Monday 18 January: Revitalise British industry so we can stop buying goods made in China

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/01/18/lettersrevitalise-british-industry-can-stop-buying-goods-made/

767 thoughts on “Monday 18 January: Revitalise British industry so we can stop buying goods made in China”

  3. The Great Purge Approaches. 18 January 2021.

    It appears to me that Schumer has in mind to try former President Trump in the senate with John Roberts presiding. IMO this is unconstitutional. As Alan Dershowitz said on the TeeVee today, the prospect of such a procedure should be horrifying to all. Why? If the congress can try a private citizen and bar him/her from holding federal office, then whichever party controls the congress can simply bar significant opposition figures from office by re-defining the meaning of statutes, imputing motive where there is none and through guilt by association. This all begins to smell like Stalin’s show trials in the 30s in which he killed off his Old Bolshevik comrades and the leadership of the Red Army. Trump will always remain vulnerable to the civil courts. The Dems fear that Florida or federal courts in Florida will not extradite him? They should live with that in the interest of maintaining the Union.

    We now have most of downtown Washington, DC transformed into a Green Zone on the Baghdad model. 25,000 federalized National Guard troops plus various kinds of cops occupy that zone. 25,000? How about 1,000? How about 2.000? What do they expect, an attack on the Biden inauguration platform from the other end of the Mall? The bridges from Virginia are closed by order of his majesty Ralph Northam. We live here under Ralph’s imperial decrees in a vast outdoor prison. The ability of the imperial authorities to wall us up, each in our own crummy little domain bodes ill for the future.

    Not for the first time am I disgusted by the susceptibility of those I thought my countrymen to waves of hysteria. German and then Communist spying in WW1, Prohibition, internment of Japanese descended citizens of the US in WW2, McCarthyism, the 2K fantasy in which people waited for the end of civilized life, 9/11, after which the whole country went into a profound funk and stumbled about terrified of the NEXT ATTACK. And now, we have the Left’s desire to destroy opposition, the opposition of 75 million citizens and to do it through mass mobilization of political hysteria.

    This will never be the same country again. We have lost the talent needed to maintain a federal republic. Pat Lang.

    Morning everyone. The view from the States. There are a couple of points here. Show Trials are of course a sine qua non of Marxist States; pour encourager les autres, if for nothing else. With National Guard troops deployed the implication is the Chiefs of Staff have not yet committed themselves to the Democrat Cause. This is not surprising in itself, professional soldiers are notoriously hostile to totalitarian politics, witness Stalin’s purge of the Red Army and Hitler’s assumption of Generalissimo powers. Every dictatorship lives in fear of its military, who alone have the power to dethrone them! The “Federalisation” of these troops, which in this context simply means that they have been brought under the control of Congress, makes them the Brown Shirts of the Woke coup. They are going to be used to enforce its Rule and Statutes along with the support of the Security Services. Orwell’s vision has become reality!

    https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2021/01/httpswwwiwpeduarticles20190729political-hysteria-american-as-cherry-pie.html

    1. The National Guard aren’t so very different from the Army – after all, many served there in younger days. So, I doubt that they will be used to lead any kind of a coup, let alnone become modetrn day brownshirts (obviously, some wackos will, ‘cos they are to be found everywhere).

      See the sentence above: “Not for the first time am I disgusted by the susceptibility of those I thought my countrymen to waves of hysteria”. I share the sentiment, over Trump and his idiocies, over the virus, over Brexit. Get a grip, FFS!

    2. The National Guars aren’t so very different from the Army – after all, many served there in younger days. So, I doubt that they will be used to lead any kind of a coup, let alnone become modetrn day brownshirts (obviously, some wackos will, ‘cos they are to be found everywhere).

      See the sentence above: “Not for the first time am I disgusted by the susceptibility of those I thought my countrymen to waves of hysteria”. I share the sentiment, over Trump and his idiocies, over the virus, over Brexit. Get a grip, FFS!

  4. Monday 18 January: Revitalise British industry so we can stop buying goods made in China

    Wasn’t that a Trump policy for the USA?

  6. Morning all.
    Still in bed with a welcome wake up cuppa.
    I see in the UK its full steam ahead to get the over 70s jabbed up ASAP. Is it possible to find out exactly what the vaccine has as its ingredients. Its quite worrying when a lot of our older population have become reliant upon sometimes quite a lot of various types of medications taken on a daily basis.
    I might have to email my GP practice to get some more info and advice.
    They should be able to tell me………hello…….hello……..

      1. Isn’t the third one down the weed killer banned by the EU ?
        Cholesterol ??? What happens if you take statins ?

        1. Interviewee on Radio 4 programme this morning said this Pfizer vaccine had only natural occurring ingedients.

          He said he AstraZenica vaccine was derived from humans and involved a cold virus.
          I understood that the virus source in that vaccine was from monkeys but I suppose you could include monkeys as humans at a stretch.

          3. None of this vaccine info makes any particular sense to me, even if i’s just a gut feeling. There are too many holes in the reasoning.

    2. “We are experiencing exceptional volumes of calls ….
      “Your call is important to us ……

      1. I watch Rip off Britain this morning and they had a doctor telling every one the vaccine was safe for every one. But you need to make sure the second dose has the same origin as your first.
        But I wasn’t able to get my question aired ……….

  7. ‘Morning All

    Ah,the good old days are coming back………………

    “Germany to repurpose refugee camps to detain people who repeatedly

    flout Covid rules by going out when they should be quarantining

    Germans who don’t quarantine to be held in detention centres under Covid rules

    State of Saxony has confirmed plans to hold rule-breakers in a refugee camp”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9157971/Covid-Germany-hold-people-refuse-quarantine-detention-centres.html#comments
    One small suitcase and hop on the train please……………..

    1. Yellow armbands ?
      Later I’ll post a video clip about something everyone in the uk voted against. And its still rife.

  8. Surely, rather than putting a great deal of effort into renaming all its pubs with the words ‘Black Boy’ in their title, the brewer, Greene King, would be better advised to employ some experienced and knowledgable people who could teach them how to brew drinkable beer?

    1. They used to be able to, but in the drive for cost-cutting, are no longer able to.
      Maybe the beer should be made in China?

      1. I’ve never enjoyed drinking Greene King beer. Their IPA is foul. Their Abbot is tolerable if nothing else is available.

        1. Abbot was good back in the 1980s. It’s watery pee these days (last supped a pint of disappointment 2 years ago) – it used to be my go-to beer.

  9. Spot of bother in The Great Wen, Southall to be exact, those pesky Methodists for sure

    from Wiki:-
    Since the end of World War II, Southall has become largely a South Asian residential district, sometimes known as “Little India” along with its Indian and Pakistani population who mostly hail from the Punjab, the town has more recently also become home to Afghan, Sri Lankan and Somali communities

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/18/police-break-up-fight-in-london-between-40-men-involving-knives-and-a-sword

  10. Morning all

    SIR – My wife and I decided months ago to stop buying goods from China (Letters, January 16), but the sheer breadth of its products makes this almost impossible.

    Searching online, my wife could not find the country of manufacture listed for any of the clothing on offer, let alone the source of the cotton content.

