten grand for this outpouring of tosh.

      Equally there will be no discussion of the flaws and failures of the UK covid response. That isn’t the intent or purpose of such waffle.

  20. There is rarely anything to smile about in a war, but for me this is the exception:

    Ukrainian farmers tow away abandoned Russia tanks and missile launchers worth millions

    Videos of tractors tugging a range of ‘confiscated’ Russian military equipment have gone viral on social media

    By
    Genevieve Holl-Allen
    13 March 2022 • 1:39pm

    Ukrainian farmers have taken to their tractors to tow away military hardware worth millions of pounds as the beleaguered Russian forces continue their assault on the country.

    Videos of tractors tugging a range of “confiscated” Russian military equipment – including armoured personnel carriers, battle tanks and missile systems – have gone viral on social media, with farmers dubbed the real “Ukrainian military convoy”.

    One Twitter user joked: “Never ask a woman her age, a man his salary, a Ukrainian farmer from where he got his anti-aircraft system.”

    Another said: “After 12 days of stealing Putin’s tanks, Ukrainian farmers are now unofficially the fifth-largest military in Europe.”

    The farmers have become icons of the resistance movement as they boldly “liberate” tanks and reportedly hand them over to those fighting back against the Russian invasion.

    A video from March 2 shows two tractors towing a Tor missile system – worth approximately £19 million ($25 million) – which had formerly been the property of the Russian military.

    UA News reported that the farmers were helping to deliver the missile system to the Ukrainian military, and said: “The invaders left the equipment on the road and ran away, and our farmers delivered it to our military.

    “This air defence system will serve for the benefit of our army and help defeat the Russian invaders.”

    Other items of seized equipment include BTR-82 armoured personnel carriers, a T-80U battle tank and Soviet MT-LBs.

    #Ukraine: This time Ukrainian farmers helped the army to collect a captured Russian BTR-82A. pic.twitter.com/GWoOFJk1kZ

    — 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) March 7, 2022
    In another video, a tractor is shown dragging away an armoured vehicle as a man, reported to be a Russian soldier, runs hopelessly after it. It has been viewed by over five million people.

    Although some farmers are thought to be handing the tanks to the resistance movement, others are rumoured to be collecting them for their own enjoyment and as tokens from the war.

    The tanks can also be sold for scrap metal or used for land cultivation.

    The Telegraph has calculated rough estimates of just half of the hardware that Ukrainian farmers have seized, which amounts to £23 million ($30 million).

    * * *

    Unfortunately I have not been able to copy the photos on this device.

  21. How delighted and supportive will be the UK citizens who were not treated for illnesses, including cancer, in the last two years. The relatives of those who died in this country because treatment was delayed or not started will surely welcome this. Why is it that this happens? Opportunity costs are ignored. If our NHS is set up to provide for us, how can it treat others at the drop of a hat? Whose hat is being dropped?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60731806

    1. I assume it will be paid for out of the Foreign Aid budget, as will the housing costs of non-cancerous Ukrainians?

      1. Opportunity costs cannot be paid for in this way. The availability of hospital beds, operating theatres, and specialist medical staff is relatively fixed. Increasing the availability takes years. So who should go without? This is a discussion that never takes place. I’d have said that UK citizens living in the UK should have absolute priority over all others. But that’s just me.

    2. And how many British children will be bumped down the list to allow these foreign children to be treated as priority? Capacity for such treatment is finite in terms of both appropriate consultants and paediatric beds.
      Even more treatments for British children will have been delayed/cancelled for the days the large group (14 in the photo)of medics were away to assess these children in Poland.

      1. All part of the chaos, MiB, that the government is engineering in order to unprofessional, stupid and inept, further to push us into the ready acceptance and ‘open arms’ of the One World Government of the NWO/WEF. There will be a price to pay, levels of control over our lives, bodies and children that we cannot yet imagine, but such will be the distress and social chaos caused by our govt (on behalf of the NWO/WEF) many will be prepared to pay that price. I wonder what the protagonists in our govt have been offered?

        1. I can’t remember the details, but I think it was the WHO that is already planning on there being worldwide control, that would take precedence over national governments of sovereign nations, over restrictions etc in the event of a future pandemic. Truly evil, sinister and terrifying. Imagine the whole world being over-run by a Jacinda Adhern type despot.
          I am glad my time is running out but fear for my sons and grandchildren.
          Goodnight Poppiesmum.

  22. JK Rowling says Keir Starmer misrepresents law over ‘woman’ definition. 14 March 2022.

    The Harry Potter author was responding to comments the Labour leader gave to the Times when asked to define a woman.

    Starmer, formerly the director of public prosecutions, the most senior prosecutor in England and Wales, said: “A woman is a female adult, and in addition to that trans women are women, and that is not just my view, that is actually the law. It has been the law through the combined effects of the 2004 [Gender Recognition] Act and the 2010 [Equality] Act.”

    The irony here is that this is not just Starmer’s view but that; if challenged, all 600 Members of Parliament would subscribe too. It is a guide to the sickness at the centre of Government.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/mar/13/jk-rowling-keir-starmer-misrepresents-law-woman-definition-labour

    1. He is not Starmer, he is ‘Sir Keir Starmer’. It is disrespectful to ignore a knighthood or title or rank when the subject is first mentioned in an article. His spouse is now Lady Starmer.

      Ian the Guard doesn´t mention the title at all.

      Also, when the first tranny gets offered a title, will hesheit opt for Dame or Sir?

      1. It was certainly disrespectful when every Lefty in the UK routinely referred to Baroness Thatcher as “Thatcher”.

      1. Indeed. The expression: “The law is an ass.” is not gratuitous. All you have to do is look at some of the ridiculous laws that are highlighted for the amusement of the public to realize that it can be very stupid indeed. How about this one. It is an offence to handle a salmon and look at all suspicious. the Salmon Act of 1986.

        1. I once played Mr Bumble in a school production of Oliver and I would like to have played Dogberry who is writ down an ass!

          1. Who said he was, George?

            With his knowledge of Shakespeare, I’m sure Richard will know about Much Ado About Nothing – indeed that’s probably why he has used that quote.

      2. This particular law is most decidedly not a fact. I wonder what the authorities will make of the records in years to come when people have decided to “alter” their sex. I was christened, for instance one name but have always been called by my second name. I changed my name by deed poll to reflect this but have always been called by the original by DWP and HMRC to name but two.

    2. I don’t understand why there is such desperation to pander to a tiny minority of the population who are clearly mentally ill.

  23. Sajid Javid ‘in discussions with wife’ to take in Ukrainian refugees. 14 March 2022.

    Mr Javid told the BBC he was considering whether he was able to host Ukrainian refugees in his own home.He said: “I’m starting to have a conversation with my wife on that and I think many households – as you say, and I’m pleased you brought this up – are probably thinking about this across the country.

    Yes and I’ll bet his wife is saying, “Not on your cotton-picking life you little twat.”

    Sajid Javid ‘in discussions with wife’ to take in Ukrainian refugees (msn.com)

    1. Undoubtedly he has a large home or two so should be able to house a few families…..

    2. According to Wikipedia Javid owns properties in Fulham, Chelsea, Bristol and Bromsgrove. So clearly it will be very difficult to fit a single refugee anywhere in his property. But, no doubt, he will struggle on, berating the rest of us with sanctimony. It seems, now a days, to be a favourite pastime of politicians. Certainly easier than actually doing things that are useful for us, the public.

      1. The usual ‘all mouth and no trousers’ bunch – politicians, luvvies and church ‘leaders.’

        1. Benedict Comberbach says he is to take in some Ukrainian refugees – sod that, haven’t they suffered enough?

          1. I won’t hold my breath. If some Ukrainians actually got housed by him, as soon as he started preaching at them (which he no doubt would), they’d probably think he was a clinically insane.

  24. Good morning all on this clear sunny start.
    A headline in Saturday’s Mail:
    “Did flawed PCR tests convince us Covid was worse than it really was?
    Britain’s entire response was based on results – but one scientist says they should have been axed a year ago.”
    No sh** Sherlock.
    Not just us but most of the world.
    Likewise the blatantly massively exaggerated death figures where the majority were not caused by Convid.
    Edit: Not that Nottlers were taken in by the lies

    1. Kenya apparently has axed the requirement for a negative PCR test for travellers’ entry – a few weeks too late for me – that really added to the stress beforehand.

      1. I’m just hoping Canada will drop the PCR requirement (both before arriving and the random ones for those ‘selected’ at the airport on arrival.) as we think we may visit our son and family in the summer. They won’t come here this year – because the 4 year old is unjabbed so far as too young – lucky for her – they would have to quarantine at home for 2 weeks when they got back. Sheer bonkers. Not holding out much hope with Turdeau in charge.

        1. No pcr tests now, just mandatory vaccinations and a rapid test (not self service). I also thought that they had realised that youngsters could not be vaccinated and dropped quarantine (I might be wrong on this).

          They are still into random testing, a friend came back from vacation and found that half of the people on his flight caught the random test.

          Only the feds are holding onto this crap, provinces are ending restrictions.