    I recently purchased a retractable ladder, designed and sold by a British company. On asking, I was told that it was made in China as the cost would be prohibitive if it was made in the UK.

    Given the damage caused to the economy by the pandemic, the Government must encourage the rebirth of our manufacturing industries so that we can buy British.

    Stephen Howey

    Woodford Green, Essex

    SIR – I agree with His Honour Ian Alexander – goods should display their country of origin (Letters, January 16), but there is another point.

    The Government also needs to make the importer responsible for ensuring that the manufacturing of items meets UK health and safety, and environmental standards. Failure to do so would make them liable for heavy fines.

    We would be exporting better work and environmental protections, while levelling the playing field for British manufacturers.

    Thomson Parker-Jarvis

    Chesterfield, Derbyshire

    Advertisement

    SIR – I recently purchased a pair of Hunter wellington boots, an iconic British brand, only to discover that all Hunter boots are now made in China, even though the company holds a Royal warrant.

    Dr James Foxall

    Loughborough, Leicestershire

    SIR – An assembled product’s country of origin is labelled as the country in which it is assembled, not where its parts have come from. Many parts originate in China; it is therefore impossible to avoid buying Chinese.

    John Tilsiter

    Radlett, Hertfordshire

    SIR – In a free society, we have the option to buy the cheapest, which is often made in China. Many of the less well-off may not have a choice.

    William Blake

    Craven Arms, Shropshire

    SIR – Although I am now 74, I was given a Meccano set for Christmas. It is proving to be a most absorbing time-filler, but I was disappointed to find that it was made in China.

    Luckily, I still have the spanner from my Fifties childhood set and have convinced myself that this original, proudly stamped Made in England, tightens the nuts with greater authority.

    James L Shearer

    Edinburgh

    1. “The Government also needs to make the importer responsible for ensuring that the manufacturing of items meets UK health and safety, and environmental standards. Failure to do so would make them liable for heavy fines.”
      The govt could make sure a mark was affixed to said product to demonstrate that. Oh, such a scheme exists already, it’s the CE-mark. And, since the UK has not changed it’s product legislation since BREXIT, it still applies.

      1. During the whole Brexit debate, I was astonished by the ignorance of many remainers about how imports/exports actually work, especially with regard to the quality of imported goods. Constant references to Customs “inspecting goods on arrival” as if HMRC literally check the manufacturing quality of anything in a freight truck.

        I had to point out, in many pub conversations, that these good don’t just turn up at random, they are ordered by the UK buyer, a design and specification agreed (within UK standards) and if there are any defective goods, then the buyer takes it up with the seller.

        1. I suspect, judging by their comments, that many remainers don’t know how very much (and in particular the EU) works.

        2. Inspection of goods on arrival does, however, apply to animal and plant products – which make up a large part (though by no means all) of what we send to and receive from the EU. Phyto-sanitary regulations (applied by the WTO as well as the EU) demand inspection certificates on all animal and plant products before despatch and physical inspection of a proportion of such products on arrival. The current issue with the shellfish trade – live export – is the time required to complete a veterinary certificate for each tank and inspection (mandated for live fish) on arrival.

          For some countries physical inspection of every load is a requirement, but not for the EU.

          I work in the food trade and I’ve worked in European haulage. I do know how it works.

          2. Since your comment is 100% wrong about any load containing plant or animal products I would suggest that if not entirely invalid, it is certainly very greatly in need of the correction which I have supplied.

            You have, incidentally, betrayed your own “astonishing” ignorance of how imports and exports actually work in the real world which includes plant and animal products.

          3. I have worked in freight forwarding dealing with customs clearances. We dealt mostly with manufactured goods or components thereof. . It’s about more that food and plants, you know. But I really don’t care what you think.

          4. But you completely ignore plant and animal material. Making what you “think” a load of nonsense. You don’t think at all.

          6. Entirely justified at the time – and you may consider it repeated now. It’s just about your value.

          8. Aw… poor wee diddums, can’t cope with a bit of thoroughly justified criticism. What a shame.

            But, to quote your earlier comment “I really don’t care what you think”. And the ignorance is all still on your side of the fence.

    2. Like James I am 74. Where possible I buy UK products.
      Last week I had to pick up a few odds & ends – milk, veg & paracetamol – the big supermarkets require a long walk to pick up a few odds & ends. Popped into Lidl – small carpark, small shop – not a 600 yard trek. Picking up paracetamol I remembered bars of soap – usually it’s Palmolive £1.50 ish (Poland), Imperial Leather (India) £1.50 ish, Boots own brand (Bulgaria £1.00) …………… lo & behold Cien (Lidl’s soap brand) Made in Brighouse, Yorkshire!! 4 bath bars of plain soap (no fragrances etc) for 59p.
      Not tried it yet but something actually made here – Drury’s – surely they deserve our support.

      1. I rarely shop in the “Big four” supermarkets these days – I must buy over 90% of my groceries in Aldidl. Or is it Lidaldi?

    3. I used to own a pair of Hunter wellies. The quality was very poor. Whether they were made in China or not, I couldn’t say. My current wellies are Hoggs of Fife (but whether they were made there, I can’t say, either).

  11. Grandma’s Jigsaw Puzzle
    A little white-haired grandmother calls her neighbour and asks,
    “Please come over here and help me. I have a killer jigsaw puzzle and I can’t figure out how to get started.”

    Her neighbour asks, “What’s it supposed to be when it’s finished?”

    Grandma replies, “According to the picture on the box it’s a cockerel.”

    The neighbour decides to go over and help her with the puzzle. She lets him in and shews him where she has the puzzle spread all over the table.

    He studies the pieces for a moment, looks at the box and, turning to her he says, “First of all, no matter what we do, we’re not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a cockerel.”

    He takes her hand and continues, “Secondly, I want you to relax. Let’s have a nice cup of tea, and then,” he says with a deep sigh…

    “Let’s put all the corn-flakes back in the box.”

  12. Morning again

    Black day for pubs

    SIR – Nick Mackenzie, CEO of Greene King, has said the pub chain will work to “eradicate racism” by renaming four pubs (report, January 16).

    The name The Black Boy, a common one for pubs, is not racist, however. It’s said to refer to a genuine description of King Charles II, who was in power between 1660 and 1685, and one of whose nicknames was “the black boy”.

    With his dark complexion, black hair and dark eyes, he resembled his Italian maternal grandmother, Marie de’ Medici. During his escape after the Battle of Worcester in 1651, parliamentary wanted posters referred to him as “a tall, black man”.

    Simon Alford

    Sidcup, Kent

    SIR – If Greene King is determined to change the names of its Black Boy pubs (which I have always believed were called after Charles II), perhaps they should become the Royal Oaks instead. This would commemorate his escape after the Battle of Worcester.

    Annabel Bailey

    Great Shefford, Berkshire

    SIR – In our part of the world, where years ago the main industries were charcoaling and foundry work, the term “black boy” referred to the labourers who enjoyed a drink after work before returning home. Their faces were inevitably covered in soot, and the pubs were named in their honour.

    Peter Gore

    Tenterden, Kent

    SIR – There is a Black Boy pub on the road between Henley and Hurley.

    I have always understood it was named in the 17th century as a coded message to supporters of William of Orange that they were approaching Ladye Place, the home of Lord Lovelace, who was a principal supporter of the Glorious Revolution. William III was nicknamed the Black Boy, having been being born into a house of mourning with a shock of black hair

    Banba Dawson

    Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire

    1. What about renaming them to ‘yellow belly’, to represent the pointless cowardice and pathetic virtue signalling that changing a name represents?

    2. Maybe they could change the pub names to “The Black Man”, after the ice cream slider?
      Differentiation is not racism, it tells us the difference between buses and bus shelters. Discrimination is not racism, it is the key to progress. Changing things that have come to us from posterity, destroying heritage because of fallacies, destroying our environment on the say-so of an ignorant minority is neither sensible nor logical. Such actions betray those who have gone before, our forebears and our citizens back in time. It is a disgraceful way to behave. It is urinating on the graves of heroes.

      1. Next, you won’t be allowed to use the word black to describe paint, or the absence of light.

  13. SIR – Your editorial “ Travel restrictions must not be permanent ” (January 16) makes the point about the ease with which restrictions, justifiable at the time of their introduction, can become permanent.

    In 2006, in response to a foiled terror plot, restrictions on liquids in airline hand luggage were introduced. In 2021, they are still with us.

    Dr Hilary Aitken

    Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire

    1. They will be with us forever. The ban is, of course, pointless. even small amounts of three vials could easily create a nasty explosion or poison gas. Limiting it to 50ml or whatever it is is just desperation to make them feel good.

  14. SIR – The equestrian statue of General Sir Redvers Buller VC in Exeter is a fine example of public sculpture by Adrian Jones. It is a measure of its national significance that it was listed Grade II in 1953.

    Jones was an outstanding 20th-century sculptor, and while Exeter City Council may have voted to move the statue, the decision is not its to take.

    As a listed structure, prior listed building consent is required from the Secretary of State, based on expert advice from Historic England and the national amenity societies who will, I hope, give it short shrift.

    Philip Davies

    Commonwealth Heritage Forum

    London NW11

    SIR – During the pandemic, the people of this country have been grateful for logistical support from the Services, the basis for which was created by General Buller. Without this support there would be no Nightingale hospitals and a slower supply of vaccines.

    Robin Croslegh

    Hartland, Devon

      1. Good morning Mr Viking, the lady next door is still in hospital, according to her daughter, my husband happened to catch her briefly as she went into the house to get some
        clothes and toiletries the following day. We would have not have known otherwise .
        I’ve no idea how she is going to cope or how she’ll manage living in that house alone let alone drive which she needs to do to get to the shops . I’ve not actually seen the lady next door since the lockdown earlier this year as she hasn’t been out and is in the vulnerable group, she doesn’t even go to her door. I put the rubbish bin out for her and put it back. I don’t know how she’ll cope or how long she will be in hospital but at least its not the terrible thing that I thought last week when I saw the lady being placed in ambulance last week at night. Its not good that her hip keeps becoming injured .

        1. Reads like my Mother’s problems, except hers is due to dementia. The rest, well…
          Mother is tended by volunteers from Churchfieldshomecare.co.uk, a volunteer organisation, who do her shopping and sort out meals for her. Put out the bins at the wrong time of day. Might be able to support your neighbour once she gets home.

          1. I’m sorry about your mother, a favourite late aunt of mine suffered from Dementia .
            Your link looks very helpful . Something like that might be useful to my neighbour, she’d not willingly leave her home.

          2. Mother also has carers from the Council, but they cost £110 a week unless you can demonstrate poverty.
            If you have dementia, you naturally can’t demonstrate poverty – or anything much else, for that matter. So, you get landed with a mega-bill (not Bill) to pay… if you haven’t lost it, or your cheque book, or even know how to post a letter any more, since you can’t get out of the house.
            It’s difficult.

          4. Indeed.
            But you’d be amazed (or not) how difficult it is to actually get it in force, when the information you need is in another country you are not allowed to travel to and your mother reckons you are out to cheat her when you ask – but will happily tell any other bugger who rings. Such as the bank account number… when the bank doesn’t make much effort to actually find the account(s) based on name, address and dob.

        2. Just on a practical level, is there a local mutual aid group? I volunteer for one, and we are glad to shop or collect medications for those who can’t.

  16. We certainly need to revitalise our entrepreneurial English spirit and breath life into our industry. Buying cheap goods from China has been detrimental to our workforce ( and its all tacky rubbish ). China needs putting in its place for many reasons and this is certainly one of then. Both the EU and China have been bad for us .

    1. Try persuading folk to buy on anything other than price, and you might have a chance. But, good luck with that!

      1. For most folk (there are exceptions, but they are a fairly small percentage of the population) buying on price is a necessity not really an option at all.

        1. Morning, Jennifer.
          So, the extension of your point is that, unless the UK manufacturing can compete on price with China (and that will be difficult, bearing in mind HSE, minimum wages, rates, etc), then they can forget it for anything other than high-end goods that, by definition, will have a very limited market, unless tarriffs are raised in a protectionist manner and the ability of the population to buy cheap stuff severely curtailed (‘cos it won’t be cheap any more).
          That’ll be a popular (if true) message.

          1. That’s a bit simplified. As is my comment because we can probably manage with fewer, rather better, goods.

            The problems start to arise when the more expensive goods are not better, don’t last longer etc.

            Modern tax rules mean that I truly cannot manage my business with a ledger and a pen – I have to have a computer. That means computers have to be within the means of pretty much everyone.

            On the other hand goods made in China vary widely in price. I bought a Chinese manufactured Android phone for under £150 (it does everything I need) but had I paid £1,000+ for an iPhone it would also have been made in China.

            There is, undoubtedly, a happy medium to be struck somewhere along the line.

          2. Simple is good, it helps with the understanding, even if the outcome isn’t 100% accurate.

          3. Simple is fine, as long as you remember that it isn’t the whole story. It gets complicated when people start to think that everything is simple.

          4. That you need a computer to manage your business speaks volumes of the complexity of the Tax rules you have to deal with.
            About time for the entire system to be rewritten and simplified.

          5. Actually it says nothing at all about the tax system – but everything about the government decisions which have been taken in the last 10 – 15 years regarding digital communications and the fact that it is almost impossible to communicate by any other means.

            VAT returns (a big part of my bread and butter) cannot be submitted on paper at all. They must be submitted digitally. The clients who don’t have computers rely on mine and my ability to submit. PAYE returns are the same… a submission must be made, online, for each pay-day. It will, very soon, be a requirement for the self-employed to submit a quarterly accounts for tax purposes with a balancing submission after the year end. 5 returns per year instead of one is, of course, “simpler” in government jargon.

            I should have been more explicit and careful in my explanation this morning.

            I agree that the system needs an overhaul, but it is the requirement to communicate digitally which is the issue which means that a computer is a compulsory tool of my trade. I often see comments here which say that poor people don’t need smart-phones… but benefit claims all have to be digital too. A phone is often the cheapest solution if you are only going to have one gadget which connects to the internet.

    2. I’d argue that the EU has forced us to go to China – certainly our businesses. Some of the things that China can produce are truly beautiful, but you have to get the right supplier.