          1. My son looked into their current restrictions if they came here, still mandatory quarantine for them all on returning home as the little one isn’t jabbed. It could change of course …. though experience suggests it is probably unlikely, turdeau has to keep the control going.
            You mention the rapid test – is that something travellers must do before travelling to Canada?

  25. Another day, another ‘award ceremony’…

    This leading BTL comment caught my eye:

    Brian Thorne
    2 HRS AGO
    Yesterday evening saw the BBC screen a two hour Party Political Broadcast on behalf of the BAFTA Party.
    Actors and actresses queuing up to be political mouthpieces for their Woke lifestyles and virtue-signalling.
    The Luvvie Darlings know best as they were busy trying to outdo each other with their sanctimonious views by telling the Government what it should be doing while offering rooms to refugees, well certainly thinking about it but probably not.
    Remember the days when the acting fraternity just acted?
    We used to watch films, tv and sport without political statements or ridiculous gestures, such as genuflecting to…what exactly?
    Saccharin- soaked spiel laced with poison against those who won’t bow down against the Tablets of Woke has ruined what was once an entertainment industry?

    I blame Marlon Brando…

    * * *

    Not a fan then, Brian? You are not alone, matey!

    1. Good morning all. Lovely day, Sunny and 49f. Unfortunately it is not going to rain and fix that today. Thus it goes.

      That letter is from the Telegraph, Hugh? It is rather good. Not even going to bother commenting on the lead letter today. “We in the West stand by and watch the destruction of people’s houses”, it is the usual sanctimonious claptrap. Amazing peoples ability to ignore the 14,000 killed in Donetsk forced to live in their cellars because their houses were destroyed, while being outraged by the Russians and how cruel they are to the Ukrainians. I don’t believe any of the propaganda of the Western papers at all. I don’t believe the pregnant woman is dead. At this point I would have to see the dead body to accept it.

      1. Where was all the handwringing when the West blew the bejayzuz out of Libya, Syria…? Bah!

        1. I spent most of my childhood in Libya because my father was part of the British army that helped oversee that countries drive to independence so I will ignore your comment otherwise I will start ranting and raving at what the Western slime bags did to that wonderful country. They all should be hung by their testicles over a wadi filled with prickly pears until they bloody well die.

          1. I know what you mean, Johnathan, although my attachment to Libya is more recent and more fleeting.I visited Libya for work often in the 2000s, and really liked the place. And Libyans as well – dignified, not hysterical like Egyptians. And some amazing Roan ruins, in excellent state of preservation.
            Ghaddafi was a nasty little man with greasy hair and a shiny blue suit, but at least the country was stable and becoming increasingly prosperous. Now, after the unthinking t**ts have had their fun, the country is ruined, and the Libyans most unhappy (surprise…). There’s also nobody to stop the African hordes crossing to Italy, either.
            Good one. Round of fcuking applause.

      2. Good morning, jonathan

        I too have virtually no belief in the “news” the MSM tries to heap upon us.

        Thomas needed to see the holes made by the nails in Christ’s hands.

        1. Morning Rastus. Yes, I think we are in a situation where the reasonable person must be a Thomas in order not to be mislead for what passes as truth in this awful situation. And, for me at any rate, your point is well taken. I have really been thinking a lot about the nature of evil lately. It seems to be cloaked in apparent truth which, in turn reminds me that the anti-Christ comes as a saviour, not as a devil.

        2. What’s the saying? The first casualty of war is the truth?

          Yet with all the lies floating about, with all the deceit it is impossible to trust anything.

      3. It’s from ‘Comments’ at the end of the Letters, otherwise known here as ‘below the line’ (BTL).

    2. They got two things right: Best Film for THE POWER OF THE DOG and Best British Film for BELFAST.

        1. You’d need to Google that, HJ. I don’t have a TV and therefore have never paid much attention to Netflix, Amazon, Disney TV, etc. etc. streaming services. (Unless you mean can you buy a DVD of the films on Amazon.co.uk, In which case you will have to wait until the films are no longer on general release, i.e. in around 6 months’ time.

      1. I don’t normally watch films but last night I watched a DVD called Angels’ Share about a group of Scottish ex-offenders who hatched a plot to steal some rare malt whisky whilst fighting personal issues. Contained a lot of Glaswegian swearing and some heartwarming scenes plus a smattering of real humour. ‘Angels share’ as some of you may know is the amount of whisky which evaporates each year whilst it is aging in the barrels. Well worth watching!

      2. I don’t normally watch films but last night I watched a DVD called Angels’ Share about a group of Scottish ex-offenders who hatched a plot to steal some rare malt whisky whilst fighting personal issues. Contained a lot of Glaswegian swearing and some heartwarming scenes plus a smattering of real humour. ‘Angels share’ as some of you may know is the amount of whisky which evaporates each year whilst it is aging in the barrels. Well worth watching!

    3. … which is one reason taht I don’t have anything to do with showbiz and it’s self-congratulation.

    4. We always give programs like these a swerve they are a “Me Me me” pointless waste of time and money. Like Kids in a playground.
      We watched this from a recoding i made a few months ago excellent.
      Write Around the World with Richard E Grant Season 1 …
      https://www.radiotimes.com/programme/b-xvcml3/write-around-the-world
      17/08/2021 · In the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains he meets drummer-turned-writer Chris Stewart, who shows Richard where he wrote the first in his bestselling series.

    1. The Americans may be correct in suggesting that Putin approached China to help him with his “special military operation”.

      I also suggest that China might well have responded by telling Putin that it was not a good idea, and that China was primarily interested in brokering a peace settlement, so a part of the world important for Chinese trade would not be destabilised.

      If one must annexe a province (and something China is quite good at), then best to do it when nobody is watching or caring too much. No fuss.

      1. Let’s face it, Jeremy, if China went for Taiwan, how many bleeding hearts would be beating their chests while calling for help for, “Poor little Taiwan”?

        1. I was thinking just now of a better strategy than going in with guns blazing, that could apply to Taiwan as much as to Ukraine.

          Russia managed to swallow Crimea without too much fuss. Yes, many harsh words were said, but the important thing was that these were not backed up with punitive military action.

          Next stop was to repeat the exercise in Donetz and Luhansk. However, if that worked, then almost certainly Kiev (as the Russians know it) would have applied for NATO membership. EU membership might have taken a little longer, but that too was likely. This is all too close for comfort for the Kremlin, given the shrinking of its sphere of influence since the 1990s. Nothing for it, but to neutralise Kiev while the alliance with Belarus still made it possible to cross the Dnieper even if they blew up all the bridges across it in Ukraine.

          A miscalculation though, since even 200,000 soldiers are not enough to hold one of the biggest countries in Europe with a fired-up resistance comprising those with a Slav temperament same as that of fired-up Russians.

          A more effective solution (and one China has been secretly using for decades) is the “softly, softly, catchee monkey” approach. Does it matter if it proceeds at the pace of thawing thermafrost, if you get your way in the end?

          Russia was exploiting Germany’s Net Zero, anti-nuclear approach to supplying energy to its industries (which are so important to Germans) by having their gas and oil handy for when they realise this cannot work, and need to heat their homes and work their factories in a hard winter. This makes Russia indispensible, and any moral outrages may produce harsh words from the West, but nothing more serious. Easy enough then to shift the flags and the customs posts and call it a day.

          Another thing Russia could exploit is the woke takeover of institutions in the West, so that nothing from building a house to running a country could function because of idiotic bureaucracy pushing woke agendas above all else. Russia steps in with staff prepared to ignore all this nonsense and get the job done. Russia becomes indispensible.

          Never underestimate the power of good music. Who cannot be failed to be stirred by the Ukrainian national anthem, which tugs at the same heartstrings that Russia’s does. Ed Sheeran cannot compete with this, and the Kremlin knows it. When they did that concert at the (now demolished) Roman amphitheatre in Palmyra, Russia’s standing with the whole world outside the Jihadi enemy rocketed.

          Then there are the Muslims. Russia is a Christian country and well used to dealing with troublesome and often violently hostile Muslims. When all those sleeper cells from Somalia, Nigeria or Pakistan wake up and start doing jihad all over Western European cities, what decent folk will call for is a nice protective mother bear to put it all right.

          After a while of this, then even if Ukraine does join NATO, especially with America losing interest in Europe, then what threat would it be, even if it was sitting outside the gates of Moscow? Just humour it by eating their hamburgers.

          As regards Taiwan, the more the People’s Republic becomes like Taiwan, culturally and emotionally, the less anyone might notice if Beijing one day shifted the flags and customs posts.

    2. Well actually Plum and good morning….I would regard the truth as disinformation if it came from Beijing. I would wonder what their truth was motivated by, what it was, as it were, wrapped around with, what was intended. I trust nothing from that bunch.

    1. Just look at the Daily Mail. Even for the DM it goes overboard with putin bad, Ukraine good headlines.

      I suppose that some will lap up the stories but there is such blatant bias.

      1. I think most of this is because of the nature of modern media. A 12 hour turnaround, no real investigation, miss a story and you miss the issue entirely. It is juvenile. Look at the difference between newspapers from 50 years ago compared to today.

        The new one is chock full of nonsense and supplements that are just advertising, there are full page adverts, big photos and the text is much bigger – all to pad out the complete lack of content.

    2. The quote should read, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive.

    1. Professor Taras Kuzio is full of it and I find him personally offensive in his attempt to characterise people like me in order to fit his lazy profiling. Facts are not the “Kremlin line”. But his misrepresentation of the situation is certainly pro-Ukrainian pro-Western propaganda. I neither see myself as on the far left or on the far right. I simply try to ascertain the truth and go with that. Apparently that sort of behaviour according to Professor Taras Kuzio is to be smeared. Typical propagandist and, as an English academic, I bet your bottom dollar that he is on the left with an ideological axe to grind.

    2. I don’t believe our politicians are parroting Kremlin lines. Their policies are utterly different to ours.

      Our lot are driving this country into the ground with high taxes, corruption, fraud and welfarism. Russia’s not doing any of that!

  26. Morning all, not much to say about the state of the world.

    I did notice I missed the BAFTA awards last night, let’s hope my luck holds and I do not stumble on the Oscar’s later in the year.

    The comments are interesting, a typical example “those who attended last night are the biggest collection of narcissistic fragile egos this side of the Oscar’s. Desperate to be noticed fearful of rejection, always glancing at the screens to see if the camera lands on them for the briefest of moments, making the whole pointless charade worthwhile”.

  27. Just stocking up on tinned goods before food rationing starts and i came across an item i hadn’t seen before.
    Simmenthal beef.

    Apparently the Italians love it. Obviously no accounting for taste.

    It is beef chunks in gelatin and looks exactly like dog food.

    Has anyone tried it?

    1. As I a child, I coulnd’t resist trying dog food. It tasted horrible. I totally understood why our dog begged at table!

      1. Since he was a puppy Mongo’s had real food. Beef, chicken pasta, 2 carrots, peas, cauliflower florets. Not too many vegetables as he’s a dog, but some. Sometimes a whole salmon or tuna.

        The breeder suggested he have some dry dog food as well and gave me a recommendation for that.

        1. Dianne’s grand-dog, Maddie the Schnauzer was here from Thursday till yesterday. She spent a few years in the Saudi desert with D’s eldest and family. Until their return, she’s now with daughter Hannah, who is a vet. But domestic issues mean she’s spending time with Granny Dianne.

          She’s on dry food and lots of water. Hannah has advised to avoid biscuity treats, but carrots are OK. And the occasional veg. I’m not surprised she’s barking mad…

      2. By the age of six, my son had eaten dog food, cat food and rabbit food. Re the rabbit food- we were at a friend’s house in CT and they had a rabbit in a hutch outside. My son and her daughter disappeared so we went looking. The rabbit was hopping about on the grass and the two horrors were wedged into the hutch eating the food.
        He’s now 41 so guess it didn’t do any harm.

        1. My Welsh Grandfather, described himself as a rabbit catcher
          on mums birth certificate and when she was married, she made
          put down, farmer on the marriage certificate….In reality he was a
          countryman….We regularly had rabbits sent through the post ,
          with our address wrapped around the rabbits body.The head,the
          long ears and the white tail were still attached,he had cleaned
          out the middle.All that finished with miximatosis…Mum knew
          just how to cook rabbit stew with all the vegetables,it tasted
          wonderful.Good memories.

          1. My mother made rabbit stew once…it was awful but she was not a good cook. Her best meals were traditional Sunday roasts and the like. My dad always referred to her cakes as “puddn” which, as you can imagine, was not appreciated.

          2. Do you remember the show with Wendy Craig,Geoffrey Palmer and
            one of the children was Rodney of only fools and horses…..
            The whole family, dreaded mums cooking.

          3. I do indeed. It was shown on Public TV when I was in CT and all my friends were hooked on it.
            My parents had friends and the wife was another terrible cook. One Sunday, we were there for lunch and I remember her eldest son prodding at whatever it was on his plate and asking, “Can you explain this, Mother?”

          4. I do indeed. It was shown on Public TV when I was in CT and all my friends were hooked on it.
            My parents had friends and the wife was another terrible cook. One Sunday, we were there for lunch and I remember her eldest son prodding at whatever it was on his plate and asking, “Can you explain this, Mother?”

          1. That’s a relief. Meanwhile, with a quick change of vowel, Dianne the Ex (who was here for the weekend) used to teach Lettice of the Rowbotham ilk. One vowel can make a difference.

      3. I met a chap who worked for one of the big pet food businesses. He was on the tasting panel for dog food. He said it was quite palatable, and was always fit for human consumption*
        *When I was on a market research course the lecturer said one must always look at the circumstances, all elements involved internal and external, not just the bald statistics. He cited the example of dog food. Many producers were noticing good sales of dog food in immigrant, ie muslim, areas of England. Muslims don’t own dogs.

    2. Don’t worry Phizzee. A good dose of radioactivity will kill off anything dangerous!

  28. Be Aware

    The sooner we end Europe’s GDPR disaster the better
    EU’s data protection rules have proved a disaster for our digital start-ups

    If you are bothered what this article is about, open the link below and scroll down to paragraph 8 or 9, it tells you

    Total crap sub editing by the Tellygaff, yet again

    1. I don’t see the article over at the Telegraph. Can you provide a link? Apparently you intended to provide one but I think you omitted it by accident.

  29. A group of squatters have occupied a Belgravia mansion they claim is owned by a Russian oligarch.

    The activists broke into 5 Belgrave Square just after midnight before hanging Ukrainian flags and banners reading: ‘The property has been liberated’ and ‘Putin go f*** yourself’.

    Police were called to the property at 1am on Monday following reports that a group of people had gained entry.

    The group said, on Monday morning, it had occupied the mansion to show

    “solidarity with the people of Ukraine”. It said it wanted to use the

    property as a refugee centre.

    https://uk.news.yahoo.com/squatters-over-belgravia-mansion-links-103620802.html?guce_referrer=ahr0chm6ly9kaxnxlnvzlw&guce_referrer_sig=aqaaak1hnp9xlqrdrhj9clxevkl8kpxd5k89dqvnana80afnqaqbqeft0qv63i-zbwcdparksi87ka6fsjts18ocsfawitid3nho9kgnor3dvsaqm9pt_lltncdp3nceszsxtqnnh4lee0uddw42zb05qxyvw7fj74y6ad7gfccrwrkd
    “Broke In”
    Isn’t that burglary?? will the police arrest them all??
    No,thought not,(if this is public policy I quite fancy a nice flat on Canary Wharf)

    1. I understood that squatters can enter a building which is open ie previously broken into. So only the first one in can be charged – the rest are entering an open building

      1. Is it illegal to squat in a residential property?

        Under Section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, squatting in residential property became a criminal offence on 1 September 2012.
        This is why most squatting is in commercial property these days,these people are criminals pure and simple,out with them

      2. I really don’t think that these people have thought it through. The building is the home of a Russian billionaire, Oleg Deripaska, an “oligarch”.
        These oligarchs (English: “gangster”) may have some rough edges.
        Quote from his Wikipedia entry, “He has been characterized as a victor in the “aluminium wars” in Russia during the 1990s, which were frequently violent conflicts between business people to obtain state-owned assets…”
        These “squatters” may find that their next lodging is at the bottom of the Thames.

        https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-sanctions-deripaska-rusal-idUSKCN1OK081
        https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/apr/13/mining.russia1

        1. Can we tell him XR was also responsible in someway as well.

          Asking for a friend…..

      3. I really don’t think that these people have thought it through. The building is the home of a Russian billionaire, Oleg Deripaska, an “oligarch”.
        These oligarchs (English: “gangster”) may have some rough edges.
        Quote from his Wikipedia entry, “He has been characterized as a victor in the “aluminium wars” in Russia during the 1990s, which were frequently violent conflicts between business people to obtain state-owned assets…”
        These “squatters” may find that their next lodging is at the bottom of the Thames.

        https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-sanctions-deripaska-rusal-idUSKCN1OK081
        https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/apr/13/mining.russia1

    1. The top meme would actually work in our favour, because then people might be a bit more suspicious next time round.

  30. British shoppers face sunflower oil shortages after attack on Ukraine. 14 March 2022.

    One of Ukraine’s biggest food producers has warned that British shoppers are facing sunflower oil shortages as Russia’s invasion threatens to disrupt the crucial planting season.

    Industry insiders said prices of cooking oils are set to rocket after the invasion of Ukraine, which is the world’s biggest sunflower seed producing region.

    This is just the beginning. Flour and associated products (Bread. Cereals etc.) are next. Stock up folks while you can!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/03/13/british-shoppers-face-sunflower-oil-shortages-attack-ukraine/

    1. A sunflower oil shortage, Araminta, is a blessing in disguise. Seed (so-called “vegetable”) oils are a poison that cause most modern diseases.

      They are incessantly foisted upon us by the global, multi-national corporations that get fat on the profits from them; and the various national health authorities that get fat on donations from the corporations urging them to promote the poison. I won’t have such muck in the house.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQmqVVmMB3k

    2. Ah! Sun-flower by William Blake

      Ah Sun-flower! weary of time,
      Who countest the steps of the Sun:
      Seeking after that sweet golden clime
      Where the travellers journey is done.

      Where the Youth pined away with desire,
      And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow:
      Arise from their graves and aspire,
      Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.