      The bit I lament is when all our electronics manufacturing went to Taiwan. Yes, we do the intelligent bit, the design, marketing, packaging, circuit board, radios, software but they make the things. I sincerely wish we had the capacity and supply chain to compete but if we did, instead of a telephone costing $100 per unit – yes, the markup is offensive – it’d be 4-500 per unit because of taxes and regulation.

      1. The 100% cost of everything is labour charge or profit – even the price of raw materials eventually boils down to labour costs and profit as God doesn’t charge for them. Low wages in China, high wages in UK QED

    3. It’s a long time since Chinese goods were “all tacky rubbish”, they make a lot of very high quality goods nowadays too. Almost all Apple’s ridiculously expensive kit is made in China.

      As for “putting in its place”… China is still exactly where it was, and if it excels in manufacturing it is because it has been given the opportunity to do so. The days of opium wars and gunboat diplomacy are as out of date as your axe and longbow.

      1. Indeed. The quality of stuff they produce now is superior to what we could produce in the UK before it was outsourced to China. My only gripe is that prices are steadily rising – presumably because they are paying their workers the going rate. The flip-side (from their point of view) is that outsourcing will become less financially attractive.

        1. As their standard of living rises across the board then their pay rates etc also rise. Eventually, in theory, things should even out – but in the meantime we have lost manufacturing and are not in a great position to regain it. There is a fine line (or perhaps a tightrope) between a certain amount of deliberate protection of trade and tariff-free trading. We haven’t managed to balance on it too well. Partly because a lot of our manufacturing was not well managed which led to a lot of trade disputes etc, so that things got worse rather than better. As we have/seek the opportunity to bring such work back onshore we need to make sure that our management is spot on or we will suffer similar failures.

          (Been out working all day, hence rather late response).

        1. As Chinese goods become more expensive there are opportunities to bring manufacturing (at least of some items) back onshore. But we would need to make the effort to create a skilled workforce for that to be an effective solution. Too many employers want “oven ready” employees and are not prepared to commit to workplace training.

          1. Sorry, but that won’t be possible to the degree that many want – the disparity in cost of between goods made in the UK and in China would still be large even after that happens because their other operating costs are still vastly lower than ours.

            Assuming the world hasn’t been ravaged by nuclear war in the intervening period, what will most likely happen is that countries with an even lower cost base like Indonesia and to a lesser extent India will start to take manufacturing business away from China, as China has done from Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea, and previously Western Europe the US and Japan.

            I agree though that most employers in the UK don’t want to take on either unskilled or less experienced staff as training costs a lot of money and takes both the trainee and mentor away from revenue-earning activities. It isn’t helped that many young Brits think that once they get a ‘college’ degree (especially from the Mickey Mouse ones) that they then deserve huge salaries, when in reality they are not that much better than an on-the-job trainee on £15k pa.

          2. I say that there are opportunities – and it is true. But you are right that those opportunities are (and probably always will be) limited – although automation (which won’t help the job market) may offer more if we really can get our electronics skills going again. There will be some very high tech jobs to be had in the right fields. We do have places in the UK turning out good electronic and electrical engineers.

            I remember a friend’s son going to university (about 20 years ago) and threatening to quit because “they treat us like ignorant kids” – I pointed out to him, and to his parents, that his threat simply confirmed that he was an “ignorant kid” and that the sooner he knuckled down and accepted the fact the better he would do. He did get a decent technological degree in the end. It isn’t only the ex-college ones who think that they “know it all”, the school leavers are often as bad, or worse.

            On the other hand that does not apply to all youngsters. It’s easy to overlook the fact that many study hard, and then work hard.

          3. Indeed – I learned far more in my first year on-the-job as a graduate than in my entire 3 year course at university.

            I also remember more than one youngster getting too big for their boots, leaving a firm for a nice big pay boost, then struggling because they were expected to work much longer hours and gain experience very quickly – one I recall actually tried to reapply for their old job. Needless to say they weren’t re-hired (no loyalty).

            Sadly the smallish number of young people who do put a decent effort in and are humble about their talents are rarely rewarded – and often taken advantage of by their firm, actually keeping them on lower salaries than they are due.

            It’s all about trying to get the balance right between being modest/knucling down and blowing one’s trumpet to make sure you get your fair share of pay and decent quality experience.

            Not helped by the boot-lickers/greasy pole climbers (often who are expert manipulators/liars, technically poor at their jobs but good at office politics, and/or are in that position due to nepotism) who game the system at the expense of colleagues and often the company/organisation’s fortunes.

  17. Good morning, all. A sunny start.

    I see Dr Death Whitless has said that 120% of all deaths are due to Covid; that 10,000 new “cases” are reported every minute – and that he has told the government that everyone must be confined to their bedroom – with no permission even to go to the bathroom. That corpses should be left by the dustbin – with £1,000,000 fines for those who put them out on the wrong day.

          5. A friend of ours in Cornwall allows you to write your own name for this fundamental room on the door in felt tip pen.

            Two of the names that appear are: ‘yer ’tis’ and ‘The Euphemism’ .

        2. My lounge is large and spacious
          And my toilet’s shocking pink
          My cruets bear my monogram
          And my wife has got a mink.

  18. I sometimes wander onto Quora, a sort of updated Yahoo! Answers (before they went all horrid with their interface), to put the world to rights and hopefully one day find some kindred spirit to put me out of my misery. Yet, they are following the trend set by most if not all internet infrastructure by analysing me according to some algorithm designed in America, and then deciding what I am allowed to see, and what must be hidden from me. Google and Facebook, especially seem to be worming their way into everything I do online, disabling my requests if I do not comply with their corporate policies, terms and conditions, which I do not have the time to read, let alone agree to them all.

    I posted this on their Feedback page, but I don’t expect their bots will know what I am on about. Anyone human here, with suggestions?

    “How does one turn off analyticals? I cannot find it on the Privacy settings, and searches on the Knowledge Base come up blank.

    When I browse for questions, I want to see returns at random, in reverse chronological order, starting with the newest first. I don’t want some algorithm taking my previous answers and browsing preferences to set what I want to see next. I find that creepy, a violation of my privacy, and I want to be the one who decides what I am interested in today, not some piece of software in a foreign country.”

    1. Morning, JM.
      Whenever I see ‘American algorithms’ I think of the ill-fated ‘Voter Vault’ that the Conservative Party Central Office inflicted on constituencies some years back.
      As it was American designed, it allowed for only two political parties. It was guided by voters’ addresses, their cars, their schooling, shopping habits etc….
      The trouble was, there were at least three competing parties in Britain and their habits overlapped. Time and again, canvassers would rock up to a door with records that suggested the family were solid Conservative, only to find they were LibDem or Labour. Local old sweats, who knew their patch, would completely ignore such bunkum and carry on as normal, but imported zealots were a darn nuisance, as they merely put people’s back up – including those they were supposed to be helping.

      1. I remember canvassing in Fulham for Roger Liddle (I don’t know if he is related to Rod), who introduced me to the SDP when it was founded in 1981. He came out with the phrase on his election address “we are majoring on centralities”. I lost my respect for the man as soon as he wrote that, and the party disintegrated the following year.