      1. I don’t like it- olive oil is my oil of choice. Eat yer heart out Popeye;-)

      2. Why did you stop, and what do you use instead?
        I stopped last year after Grizzly posted a link to a film on youtube about sunflower and rapeseed oils.

          1. I use those, but also have lard and goose dripping in my fridge.
            My mother fried everything in lard when I was a child!

        1. I discovered olive oil and never looked back. When I was young, olive oil came from the chemist in small bottles for softening ear wax. Then I realised that it was in the supermarket and good for food.

    1. The state doesn’t care. It thinks this is necessary. That it goes straight to the wind mill companies isn’t relevant to them. We’re forced to pay for expensive, inefficient, not remotely environmentally friendly nonsense is, to them, a good thing.

      It’ easy when it’s other people’s money.

  31. One good thing is coming out of this fight between Ukraine and Russia.
    Erdogan is already in trouble because his policies have created a disaster for the Turkish economy. Hopefully we will see the back of him soon. So on top of the mess he has created by his Islamic policies, this…
    Russia Punches Ukraine. Ukraine slaps Russia. Turkey feels the pain.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lh-mVdkc6Q

    1. Not that I want to see them pitch in but as the Black Sea region around Odessa was under Ottoman rule from 1529 to 1792, one might argue that historically the Turks have the strongest claim.

    1. I thought it looked as though it had been abandoned years ago, and if it had actually been bombed would the walls not have fallen down?

      1. The first time that I saw it, I thought that the destruction had taken place some time previously. No fires, no fireman, just one stretcher being taken towards the wreckage.
        The Glasgow Herald replaced the photo with one of armoured cars and a civilian car. The civilian car had a registration plate for Donetsk, so not in the Ukraine but in the new Russia-protected republic. So why? Ho-hum.

    2. I saw a video taken inside. It was clearly an abandoned building – none of the normal stuff you get in occupied buildings was there.

  32. Just had my post about Sad Dick and Jab Dick not taking refugees into their homes cancelled”

    Look, you plebs, in accordance with World Economic Forum (WEF) rules, you
    Do as I Say, Not as I Do
    Got it, Good

    1. Most of the government,front bench are foreigners.We told ’em but they
      called us “racist”….

    1. I’m pretty sure that they were a CIA team judging by the disclaimers about their activities!

    2. I’m pretty sure that they were a CIA team judging by the disclaimers about their activities!

    3. I suspected that when the story came out. RT didn’t speculate on who carried it out, they just said that it happened in an area where there had been heavy fighting.

  33. Last night I watched my recording of Maigret; the Rupert Davies version from the 1960’s. Black and White; well shades of grey actually. Sparse sets. No actual murders on screen. No Bames (apart from a Belgian) or PC messaging. What a joy! I didn’t look away once. I’ve set the TV to record them all!

  34. In all this debate about trans women I would like Mrs Yvette Balls to answer a more significant question than “What is a woman?” That is “What is a lady!”

    1. If Ed were to be knighted, Yvette would become Lady Balls – which would make her sound like some sort of Thai prostitute?

    2. Hubby Ed came up with a wonderful definition of a woman.
      “In my house it’s the person who doesn’t cook”.
      Like Michael Portillo, he’s improved by shaking the Westminster mud off his shoes.

  35. Just a thought; the Beeboids are getting all emotional over Ukrainians singing their national anthem. ‘Brave’, ‘national solidarity’, ‘defying the Russians’ etc……
    I wonder how the BBC would react to the English singing “God Save The Queen”? What words would the reporters use to describe the event?

  36. The events of recent years, reinforced by the events of recent weeks (and all overseen here by the lying Bunter) make me turn to the line “The world is too much with us; late and soon …” . I reflect how lucky I was to study A-level English Lit. (Durham Board, 1963) and Wordsworth (The Preface, if I recall) was one of the nine choices of texts for our class:

    The world is too much with us; late and soon,
    Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
    Little we see in Nature that is ours;
    We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
    This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
    The winds that will be howling at all hours,
    And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
    For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
    It moves us not.—Great God! I’d rather be
    A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
    So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
    Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
    Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
    Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

    1. I remember learning this by heart when I was at prep school.

      I did the Oxford and Cambridge Board in 1964 and studied William Blake, Gerard Manley Hopkins, John Milton, and William Wordsworth’s The Prelude in which there is the dramatic episode when he takes a rowing boat and is terrified by his imagination.

      One summer evening (led by her) I found
      A little boat tied to a willow tree
      Within a rocky cove, its usual home.
      Straight I unloosed her chain, and stepping in
      Pushed from the shore. It was an act of stealth
      And troubled pleasure, nor without the voice
      Of mountain-echoes did my boat move on;
      Leaving behind her still, on either side,
      Small circles glittering idly in the moon,
      Until they melted all into one track
      Of sparkling light. But now, like one who rows,
      Proud of his skill, to reach a chosen point
      With an unswerving line, I fixed my view
      Upon the summit of a craggy ridge,
      The horizon’s utmost boundary; far above
      Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky.
      She was an elfin pinnace; lustily
      I dipped my oars into the silent lake,
      And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boat
      Went heaving through the water like a swan;
      When, from behind that craggy steep till then
      The horizon’s bound, a huge peak, black and huge,
      As if with voluntary power instinct,
      Upreared its head. I struck and struck again,
      And growing still in stature the grim shape
      Towered up between me and the stars, and still,
      For so it seemed, with purpose of its own
      And measured motion like a living thing,
      Strode after me. With trembling oars I turned,
      And through the silent water stole my way
      Back to the covert of the willow tree;
      There in her mooring-place I left my bark, –
      And through the meadows homeward went, in grave
      And serious mood; but after I had seen
      That spectacle, for many days, my brain
      Worked with a dim and undetermined sense
      Of unknown modes of being; o’er my thoughts
      There hung a darkness, call it solitude
      Or blank desertion. No familiar shapes
      Remained, no pleasant images of trees,
      Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields;
      But huge and mighty forms, that do not live
      Like living men, moved slowly through the mind
      By day, and were a trouble to my dreams.

      1. Cue the Ukes firing a missile into Poland………….
        The lie would be round the world before the truth got its boots on

      2. I bet he’s terrified! Seems this was Javid the Bald giving us the benefit of his extensive military training!

  37. Nicola Sturgeon’s childish attention seeking proves Scotland is not ready for independence

    The First Minister’s risible attempts to play the statesman are not just ridiculous, they are dangerous

    SIMON HEFFER • Saturday 12th March 2022 • 3:00pm

    One senses that Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, misses the limelight she grabbed when Covid-19 was at its zenith. She seems instead to seek other means to keep her name before the public. It might be better for all, however, if she did so in a way that did not risk provoking the Third World War.

    Last week she showed her absence of statesmanship by demanding NATO “keep its mind open” on a no-fly zone over Ukraine. The clear effect of such a zone, as even 14-year-old armchair generals realise, would be that if a Russian jet flew into that airspace a NATO one would have to shoot it down. All right-thinking people feel nothing but revulsion for what the Russians are doing to Ukraine. But a no-fly zone could become a war between a nuclear-armed NATO and a nuclear-armed Russia: and no-one can so sure that the psychopath, sadist and narcissist who runs Russia would not launch such a weapon – unless, of course, he has taken Ms Sturgeon into his confidence.

    Normally, when Scotland’s First Minister says something absurd, her political opponents hesitate to take her on. Happily, this was not the Conservative Party’s response this time, as it realised the lethal consequences of her idiocy. Ministers are at last prepared to expose just how far out of her depth she is. Alister Jack, the Secretary of State for Scotland, was right to call her remarks “utterly irresponsible”. The Ministry of Defence has briefed the Scottish government regularly on the situation, yet what Ms Sturgeon suggested was at odds with what Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, Chief of the Defence Staff, had advised the Cabinet.

    There is a further paradox: although Ms Sturgeon seems willing to provoke the Third World War, she also wants to scrap the Trident missiles that would give the United Kingdom and her NATO allies a reasonable chance of avoiding the apocalypse. But because the Government at Westminster opposes a no-fly zone, for eminently sensible reasons, she seems to feel she has to call for one, just as during the pandemic she had to implement restrictions that began earlier, finished later, and were just that little bit more draconian. Like a spoilt child in a playground, she always has to be different, because in her ignorance she believes different is the same as better, and she has always to be better than the English oppressor.

    Similarly, as those she claims to represent struggle with increased energy bills, she opposes more drilling in the North Sea: frankly, if she really cared for their interests, she would sanction it tomorrow, and re-open some of Scotland’s coalmines too. Instead, her other concern last week was to apologise to the 4,000 or so people (about 15 per cent of whom were men) charged with Witchcraft under the Scottish Witchcraft Act of 1563, which she branded “injustice on a colossal scale”. She now advocates pardons for them, as she introduces an Orwellian law to make misogyny a criminal offence. Her only regret must be that the Act pre-dates the Act of Union, and all the great witch hunts also happened before 1707: otherwise one presumes the English taxpayer would be ordered to pay reparations.