        It was at that by-election that the SDP decided to take advice from Americans to take a more “professional” approach to politics. The canvass sheets were horrible, involving filling in a form for every visit, and consuming vast amounts of paper, which all had to be collated and sorted and analysed back in the office. A job that, with the old sheets, took a few minutes to extract canvass data took days, leaving us all with sore and confused heads. No wonder they lost that election.

        He went on to become an arch Blairite. I believe he is still alive and sits in the House of Lords, if that counts as being alive.

    2. I had a reply just now:

      “Hello,

      Thanks for your feedback!

      Please note that we do not respond to emails submitted via this form. If you’re reaching out to us for something other than feedback, see below for the relevant contact options.

      * If you need help with or have a question about your account, please visit our Contact Page and select “I need help with my account”.
      * If you’re worried about your or someone else’s safety, please visit our Contact Page and select “I have a safety concern”.
      * If you have a privacy concern or would like to request your data on Quora, you can reach out to privacy@quora.com.
      * If you would like to make a claim of infringement – such as copyright, trademark, or some other type of infringement – please visit our Contact Page and select the appropriate infringement reporting option.

      Thanks again!

      Sincerely,
      The Quora Team”

      The bot lives!

    3. There is not a lot you can do as its their train set. But I always thought that when you accept the standard cookie setting that you are offered, it will offer targeted content. If you change the settings, normally by deleting what is already set up, you receive everything that they pump out. I’m not a specialist in this area so I standby to be corrected!

      1. ‘Morning, KP and by inference, Jeremy. To defeat as far as possible, the tracking bots, I always clear the history of my internet browsing before actually leaving the internet.

        Then I run Ccleaner – this all takes about 5-10 minutes.

        Every evening before I close down I run SUPERAntiSpyware that will remove any trackers that might be left and once a week I run Malwarebytes.
        These are all free apps. I pay quite a bit for Avast. To date, I’ve had no problems. Touching wood, frantically.

    1. Watched the sun come up over the Himalayas from 34 000 feet in a 747 back in 1999. You could easily tell whick peak was Everest. Snow, peaks and pink light… that vision will stay with me. Enough to make one religious, so it was.

    1. Yo Rastus

      Do you have Nagsman down for January 21st (next Thursday)? I think she’s 1886, or summat like that.

      1. Thank you. Now added (But i think I’d better let Nagsman confirm the year of birth!) :

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

        (E&OE)

          1. I wonder which year he was born? 1936? 1940? 1944? 1948? 1952? 1956? 1960? 1964?

            I bet there was a summer Olympic Games (or a war) taking place in the year he was born. [Berlin, none, none, London, Helsinki, Melbourne, Rome, Tokyo].

      3. She’s not as young as that is she????

        Dons tin hat and takes cover behind sandbag wall

      1. Happy birthday, Stormy.
        I hope you have the day off, or are you saving it all for a weekend bash?

        1. Hi Anne. Thank you.
          I’m at work (well WFH) today, day off tomorrow.
          I’ll raise a glass to myself on the w/e

        1. Thanks sos. The Kwacka hasn’t been out this last year – no MOT, couldn’t see the point. I’m looking forward to having BSKs again this summer.

          1. Not one of their infamous triples, is it?
            T’Lad has one of them that he bought as a 250 and then re-engineered it to a 400.

  22. The weather in N Essex yesterday was very pleasant for the time of year. Plenty of blue sky with some thin high cloud and pleasing sunshine. I went for a six mile or so walk and was surprised at the number of people out exercising and how busy the roads were compared to recent times. In addition, the level of outdoor masking was well down, I counted only five walkers and one driver who were masked. A few people with the must avoid everyone else syndrome were about but many, many more were behaving as it used to be: stepping aside only on narrow paths and offering a courteous “Good morning”, a nod or a smile.
    Daylight hours lengthening and milder weather arriving as Spring approaches poses a problem for Johnson, Hancock, Whitty & Co and a greater problem for the population. The former will have to concoct some other maddening ideas (a very virulent easily transmitted non-seasonal variant, maybe?) to try and control the people and the people will have to decide whether or not to continue with being bullied by the government. Challenging times all round, I think.

        1. No need, the point you made was different.

          I am informed that today is “Blue Monday” officially the most depressing day of the year, a suitable article to celebrate.

    2. Morning, Korky. We had a lovely walk yesterday. As you say, lots of people and dogs were out and about. Apart from the odd tight lipped curmudgeon whouldn’t won’t let their dog even pass a brief “Morning, Spartie” (dogs need to contact each other as much as human beings), everyone was in a good mood.

      1. I have noticed how busy it is with walkers (including some for whom exercise appears to have been a previously unknown activity, judging by their size) and dog walkers on my usual dog-walking routes. Most will at least say hello, even if they don’t stop to chat. Few prevent their dogs from greeting each other.

          1. They always say the owner gets to look like his dog – or is it the other way round? As I haven’t had a hair cut since Lockdown #2 I am beginning to look as shaggy as my hound.

          2. There’s a chap I meet who is perfectly amiable but as she has grown older his terrier has become very snappy with other dogs. He always calls her in and puts her lead on – as she has been known to bite other dogs (not people) quite badly.

            Occasionally I meet a pair of terribly elegant and stand-offish standard poodles. They don’t bite, but they don’t really stop to “say hello” either. The are beautifully behaved without leads, but they do rather consider themselves to be a cut above scruffy little dogs.

    3. Yesterday we tootled off to the nearby nature reserve. There’s no nature there, and as it’s beside a council estate it’s more like an open rubbish tip because they’re scum but we all got very muddy and now 3 pairs of trainers are on radiators, clothes are in the wash en masse. Still, we got out.

      1. ‘Morning, poppiesmum.

        I liken what the government are trying to do as piling more weight onto a pressure cooker. The increasing weight will hold the pressure for a while but eventually the cooker will explode. The addition of a new problem every time the current one runs out of steam in order to impose more controlling measures will run out of currency. The Italians have shown what can be done by resisting and the fact that diners told the police to “Get out!” shows what can be done by people power.

        1. As have the Danes, Korky – by continually demonstrating outside the Danish Parliament – in force and banging pots and pans, they had pandemic law reversed.

          3. Honestly, Sue, please don’t worry. I’m speaking from experience.
            The goals to aim for are being allowed to have a bath again and Put You Knickers On without using a litter picker.
            You will be fine.

        2. Indeed it is, Alf. I recall the sad story of a chap once who – after a serious accident – went into hospital. The surgeon warned him that one of his legs needed amputated.

          When he came round from the anaesthetic, the shamefaced surgeon told him that there’d been a mistake and they’d inadvertently cut-off the wrong leg. The chap was absolutely devasted by this news, so the surgeon sought to cheer him up.

          “But I’ve some good news as well …..” he said.

          “Good news?”, cried the patient. “You’ve cut-off a perfectly good leg!” What possible good news could you have?”

          “Your injured leg is getting better!” replied the surgeon reassuringly.

          1. I was due an arthroscopy at Catterick Military Hospital exactly 30 years ago. I was having a chat with my boss (Training Officer) the day before I went in.