    This desperate attention-seeking is another sign that peak Sturgeon has long passed: and it is harmless in that it diminishes only her and the fundamentally unserious cause of Scottish independence which she represents. And that cause will remain unserious so long as Ms Sturgeon and her acolytes act in such a petulant and irresponsible fashion.

    However, trying to pretend she understands international statesmanship is a more perilous activity, and one that shows her deeply unfit to lead. A period of silence, as Mr Attlee once put it, would be not only welcome, but perhaps life-saving.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/12/nicola-sturgeons-childish-attention-seeking-proves-scotland/

    1. A similar period of silence wouldn’t go amiss in Liz Truss and all other politicians stoking up war cries.

  38. Politics latest news: I’ll host a Ukrainian refugee, pledges Grant Shapps

    Grant Shapps has become the first minister to commit to hosting Ukrainian refugees as part of a
    new sponsorship scheme unveiled later today.

    The Transport Secretary plans to take part in the Homes for Ukraine programme, which will allow individuals and charities to apply
    to house Ukrainians for a minimum of six months.

    Well done, that Shappy Chappy. His offer is guaranteed that 50% of Ukrainian heading towards UK have veered off to France

    1. One can imagine them around the Cabinet Table this morning. “Well someone is going to have to take one of these people in!”

      1. Michael Green, Corinne Stockheath and Sebastian Fox …
        How many houses do each of these characters own?

  39. Having been categorised as being in the vulnerable group I haven’t been out in my diesel car for well over two years. MOH’s petrol vehicle has been the principal lifeline during lockdown and as it has been picked up for an MOT and service by the dealer today I ventured out to fill up my diesel.

    Whilst I used to look for EN590 as the grade to fill up with I found that many of the diesel pumps at Tesco today were out of order and that they were now designated as B7. I gather that this means they have as much as 7% biodiesel.

    Is this a prelude to diesel rationing as mooted in MSM due to a lot of diesel coming from Russia?

    Do any Nottlers have any issues in B7 availability or performance in their diesels?

    https://www.autoevolution.com/news/e5-gasoline-and-b7-diesel-labels-introduced-in-the-united-kingdom-135025.html

      1. Afternoon Minty,

        There must become a stage when the price is so high that people won’t even bother about getting their rationed allowance.

        1. No. Rationing implies fixed prices and preferred customers. These will be those who can demonstrate usefulness, i.e, deliveries and services. You should mothball your diesel!

        2. No. Rationing implies fixed prices and preferred customers. These will be those who can demonstrate usefulness, i.e, deliveries and services. You should mothball your diesel!

          1. Even if I’m driving to Kyiv to pick up a Ukrainian – wouldn’t that be useful? 🤔

          2. Well I should think that you would get a Ration Book if you are doctor for example. Tours of Central Europe? No!

          3. It looks as if Lyse Marie Doucet is camping out on the roof and speaking volumes as usual

          4. Well I should think that you would get a Ration Book if you are doctor for example. Tours of Central Europe? No!

    1. I hope it al went well Alf.
      I remember seeing a remarkable TV prog about people in rural India having the same operation. Some of them walked for miles with family members to guide help them. And queued out side a school building the class rooms had been disinfected and the patients were layed along side each other on the tables and beds for the operations. Soon after where handed back to their chaperons and sent home. I’m sure you’ll be sent home when you have recovered.

          1. Very good news.
            Don’t tell your wife that she’s in for a good seeing to, tomorrow.
            };-O

  40. Elon Musk tweets he wants to fight Russian strongman for Ukraine. 14 March 2022.

    Tesla founder Elon Musk has challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a fight over Ukraine in an early morning Twitter dump that included memes about the invasion and references to Macbeth.

    ‘I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat,’ Musk tweeted Monday, typing Putin’s name in Russian. ‘Stakes are Ukraine,’ he added, writing the country’s name in Ukrainian.

    Vlad is a judo Black Belt of course and still looks pretty spry for a 69 year old!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10610887/I-challenge-Vladimir-Putin-single-combat-Elon-Musk-tweets-wants-fight-strongman.html

    1. I’m not certain it’s the real deal, Putin has been awarded honorary grades in other martial arts and his judo belt may be similar.

      1. I suspect this one might be real – he has actually made at least one instructional video about Judo.

  41. A group of Ukrainian children have arrived in the UK to undergo life-saving cancer treatment on the NHS, the health secretary has said.

    Sajid Javid said the 21 children would be offered the best possible care in hospitals around the country.

    The children and their immediate family members arrived on an urgent flight arranged by the government on Sunday after a plea from Polish officials.

    They will be assessed by doctors before being sent to appropriate hospitals.

    “I am proud that the UK is offering life-saving medical care to these Ukrainian children, who have been forced out of their home country by the Russian invasion while undergoing medical treatment,” Mr Javid said.

    “I know that the incredible staff in the NHS will ensure they get the best possible care.”

    Nine medics from Southampton Children’s Hospital flew to Poland to fetch the children.

    “The families were so incredibly grateful and the stories they told were horrific,” the hospital said.

    The government is to set out details of a scheme to allow people in the UK to welcome Ukrainian refugees into their home later – but special provision has been made for the group needing urgent care.

    Hundreds of Ukrainians have seen their treatment interrupted by the war, as Russian forces lay siege to cities and hospitals’ supplies dry up.

    Many children have been evacuated to Poland, where the authorities appealed for help in caring for them.

    One paediatric oncologist in Poland told BBC News most of the children arriving at her hospital were in a life-threatening situation.

    Staff from Southampton Children’s Hospital flew out to the children in Poland on a specially-chartered plane
    Those arriving in the UK will undergo an assessment to understand their specific health needs before getting treatment at an appropriate NHS hospital, the Department of Health said.

    It added that the UK has already sent more than 650,000 medical items to Ukraine as part of its humanitarian response to the crisis.

    Mr Javid told BBC Breakfast seven flights have taken aid from the UK to Ukraine including wound care packs, equipment for intensive care and vital medicines. An eighth took off on Monday morning, he added.

    ,
    Watch: The children with cancer fleeing war in Ukraine
    NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the NHS would continue to work with ministers to provide both the necessary supplies and the “crucial treatment” the children need.

    “Colleagues at paediatric hospitals around the country have gone above and beyond to help these children during their greatest hour of need,” she added.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60731806

    1. The NHS didn’t exactly go “above and beyond” to help the U.K. public during their 2 years of need.

    2. Hundreds of thousands of British people have seen their treatment interrupted by the war on Covid, as nanny sate bureaucratic forces laid siege to the NHS and hospitals’ supplies dried up.

      1. My neighbour with prostrate cancer has been waiting over 10 months for treatment.
        No he isn’t a child …..mid 60’s…..

        1. Where is this Plum? I was in within a month for treatment and that was during the hight of the so called pandemic.

    3. Javid is getting a well deserved drubbing on Twitter over NHS neglect of Brits with cancer plus his refusal to even acknowledge vaxx injuries.

  42. So we are told that Ukraine is beating the Russians.

    Just over a week ago I met a group of young men who had volunteered at a centre in Kyiv to fight for Ukraine.
    Most of them were in their late teens, not long out of school. They told me that after three days’ basic training they would head for the front line – or very close to it.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60724560
    Three days basic training and the MSM accuses the Russians of using cannon fodder. These children will be lambs to the slaughter.
    Something doesn’t add up.

    AGAIN

    1. Three British former special forces soldiers are feared to have been killed in a Russian airstrike near the Polish border.

      More than 30 Russian cruise missiles targeted the Yavoriv base yesterday, killing as many as 180 people.

      The trio were not part of the foreign legion fighting unit being trained at the base six miles from the border, sources told The Mirror. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10611833/Three-British-ex-special-forces-troops-feared-died-Russian-airstrike.html?ito=push-notification&ci=Fm0K3q8qDt&cri=TWiRtR6FaH&si=26738248&ai=10611833

      1. I always thought Cruise missiles were American. Has Russia been buying arms from USA?

    2. None of it adds up. All we see and hear is bollox, made up by one or another propaganda shill.

    1. Wordle 268 5/6

      ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
      ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
      ⬜⬜🟩🟨🟩
      🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      Too many variables today.. 🙁

  43. Price rirse are on the way

    My B-i-L knows a man,

    who was talking to a mate

    who works for a firm that delivers to Aldi Stores

    who said that delivery companies

    can no longer ‘absorb’ Derv price increases

    and will pass it onto Customer,

    who will pass it onto you
    And the Exchequer will get even more money

    SunCrap MUST reduce the Duty on fuel, in all its’ forms
    Gas Petrol Derv Electricity Diesel

    1. I saw a news item earlier today where one of the ‘experts’ said that this current fuel crisis was the ideal opportunity to switch away from fossil fuels. Another ‘expert’ said that we should all be turning our heating thermostats down by two degrees.

      Where do they get these people from?

      1. Our idiots are increasing the carbon tax in a couple of weeks. That will help overcome inflation

        It must be nice to be a politician, their rules don’t effect them.

    2. Still happy (After all these years of being RIPPED off/)
      Roughly for every £100 you spend on fuel. £3.00 goes to the garage, almost £40.00to the fuel manufacturer (BP, Shell etc), and £57 goes in tax to the chancellor.