            Him; “Good luck with the operation and make sure they get the right leg!”
            Me: “What do you mean?”
            Him: “Well, Corporal White from the gym went in for the same and they did the wrong leg”.
            Me; “You’re having a laugh eh, Sir.”
            Him “Nope!”

            I was straight on the phone to Chalkie – it was true! Fortunately, it was only a scope but I wasn’t reassured until the surgeon came to see me the night before the op and drew a large blue arrow above the offending knee.

    5. There’s been a few suggestions that if and when the populus REALLY get fed up with COVID-related lockdowns and masks, etc – especially when their livelihoods are properly at risk because their firms cannot survive on working from home any more and clients themselves need to go back to work for similarl reasons, the powers-that-be will invent (or carry out themselves) a cyber attack on our utility firms to ratchet up the fear and cause panic, allowing them and their World Economic Forum billionaires chums to complete their World Takeover with nairy a whimper from the public – everyone bar them now serfs with no power, bacuse the authorities (via the big multinationals) control food and fuel/power production and especially distribution – only ‘essentials’ allowed via handouts from government.

      1. With the G7 summit organised for June – in Dorset – I wonder if beings like us will be allowed to drive freely by then – or will the full lockdown be in force so BJ can show the other leaders that we are completely under his control? I reckon BJ and his buddies would really like being in their chauffeur driven limos, with Police escort of course, zooming along empty roads.

        1. I you think that’s one rule for us, one for them, look at what those REALLY in charge of world affairs will doing for the ‘revised’ World Economic Forum for 2021 – instead of it being in Davos, where Europeans could get to and protest at, it will now be held in the effective ‘nice dictatorship’ of Singapore – with no chance of anyone protesting that event.

        2. We noticed in yesterday’s Sunday Times that Boris’ Build Back Better committee is meeting today.

          Anybody know what they are discussing?

    6. Picked up a vanload of fallen timber t’other day and I’ve been busy cutting the smaller bits for the mushroom trays. Done a dozen and a half so far.
      Just about to do a cauliflower cheese for tonight, then I’ll get back outside to do a dozen or so more.

    7. Talk is, lockdown won’t be eased until “mid March”, which will make it a year of imprisonment. We might as well have committed murder – we wouldn’t have got much longer inside!

    1. A pedant writes: the term “riding shotgun” is slang for sitting in the rearmost part of the vehicle. There is another term for this.

        2. Sitting next to the driver means he can’t swing his weapon quickly through a large arc.

      2. I agree Joseph but he frightens his friends to take cover when they think someone with a shotgun is hunting them. He does not want to “ride shotgun” ; Just to sit in the front seat. That’s the way I read it. It is a wee bit ambiguous.

  24. Tomorrow’s (no doubt) failed missive to the DT letters’ page:

    SIR — The Home Office is being disingenuous—or utterly naïve—if its analysts believe that falling charging rates and fewer bobbies on the beat is contributing to a rise in serious violence (report, January 18). The real reason is the cluelessness of the current crop of Chief Officers of Police in deploying their resources effectively.

    The internet is awash with videos of gangs of police officers arresting sole pensioners who are out on their own for a walk in the fresh air, whilst burglaries and other instances of serious crime are ignored, with claims that there are insufficient officers to deal with crime. Sir Robert Peel must be squirming in his grave.

    Until there is a radical overhaul of the police service in the United Kingdom, coupled with a replacement of those inept top ranks, matters will continue to deteriorate and the public will never regain its former trust in the police.

    A Grizzly B (former police officer)

    1. Morning Grizzly and all Nottlers.

      Have to say the video clips I’ve seen of police treatment of the public (not ER or BLM people obviously) comes across as extremely heavy handed. Plus the fact they are now all dressed military style.

      1. Morning, vw.

        This all started back in 1978 coinciding with the first reasonable pay rise for the police since 1919, and the implementation of the ill-thought graduate-entry scheme. The all-party committee which granted these decided they wanted something in return. That ‘something’ was more political control over the police, taking them away from being public servants and making them political pawns.

        The result of all this, 43 years on, is plain for all to see.

        1. Good morning, Grizzly

          You could also argue that MPs were better before 1911 when pay for MPs was introduced.

          Of course policemen deserve to be properly paid but once the money rather than doing the job properly becomes the main incentive things will not go so well.

        2. I know of such a copper who lives on the same housing development as me. To my astonishment, he’s now an inspector. He chastised me and a couple of other people on the local residents association for not voting for Corbyn at the last two general elections. Not sure what his degree is in, but it ain’t common sense.

          2. One of the downsides of politics (residents association) is that you can’t (as much as you’d like to) tell other members to ‘shove it’, because often you need their vote on important issues.

            You’d be amazed at even this low level of politics (we’re not even elected – all volunteers as no-one else wants to do the [unpaid] job) how vitriolic and spiteful things can get.

          5. When I was walking my dog along with my neighbour and her dogs yesterday (socially distanced, of course), I said that it was beginning to remind me of being behind the Iron Curtain – you had to look over your shoulder to see who was listening before you expressed an opinion and then you only did it to someone you trusted, your neighbours would report you to the Stasi and you couldn’t even be sure that the park bench wasn’t bugged! Not to mention the relentless propaganda put out by the state organs of communication.

        3. I saw one of the moves when I was an Usher at Court.
          The constables started to turn up in black shirts (ominous enough), cargo trousers and Doc Marten style boots. I remarked to one of them that they looked more like the thugs they were supposed to protect us from.
          One female constable came equipped with a Taser and I said I thought it inappropriate. She said she’d been to to come, as a witness, in full uniform. I notified the Legal Adviser who in turn spoke to the Magistrates. It gave me great pleasure to tell the woman that she would not be allowed into the courtroom with a firearm. She was not best pleased, I’m pleased to say.

        4. Beg to differ Grizz, it was Mrs Thatcher who increased pay for the Police shortly after she became PM in 1979. In the mid 1970s I remember a Sergeant explaining that he could only afford to insure his car (a Cortina) third party.
          The graduate entry scheme was self defeating. To be fair, politicians did try; do you remember a place called Bramshill?

          In any case, the rot set in when capital punishment was abolished and the Treasury belatedly realised that keeping killers incarcerated for life was too expensive.

          1. Absolutely! I believe that capital punishment must be restored without delay, Tim – but only for criminals, I hasten to add, in case anybody should think me heartless.

          2. The Thatcher government honoured the pay recommendation of the Edmund-Davies report of 1978.

            The graduate entry scheme was a separate matter, recommended by ACPO also in 1978 but which had been proposed in the 1960s.