  44. Yorkshire village raises thousands for Ukraine refugees

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-60728571

    A village has raised more than £8,000 in seven days to help support Ukrainian refugees.

    The cash raised by the community in Tockwith, in North Yorkshire, is being sent to Milanowek in Poland.

    About 900 refugees are being housed in the town, which is 25 miles (40km) from Warsaw.

    “We feel exactly as every other village, town and city in the UK feels – we want to help,” organiser Jim Tinsley said.

    Mr Tinsley and other residents set up their Go Fund Me Page on 2 March aiming to raise £2,000. The figure was achieved within 48 hours.

    He said they had wanted to do something practical to help, as well as making a gesture of support by lighting the village church in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

    The link with Milanowek comes though an ex-pat friend of Mr Tinsley, Andy Eddles.

    Mr Eddles has taken a family of seven Ukrainians into his flat.

    “There’s a family of six kids and a mum and they’ve moved in,” he said.

    Other ex-pats in the town are also taking in refugees, with the effort being co-ordinated by volunteers at the local fire station.

    “My mate Steven had four big rooms and he’s equipping them with bunk beds in every room with some of the money that was sent over by the Tockwith crew,” Mr Eddles said.

    More than 2.5 million people have so far fled Ukraine, about 1.5 million of them are in Poland.

    The money being sent to Poland will also be used to buy beds, mattresses and phones to enable families to stay in touch with relatives still in Ukraine.

    “We are sending direct aid, we’re sending cash directly to Poland, and that seems to be the only way we, community to community, can help,” Mr Tinsley said.

    Ukrainians tend to have very large families , how will our schools and doctors surgeries cope?

    1. As I dared to suggest yesterday they should all stay in Europe, so when Vlad has been kicked out, they can all rush back to their homes and resettle with out too much upheaval. There is plenty of room for all of those displaced people in the rest of Europe and not much space left in the UK because we have recently been inundated by many thousands of people who froglé president micron sent to annoy us. And are costing us millions each week to keep.

      The money being sent to Poland will also be used to buy beds, here’s an irony, Beds to Poland was how MFI started in the early 50s Donald Searle and his mate Noel Lister brought a load of ex army disused beds from the government after ww2 refurbished them and sold them to the Polish government.

  45. That’s me gone – signing off early. Lecture from Rome in three minutes.

    Lovely day – much time spent in the garden and greenhouse. The delightful time of the year when you discover things that – unexpectedly – have survived the winter. More tomorrow, I hope.

    Have a smashing evening planning where you are going to put all them Uke refugees. My friend Mr Rashid tells me that careful arrangements will ensure at least 10 – which is £3,500 a month – enough to pay the leccy bill. He added that many of them are good at circumventing irritating things such as meters…..

    A demain.

    1. It reached 30c in our GH today and with the automatic window open.
      I’m h thinking of doing what my old grandfather form Hendon use to do on such days, sit in the warmth smoke a pipe and sip a beer.
      Maybe not the pipe eh ……….

  46. HAPPY HOUR – Brush up your Shakepseare…

    ‘I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat’:
    Elon Musk says he wants to fight Russian strongman for Ukraine in bizarre tweetstorm filled with Shakespeare reference and memes about invasion

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/37512fa7694fbf62a96285bcf01fb8032bca1f2e4818fb7ed3a563a62e42f7e0.jpg
    Among them were a meme about Russia’s invasion and a quote from Macbeth
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10610887/I-challenge-Vladimir-Putin-single-combat-Elon-Musk-tweets-wants-fight-strongman.html

    Can NoTTlers think of an appropriate Shakespeare quote…?

    “The fault…is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

    1. I had as lief not be as live to be
      In awe of such a thing as I myself.

      Julius Caesar

    2. Is this a dagger I see before me
      The handle toward my hand? Come let me clutch thee.
      I have thee not and yet I see thee still.

      & etc. MacBeth

    3. “What bloody man is that? He can report,
      As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
      The newest state.”

      Macbeth Act 1, scene 2.

    4. And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
      With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
      Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
      Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,
      That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
      With carrion men, groaning for burial.
      From Jooles Silver 😊

      1. And Octavius Caesar thinks that Antony’s challenge to single combat is absurd:

        Antony and Cleopatra
        Act 4, scene 1
        Enter Caesar, Agrippa, and Maecenas, with his army,
        Caesar reading a letter.

        CAESAR
        He calls me “boy,” and chides as he had power
        To beat me out of Egypt. My messenger
        He hath whipped with rods, dares me to personal
        combat,
        Caesar to Antony. Let the old ruffian know
        I have many other ways to die; meantime
        Laugh at his challenge.
        MAECENAS Caesar must think,
        When one so great begins to rage, he’s hunted
        Even to falling. Give him no breath, but now
        Make boot of his distraction. Never anger
        Made good guard for itself.
        CAESAR Let our best heads
        Know that tomorrow the last of many battles
        We mean to fight. Within our files there are,
        Of those that served Mark Antony but late,
        Enough to fetch him in. See it done,
        And feast the army; we have store to do ’t,
        And they have earned the waste. Poor Antony.
        They exit.

      2. “Cousin Teresa takes out Caesar,
        Fido, Jock, and the big borzoi.”

        Not Shakespeare.

      3. “Cousin Teresa takes out Caesar,
        Fido, Jock, and the big borzoi.”

        Not Shakespeare.

    5. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
      You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
      Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks!
      You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
      Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
      Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
      Smite flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!
      Crack nature’s moulds, an germens spill at once,
      That make ingrateful man!

      [King Lear]

    6. I will do such things – what they are yet I know not; but they shall be the terrors of the earth.

      1. You were in Sainsbury’s this afternoon, weren’t you? There was definitely some of that going on….

    7. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
      Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
      To the last syllable of recorded time,
      And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
      The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
      Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
      That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
      And then is heard no more: it is a tale
      Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, (Musk?)
      Signifying nothing.

      Macbeth Act 5

  47. I’ve solved the Ukrainian refugee crisis.

    Kick every woke student out of their digs/college rooms and send them home for on-line learning and give the refugees their rooms.
    Naturally those students will be delighted to pay the board and lodging for the refugees as they would have had to for themselves at university and their parents will be happy to consider their children at home as their contribution to the crisis.

    No?

    I wonder why.

    1. Great idea, sos! Why didn’t our fabulous virtue signalling, bunch of morons who pretend to be our ‘government’ think of that? Two birds with one stone! Bingo!

        1. I always thought Lateral thinking was a bit stilted so I advocate Bi-lateral thinking!

          1. Depends, Paul. My first VFs were utterly useless. Trying to read the laptop, or the music at the organ, required me to hinge my head so far back that I was frequently mistaken for a crocodile.

            The current pair are better, if not perfect. I prefer reading glasses for the laptop (and the organ), though the VFs are OK, within reason.

          2. Bifocals on the face, and additional two focuses without specs for close-up work. Seems to work OK, and optician found no change in eyes this last 2 1/2 years. Celebrated by buying new specs anyway.

          3. I have some elderly Cheddar in the fridge, and a bit of Pie’d Angloys. Not sure that this is helpful, but the latter is plainly obvious when I open the fridge door…

  48. Bugger – I’m back – briefly.

    Luigi the sound engineer in Rome had clearly gone home early. The speaker was barely audible to the MR – I couldn’t hear a thing. In addition, said speaker was standing about a yard form the mike – and was speaking at right angles to it.

    Pity – the talk looked interesting….

    1. Italians usually wave their arms around so much he would probably have knocked Mike over.

    1. Gravity fed? How quaint.

      There are ads for some powered device over here. It has a clear container so you can see the output (if you are so inclined).

      1. I used to take that, Del, but you can’t drive (or operate machinery) after taking Piriton.

  49. And another thing. Sub-division of PROJECT FEAR.

    The press are going doolally about The Queen not going to some “celebration”.

    For heaven’s sake – she is five weeks short of 96. Elderly lady cuts back…and why the hell shouldn’t she. Anyone else would have retired years ago.

    1. It’s Commonwealth Day, innit?
      She seldom misses this one and it is dear to her heart (cliché, cliché).

      The British Empire gets criticised left, right and centre, but if there is any proof that actually it was eventually a force for good it is the Commonwealth.
      More diversity than a beeboid could vomit, and proof that a conglomeration of States can cooperate.
      Commonwealth vs EU, UN, NATO?
      No contest.

        1. Quite.
          Time to give these people the choice.
          Accept what you have joined and where you live, or leave.

      1. And the Commonwealth includes some countries e.g. Rwanda and Mozambique, which were never part of the British Empire.

          1. Yeah – what did the British Empire ever do for them?

            Apart from sanitation, the medicine, education, public order, irrigation, roads, railways, a fresh water system, public health and brought peace (apologies to ‘The Life of Brian).

          1. Oh, you’re so right pm! It’s as though they’re itching to dig out the obits and gloopy sycophancy they’ve been writing for years!

    1. It’s beautiful, Anne. Elderly Chum must have been delighted – I hope it tasted as good as it looks.

        1. No worries. The landline worked, but no-one bothers to have an analogue phone any more, apart from me. Since the mobile cell towers don’t have the backup power of BT (batteries, plus a diesel genny), soon to be lost, my only contact with the outside world involved battling through the wind and climbing the footbridge at Wanbouough Station, where I picked up the Hindhead cell tower, a mere 12 miles away.

  50. As a matter of curiosity I ordered some plants of the giant strawberry today, the ones that are supposed to grow almost as large as your hand. And, looking around on the internet to see what I could find out about them I came across this. Not surprisingly, the amazing Japanese.
    Paul Hollywood Buys a £350 Strawberry
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=895DfGuoqvU&t=5s

      1. I suspect you are right. But I’m also growing two types of Alpine strawberries. They may be small but the taste is fantastic.

        1. Much the nicest are the alpine ones! Takes a heck of a lot of picking to get a bowlful, though.

  51. Do we have any takers amongst Nottlers for offering living space to Ukrainian refugees? I have to say I will pass on this, my home is my refuge from the world and I have no intention whatsoever of inviting that world in over the threshhold.

    What sort of accommodation am I expected to provide?
    If you have a residential spare room or separate self-contained accommodation that is unoccupied then please come forward. The accommodation must be available for at least 6 months, fit for people to live in, and suitable for the number of people to be accommodated.

    Further details on types of accommodation suitable can be found in our FAQs.

    Do I need to provide meals or just accommodation?
    Just accommodation. There is nothing stopping sponsors offering meals should they wish to.
    You will not be expected to cover the costs of food and living expenses (although you may wish to offer this yourself).

    1. What’s a “residential spare room”?
      Who wants people cooking all over the place? Nightmare.

      1. Last month, Dianne visited her eldest’s buy to let flat in Woking. “The cooker hood doesn’t work”. I’ve seen the photos. Clearly, the South Asian tenants have had a cooking fire. The pull-out panel of the cooker hood has basically melted. The ceiling is a fetching shade of brown. She reckons that it was inevitable, since – during lockdown – the whole family were incarcerated. And he’s diabetic.

        Forgive me, but – as a diabetic myself – I see no reason to wreck my home. But I’m not South Asian… 🙄

    2. I would not touch anything like this with Stephen’s barge pole. Move any “refugees” into your home and it won’t be long before you are moved on and they keep the house. We would not be allowed to where we are anyway.
      Sit back and wait to see how many of these wealthy politicians, celebrities etc take in some of these people but don’t hold your breath!

      1. I read about the slebs trying to outdo each other with virtue signalling at the BAFTAS. I doubt any of them will put their money where the mouth is.

        1. I am not totally over to the dark side….The last two years have rendered me cynical and sceptical.

    3. I would consider it if I had a spare bedroom. But Dianne the Ex was been in mine from Thursday to Sunday, while I’ve been on the sofa bed. I don’t mind this, since I’m up early to post the new NTTL page. But I won’t do it long term.

    4. I do have an attic but I was thinking of renting it out to a half dozen Pakistani families.

      1. Correction: It doesn’t cost the Government anything. Taxpayers bear the full brunt of the costs!

    5. What happens about food then if host doesn’t supply it? I thought adult refugees were given just under £40 a week each, which won’t buy much. Perhaps arrangement is different to this though – anyone know?

    6. I’m not giving some government apparatchik the chance to snoop round Allan Towers.
      Once you show any interest in refugees, you will have a permanent infestation of clip board jockeys; like death watch beetle but far more soul destroying.

      1. I prefer to keep myself as far away as possible from the state and its meddling agencies, this includes especially the sainted nhs.

    7. If I was still rattling around a three-bed detached place, I’d consider it. A one-bed retirement bungalow is different. I’ve just had Dianne the Ex here for a few days, plus Maddie the Schnauzer, her grand-dog. So I was relegated to the sofa bed. I don’t mind, but there are limits.

  52. Thanks to all you good NoTTLers for your good wishes today.
    As you probably know I am back home with one eye covered until tomorrow morning and then eye drops for 3 weeks.

        1. Welcome to my world. The right eye is basically buggered, though it provides a bit of peripheral vision, and adds something to the overall scheme of things.

          1. It’s my right eye that was causing the trouble, the one I had the detached retina in last June. It had deteriorated rapidly since November.

          2. Apparently, once you have had eye surgery, you have a 50% chance of developing a cataract.

          3. Mine was OK when I had an eye test in September but deteriorated enormously by November.

          4. My right eye had a retinal bleed, eventually leading to a vitrectomy. This was totally successful, but the substitute for the vitreous doesn’t work with the Lucentis injections. So the diabetic retinopathy is pretty much out of control in the right eye. Thankfully, the left eye responds well to Lucentis.

          5. Now I know why I was continually asked if I was diabetic.
            Mine was simple by comparison.

          6. I read Alf’s message and said welcome to my world out loud before reading your message. I was born with only peripheral vision in the left eye so rely on the right eye, which isn’t perfect but at least only needs the appropriate lens in my glasses. I used to wear one contact lens. Impossible to insert one in the left eye and pointless anyway.

          7. It’s not a problem. I was born with a severe squint. It was straightened when I was 18 months old but that’s cosmetic. Just means I can see my nose to the left and can’t judge speed and distance very well. What I find difficult to comprehend is how people with equal sight in both eyes don’t see their nose in the middle.

          8. I can see my nose if I look at it, but usually I don’t notice it if I’m looking straight ahead.

    1. A bottle of rum and a few choruses of Yo, ho, ho, ho, a pirate’s life for me. Should drive VW nuts anyway ;-))

        1. Go for it! My old man is ahead in the ar*ehole stakes at the moment! Broken ankle you say…!

          1. Mine is lucky to not be halfway to Mars after his behaviour last night. Gawd, you might love the buggers but they can drive you nuts.
            This is usually when I walk round the kitchen singing, “I hate men” from Kiss me Kate. “He may have hairs upon his chest but sister, so has Lassie….”
            Our neighbours must hate us!

          2. Brilliant! I was beginning to think it was just me! He has an appointment at the hospital on Wednesday, for another X-ray but because I’ve got the twins, and Vic is at work he was going to get the bus!! Hates taxis!! So bluddy stubborn, it’s unbelievable! Anyway, we had a big shouty about that and he’s sulking now! I’m just back from walking Hector and he’s in pain. Has he had his painkillers? No!

          3. Check out a Proms Kiss Me Kate show- there is a wonderful rendition of I Hate Men. Cole Porter natch.

    2. Alf. Make sure you have something beautiful to look at when you take off the eye patch. I was looking at the bougainvillea outside my window. The colour intensity blew me away. Unfortunately that soon fades and colours get back to normal.

      1. We have a camellia just coming into flower. They say it could be a couple of weeks before it settles down.

    3. I missed that. I was in an ambulance at the time. Final tests showed my GP was wrong and i hadn’t had a heart attack. It took them 8 hours to tell me that after having two ecg’s this morning. I finally lost patience as people were making ready to spend the night in the waiting room as they didn’t have any beds for them. I have just removed the canula after walking out.

      Hope yours went well and your problems sorted. I will send you a parrot to go with that eye patch. :@)

        1. Okay now i have a fag and a drink. It was pulsatile tinnitus caused by an ear infection. I could hear a pounding of my heart in my ears.

      1. Sorry to hear that Philip.
        I had no idea you’d had a problem. Sounds more like a nightmare.
        Look after yourself and look forward to seeing you again in a couple of weeks.

        1. #MeToo.

          After the eyedrops is that it finished?

          I filled in an econsult Friday AM. Got a call from the Doc to come in for an ECG. She sent me to hospital. First circle of hell. I had had nothing to eat all day. Dolly wet herself when i came through the door this evening. I gave her a some biscuits hidden in her snuffle mat. :@)

          1. There seems to be no compassion in the NHS these days. That’s the problem of turning it into a sacred cow.

      2. That’s dreadful.

        Not even you deserve such treatment, I hope you get back on track soon.#
        Good luck.

        1. Thanks. Just need to walk more.

          “Not even you deserve such treatment”………………hee haw. :@)

          1. Keep up the walking, but don’t over do it.
            Every time you see a nettle, kick it and think of me.
            }:-))

          2. Will do. :@)

            I abandoned my wheelchair in the waiting room. Someone more needy can have it.

          1. Yeah!
            Had a round about drive up there, opted to go via Snake Pass and only found out it was shut when I turned onto that road at Bamford, so a quick 180° turn and went via Hayfield.
            Was tempted to find a B&B, but felt too knackered to enjoy a night touring the pubs, so after a stop in Uppermill, headed back home.

            An enjoyable drive through some stunning scenery!

          2. What closed the Snake?
            I love driving in that area and on that type of road.
            Slightly further afield, Hardknott and Wrynose are joys, as long as people live and let live with passing.

          3. Landslides up Snake are not unknown, but not usually to shut the road off.

            T’other side of Buxton, on the road that used to be the A6 via Whaley Bridge, the road is sliding downhill just after Fernilee.

          4. I used to live not all that far from the Snake and Woodhead Passes. Usually closed in the winter.

      1. As long as it doesn’t change it too much. I have a pretty good life already. :-))

  53. News from Daily Telegraph today:

    All (the many hundreds of ) BTL comments removed from the Matt Hancock article.