          3. Well, Tim, you are only partly right. It was an all-party commission that tasked Lord Edmund-Davies to hold an inquiry into police pay and conditions. This occurred in 1978 when James Callaghan was still prime minister. I know this from personal involvement since I was a serving officer at the time and I personally attended Police Federation conferences around the country at: Matlock Bath, Scarborough, Leicester, Cambridge, Bristol and Westminster Hall. Appearing as a guest of honour at all those conferences was Callaghan’s Home Secretary, Merlin Rees, who was given a torrid time, especially by the federation’s parliamentary advisor, Eldon Griffiths MP.

            https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C3033

            The all-party committee had agreed, in principle, to accept the recommendations of the inquiry. The inquiry was published in 1979, some time after Margaret Thatcher had taken office, consequently in accordance with the recommendations of the all-party committee, the pay rises and improvement in conditions for all serving police officers came into being. It would have happened even if Callaghan (or even David Steel!) had won the general election.

            https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1978/jul/17/police-pay

          4. In addition to the above, Tim, the Police Staff Training School at Bramshill in Surrey still exists. In the days before the graduate entry scheme, each year the top 200 candidates throughout the country, who received the highest scores in the police promotion examinations to the rank of sergeant, would be invited to attend a set of intensive interviews. The successful candidates from those interviews would then attend a police management course at the college. At the conclusion of the course they would immediately be promoted to the rank of sergeant for a year then directly to the rank of inspector after the end of that year.

            The beauty of such a course meant that all the candidates were selected from officers who had completed a minimum of two years pounding a beat, interacting personally with their public (ordinary law-abiding people as well as criminals) and learning police procedures at ground level. They all had a taste of what it was like to be a policeman before the course.

            With regard to your cash-strapped sergeant. I joined when police pay and conditions were at their lowest: they were beyond dire. If I hadn’t been given a rent-free police house I would never have been able to join the force.

            As for the abolishment of capital (and corporal) punishment; I rank that as one of the early indicators of the start of the decline in the intelligence of humanity.

      2. Thugs, vw, nothing more nor less. I now have no respect for the police and I wouldn’t go to them for real crime prevention – it’s not their job anymore.

        1. It’s very sad because now I have a distinct distrust of them whereas I used to really respect them. Now they are more like the continental police/thugs willing to clobber anyone (except the usual!).

    2. They could start by calling it the Police Force again and acting like a force for good.Now the ordinary people are in fear of the police.

    3. Our PCC has openly stated that burglaries aren’t a priority – what’s important to them is “hate crime”. Should the fed up who have been burgled wish to dole out retribution (it’s usually pretty obvious which scumbags have been responsible), then plod will come down on them like a ton of bricks for their “vigilantism”. You couldn’t make it up – unfortunately, you don’t have to 🙁

        1. Ah…
          When we go into one of these shops that sell stuff to clutter your house with, we rearrange the inevitable word spelled out in huge tin letters to read “vole”.
          :-))

          1. Velo? If so don’t go into bike shops, or keep your bikes in the garage, or spare bedroom, if you must.

        2. Good Morning Jen and autres Nottlers.

          I need to slightly control vermin, basically rats and mice. Anticoagulant being relatively expensive, and bad for owls, traps are the main option. A device marketed as trip trap does the job for mice, but it occasionally catches shrews, which are great little insect eaters and welcome all day long.
          Only once have I ever managed to empty the trap when the shrew is still alive; I reckon they die of anxiety. Yes, they advise two hourly monitoring; but at night?

          3. They probably die of hunger. If a shrew has to go 20 minutes without food, it croaks. High energy requirement; large surface area in relation to body mass means high loss of warmth.

          4. Sorry for the delay, I’ve been out earning my living for most of the day.

            As Peddy has said shrews need to eat, almost constantly, except for short naps; and they certainly won’t sleep in a trap.

            Mice tend to scuttle along the base of walls – shrews much less so because their prey isn’t there and they are far less likely to suffer from aerial predation (the owl/kestrel can’t swoop right in to the base of a wall so the mouse is safe there) – so it might be worth locating the traps alongside the wall (suitably covered and baited). This is the usual position for poison bait boxes as it seems to be the most effective. It might reduce the tendency to catch shrews.

            If you really don’t want to catch shrews I can only suggest that you set the traps only when at home, check hourly form dawn till dusk, and close them at night. You will catch slightly fewer mice, but you should be able to save a few shrews. Only you can decide on the balance, I suggest that it depends how many mice you have, and how much of a nuisance they are.

            Small tip: use a pair of gardening gloves, just slightly earthy, for handling the trap rather than your bare hands – it will leave less of your personal scent on the trap and make the mice slightly more likely to enter it.

            Sorry, but there are no definitive answers to these problems, it is always a question of compromise.

      2. I have searched for synonyms and homophones but can’t find ones that I can interpret as ‘to you’. Please could somebody help me?

  31. The article has been linked below but the headline had me wondering.

    One-in-eight ‘recovered’ Covid patients ‘DIE within 140 days’: Study
    finds devastating toll on people who were hospitalised – with a THIRD
    readmitted within weeks

    How long is it since the first of the volunteers was injected and should the NHS be looking out for a tsunami of people arriving in early summer?

    1. If it’s the article I read yesterday, it also talks about raising the 28-day threshold for recorded ‘deaths with COVID’. Anyway, given it is mainly the elderly who are admitted with COVID in the first place, what proportion who are then discharged die from other natural cases?

      2. A fair few no doubt. But as stats released last week showed, deaths in 2020 were 13% higher than the average of the previous 5 years and that excess was actually down to 10 of the 12 months with nothing much happening in man & Feb, so once we get the 1st Mar 2020 to 28 Feb 2021 numbers, the excess will be considerably higher given current death rates. These numbers are of course, after lockdown etc, so looks like Ferguson’s forecasts were pretty accurate.

          1. Yes that forecast. As you know 500,000 deaths was the ‘do nothing’ scenario which was never in play because even if the gov’t did nothing, people and organisations would have changed their behaviour. The other scenarios modelled were ‘mitigate’ (250,000 deaths) and ‘suppress (60,000 deaths). The UK adopted something close to the suppress strategy.

        2. The average. That isn’t of value.

          Excluding 2020, what was the highest in the last 5 years, and in the last 25 years ?

          How does 2020 compare to the previous highests in those years ?

          How many from untreated illnesses because the NHS was closed ?

          2. Link please.

            Have you got all years since 1940 ?

            Don’t forget to adjust for population and increased age profile.

          4. No adjustments for pop increase !

            From DM comments…..

            ”During December, 2020, on its website, PHE provided the following information ‘ Between April 2 and December 23, 1,979 recorded deaths were due to Covid-19, with no other underlying healthy issues. Of this total, 1,537 of the deceased ere over-60, 388 were between 40-59, 44 were between 0-39 and 6 younger than 19. As a comparison figure, in 2019, more than twice as many deaths for those under 50 were reported in road accidents that were reported as ‘due to Covid’. In the same time frame (April 3 – December 23), 45,770 ‘Covid-related deaths’ were reported, where, in every case, the deceased had serious underlying health issues that were the primary cause of death’ It would appear that the contrived nature of intentionally inflating the number of ‘Covid-related’ deaths continues apace in 2021, and the media is once again fully complicit in this deceit”.

  34. 328628+ up ticks,

    breitbart,
    Statues to Be Given New Legal Protections Against ‘Baying Mobs’ and Left-Wing ‘Revisionist Purges, as shown surrounded by dicks finest,

    May one ask will the same treatment be meted out to skin and bones living units as in peoples,keeping in mind very young people in rotherham,oxford, sheffield, etc,etc,etc, ongoing.

    1. There are adequate laws already. Another one will make no difference. The current crop of coppers will just ignore but the MPs can feel smug that they think they will have done something.