      1. Deeply negative … He’s almost as unpopular as Vlad Putin. Attlee once advised one of his senior Cabinet ministers that a long period of silence would be advisable … and Hancock should assume that this would also be good advice for him.

  54. 18 March travel to England changes https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-to-england-from-another-country-during-coronavirus-covid-19?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications-topic&utm_source=fce2298c-7e3f-4cd3-8827-2b8f4b877c1a&utm_content=immediately
    If you will arrive in England from abroad after 4am, Friday 18 March, you do not need to:

    take any COVID-19 tests – before you travel or after you arrive
    fill in a UK passenger locator form before you travel
    This will apply whether you are vaccinated or not.

    You also will not need to quarantine when you arrive, in line with current rules.

    Other countries still have COVID-19 entry rules in place. You should check travel advice before you travel.

    If you will arrive in England before 4am, 18 March, you must follow the current rules as set out in this guidance.

    1. They have abandoned all pretense because they know it is unworkable. Just like compulsory jabs for medical staff. They have no shame. I’m surprised they can keep a straight face when they make their announcements.

      1. Except over here. Trudeaus mob must have a stockpile of masks and vaccines because they are still pushing their way.

        We still need to show proof of vaccination before traveling by train and need to wear masks.

          1. Dianne just told me that her friend in Devon, having had serious adverse reactions after her booster, has just had serious reactions after another booster (i.e. a fourth jab). The mind boggles…

          2. She must be a glutton for punishment! I only had the first two for travel and that was enough to get me to Kenya. There was not so much evidence of side effects then, either. Certainly don’t want to risk having a booster, but they keep on with the bullying texts and emails.

          3. I had issues with the second AZ jab. They potentially ended my career as a church organist. It’s bad enough having no feet; losing the right hand would have ended my career.

          4. Are you recovered / recovering, Geoff?
            SWMBO lost her brother to the damn potion… she’s going over to UK for Easter, they’ll be scattering his ashes during that visit.

          5. The jab killed him? That’s terrible.
            Are you going to be able to go and see your mother? And deal with her house?

          6. No direct proof, but he died from a massive heart attack shortly after being jabbed.
            I’m not going this time. The house is under control by remote operation and application of money… as is Mother. Need to plan visits to clear the house, and see Mother, but it’s only become reasonable to travel from 18 March…

          7. I’m not sure if it was the jab or not, but my left shoulder has given me gip now since around that time. It’s better than it was but still catches me sometimes.

          8. Did you see my posts about the red spots on my arms and my still swollen right foot and ankle- all after 2nd AZ jab.

          9. Don’t get it! I don’t think you will but after what MH was told by a specialist NHS nurse…it’s poison.

          10. I don’t need it and certainly don’t want it. My trip was great and will probably be my last unless all vaccine requirements are dropped.
            Why would anybody still be getting these boosters for something which appears to be no worse than a cold?

    2. Soon to be replaced with digital ids.

      My daughter travelled from central Europe to the UK by car about two weeks ago, and was checked on the border between Belgium and France, on the way to Calais. It seems that Schengen does not mean what it once did…

    3. Too late for me – had to fill in the stupid Passenger Locator Form – which was a complete waste of time and effort as it was never checked. No other checks though at Heathrow, apart from the normal passport e-gate.

    4. One of the few good things to come out of the Ukraine/Russia situation. It has diverted attention from Covid-19 and so Boris can begin to return us all to normality without the screaming and squealing of those who would otherwise have been jumping up and down.

      1. They haven’t stopped jumping up & down, Elsie, just changed the subject matter.

        1. That’s the point I was trying to make, Herr Oberst. Ukraine/Russia has distracted them so that Boris can now begin to cancel all the Covid-19 restrictions. (And I note that, after much huffing and puffing, the Welsh and the Jimmy Krankie Scots are about to follow suit without having to keep more restrictions than the English in order to appear to be against Boris to satisfy their Up-and-Down jumping followers.)

  55. I think my pukeometer may break.

    Political correctness is trying to taint even Fred Dibnah and the Victorian engineers.

      1. Only just.

        I’m saving my projectile one, just in case Tony Blair is ever in range!

  56. I would like to share something if that’s OK. Totally OT but it’s rather nice.
    Saw some photos in the papers of Princess Alexandra attending the Commonwealth Service.
    Many years ago now, my mother was in St. Christopher’s Hospice on the way out from cancer. Princess Alexandra visited one day which, if my mother had been awake, she would have loved. Princess A spoke to my dad and brother for some time and then moved on.
    One of the chaps my dad worked with knew the lady in waiting, who I won’t name, who accompanied Princess A that day and he wrote to her and said how much her visit had meant to my dad.
    Said chap, who I won’t name either, received a reply from the lady in waiting; she said that Princess A remembered my dad very well and was impressed by his courage and fortitude in the circumstances. (I have a copy of this letter.)
    I have had a very soft spot for Alexandra ever since and think she is a lovely lady. Her nickname in the Royal Family is “Pud” because she was born on Christmas Day- something she shared with my mother.

    1. A lovely anecdote.
      One from my family:
      HG’s grandmother was visited in her hospice by Princess Diana and Diana wondered who the man in the photograph frame next to her bed was.
      The old lady said it was her son-in-law.
      “My, he looks well fed” was Diana’s response!

      He was a senior Judge, and Diana certainly got that one right!

      1. I once considered joining the QA’s army nurses. Luckily for the army and the patients I found out in time that my skills lay elsewhere- literature and teaching. The army is probably still breathing sighs of relief.
        The Queen’s middle name is Alexandra.

    2. I see her husband, Sir Angus Ogilvy, was involved in the Lonrho affair, the breaking of sanctions against the regime in Rhodesia during the 1970s.
      A man of honour then, unlike the then Labour Governments.

    3. My late father always liked Princess Anne. He saw her as the ideal working royal and respect her for that ethic.

          1. PS- I have never met any royal- would probably be in the Tower if so. Which is where I will be should I bump into any of these oiks that purport to be govt ministers.

          2. As I understand it, the real Royals are good & interesting people. HM the Queen, Prince Phillip, Anne, Kong Harald & Kronprins Håkon are top blokes. The lower ranks are tossers.

        1. She lives near here and is very down to earth. We’ve had a stall at Gatcombe for several years before covid and she stops by for a chat about hedgehogs. Also, years ago when I worked in catering, we used do some lunches and dinners for her.

    4. M’Lady, I have often found that those who are most caring are the ones who keep their actions fairly quiet. Totally different to those who like to broadcast their “benevolence” loudly in public.

  57. For those of you well acquainted with churches, just found these two pictures of Firstborn’s local church – it’s older even than his house, raised about 1600 or so.
    Lovely little place. Original interior. Women sat one side, men the other, and the bigger farms had their own pew.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3b21a4bb018d8c913f92fcee9ebcb5b9bb5f896218c9c02bae4da560c23db3a7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/29e7161bf2a65481c9aae17c6c44b37f94128fb36155ff418ab914563dee4853.jpg

      1. From the local rag. Fire alarm there this afternoon – a faulty detector, fortunately.

      2. Oh dear Phizzee, didn’t realise you’d been in the wars over the weekend. Is all well now?

          1. You can scan the previous days page though. Too many to reproduce.

            I’m fine now thanks.

  58. Comfort food.
    Cassoulet.
    HG prepared one today, four meals worth, three to eat this week and one for the freezer.
    I’m a very contented bunny.

      1. HG’s this evening was a particularly good one.
        The tapenade was bought in, she usually does it herself, but the shop bought here is very tasty and it’s a lot easier.
        The fennel was superb.
        We have an excellent fresh food supermarket locally, “Grand Frais” where one can get seasonal local foods as well as foods from all over the world.

        1. Do they sell a famous Brazilian dish called “Bangers and Maix Que Nada”? Lol.

  59. Totally off topic, but close.
    I wish my French was better.
    I’ve been lent a book, Afghanistan 1979-2009, written by a number of French historians and army officers.
    It is a superb analysis of the history leading up the the recent invasions and looked at from all possible angles. If it is ever translated to English it will be on my must have list.
    The detail is fascinating and it covers aspects one seldom sees in the mainstream.

    1. What I found interesting is the way one can see similarities with the potential long-term disaster that might be the Ukraine.

      1. Chalk and cheese, I think though.

        Afghanistan is mountainous; Ukraine is flat.

        Afghanistan was never coherent enough to be called a nation, more it was a collection of tribes in unpeaceful coexistence. Ukraine is a single tribe that founded a great nation and wants to be one now; it is sick of being partitioned off one way or the other, and would rather all its groups unite behind one flag.

        1. As the President of Ukraine spent his entire career in showbiz and still owns shares in various production companies, how can anyone not see this?! (I know, I know….)
          It seems that the wildest fiction will be taken as truth if it is presented under the banner of “News”!

  60. Sod it- I am going to identify as a penguin again. This gender nonsense defies belief.
    Anyone got any spare fish?

  61. Evening, all. Never mind standing by watching the destruction of Ukranian houses, the population has stood by and watched the destruction of our country and culture without doing anything about it.

      1. Indeed. I’ve lost my Internet (had to restart the router AND the computer to get it working) and then Firefox just shut down of its own accord. I’m going to bed! Goodnight, everybody.

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