      It’s called political ma*******ion. It makes them feel good but does sweet FA for anyone else.

      1. 328628+ up ticks,
        Afternoon AtG,
        I know that & you know that but the electorate obviously do not unless
        they would draw the line at their kids in one issue alone getting raped & abused, even for the good of the party.

        The voting pattern would surely change… wouldn’t it ?

  35. I hope this works, it’s one i wanted to post earlier from Nige…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHlvs59FfrE
    7 minutes of important information for every one who takes the trouble to vote.
    And now, can you all imagine a packed football stadium with 60 thousand people in it. That’s now an estimation of the amount of people this government have let into our country since the promised it would stop. Can any one imagine how much this is costing the UK people every year ?

        1. 328628+ up ticks,
          G,
          You would say that wouldn’t you…. and have.

          Touch of repression of free speech there me old cock, old working habits showing through methinks.

          1. No, Ogga. I think people are getting pig sick of you shoving up the same clip time and time and time again.
            Yes, I agree, Farage has put his foot in it more than a few times as well as making wrong decisions, as indeed has everybody at some time or another.
            However, that does not detract from his importance in forcing the government to stage the referendum, not the fact that much of what he says makes perfect sense.

          2. 328628+ up ticks,
            Afternoon Bob,
            Listen up quietly away, I have had to suffer via the polling booth at the hands of dangerous fools who use their signature X supporting a candidate who in turn represents a party that has proved for the last three decades to be treacherous in the extreme.
            I point out what I believe to be a proven agent of a treacherous nature via his own tongue, he maligns
            30000 UKIP members many of whom worked bloody hard to give him a platform and i’m to sit quite whilst others are singing his praises, I don’think so.

            Does seem to me very much like these pretendee tory party current supporters are once more looking for saviours, having been, as with lab / lib dems, treacherously wrong for decades.

            I put this in the nicest possible way so as not to offend any of an innocent standing.

        2. Good afternoon, ogga

          Sometimes I agree with Nigel Farage – sometimes I do not. In my view he was wrong to give his approval to the Boris Bodged ‘deal’ before scrutinising it carefully; he also was wrong to withdraw Brexit Party candidates from Conservative seats held by remainers.

          It would appear that you disagree with Nigel Farage even when you agree with him!

        3. 328628+ up ticks,
          w,
          It is fact,
          You are quick to condemn yet very slow to explain why.
          Be interesting to know which party in the UK receives your support, an answer, if given , is optional.

    2. 60’000 – – -and their families waiting to come as well. Multiply the 60k many times. That 60k more like half a million if they all get here. The govt approved invasion contimues.

      1. If any of them had any skills they are robbing their own countries they should be sent home to put their own houses in order, we have enough problems without them making the situation worse.

        1. From their point of view – why work in a 3rd world hellhole, when you can all come here and sit down. NHS, Housing, fresh water, roads, electricity supply, benefits. Police force, fire service etc etc – -ALL for having contributed NOTHING. And all while demanding things here change to what they wanted to leave back home. They do NOT want “A better Life” – they want THEIR lives – in a better country – built and paid for by us – and us gone.

    1. Greene King have all their priorities wrong – they should be doing their utmost to get pubs open again, not pandering to the woke brigade (who wouldn’t even frequent such places). A local one to me was only refurbished 2 years ago, closed because of the lockdowns and now has done so for good. What a waste of money.

        1. As Greene King operated a ‘tied’ system, I would’ve thought it was the franchisee, perhaps with some ‘assistance’ (maybe loans) from Green King. They did this one quite nicely as well.

        3. I know, Phil. Actually they’re not bad, I used to use the ones in Knutsford and East Didsbury until they closed them both. GK tried to sell Loch Fyne a few years back, unsuccessfully.

          1. Went summer before last with Garlands and we had brilliant sunshine. It was superb. Went again later in the year and it was terrible.

            PidgeonFeet

            Fareham

            7541

            Reviewed 30 November 2019

            Disaster area.

            The restaurant is pleasant. The servers are friendly. The oysters are delicious.

            Those were the only good things about my lunch on the 29th November.

            Large
            Gin & Tonic requested with no ice. It came full of ice. What was
            worse was they had garnished it with grapefruit. Older people taking
            Statins have to avoid grapefruit.

            The Turbot was dry and
            overcooked. The mash and the cabbage were cold. The Mussels were fine
            until i had worked my way down to the cream sauce. Heavily over salted
            and i had to leave half of my meal.

            I was given a more expensive bottle of Sauvignon than the one i ordered.

            I
            brought all of these faults to the attention of the server and the best
            they could do was offer a free dessert. No reduction for the wrong
            wine.

            The sticky toffee pudding lacked sauce and was a bit dry and cakey.

            I ordered two Americano and one Remy Cognac. I got one Americano and a Chambord.

            We
            were warned the kitchen was running 20 mins behind because the
            restaurant was full. We arrived at 1pm and left at 3.40pm. I wondered if
            i would manage to get home before dark and to feed my dog.

            My
            server brought my Bill which i hadn’t asked for before the Dessert and
            coffee. She had also forgot to include the discount voucher

            Pretty much everything that could go wrong, did..

            I dined with a friend using a 50’% off the a la carte menu. My Bill was still £107 including tip. Which i chose to pay

            Review collected in partnership with Greene King

            Ask PidgeonFeet about Loch Fyne Seafood & Grill Restaurant

            This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC

            Greene_K1ng, Manager at Loch Fyne Seafood & Grill Restaurant, responded to this reviewResponded 2 December 2019

            Thank you, for taking the time to leave us a review, I apologise it was not under better circumstances.

            We
            take all feedback seriously and I would welcome the chance to discuss
            this with you further. Please do not hesitate to contact me at
            portsmouth@lochfyne.net should you like to.

            Many Thanks
            Lauren

            https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g186298-d732591-r729795435-Loch_Fyne_Seafood_Grill_Restaurant-Portsmouth_Hampshire_England.html#

      1. Why? Poles are not English and they’re celebrating a Polish Squadron (303, top-scoring squadron in the Battle of Britain). It’s okay to celebrate non-English things, even if they’re white (see Scottish Nationalism, Plaid Cymru, etc).

        1. I live near a cemetery where there are wartime graves of trainee Spitfire Pilots. British Empire volunteers + some Polish flyers who died, not in battle but in dogfight crashes during their training.

          The local Council make a great job in the maintenance of the graves.

          A replica of the Spitfire flown by a Polish Trainee is located not far from what were aircraft hangars.

          1. The number of pilots and air crew who died in training crashes is staggering, really. In the First War, the instructors used to refer to their pupils as “Huns” because they did so much damage to machines 🙂

  38. 328628+ up ticks,
    May one ask,
    If the same thing, God forbid, were to take a Norwegian type turn on the vaccine adverse affects, would those politico’s & employees pushing the issue so hard be in any danger of
    kickback from the peoples, for instance via the
    ballot box…….. or worse ?

  39. Biden’s mega-stimulus widens the staggering gap in fiscal support between US and eurozone.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/01/17/bidens-mega-stimulus-widens-staggering-gap-fiscal-support-us/

    Does anyone remember the last line of that marvellous book 1066 and All That?

    America became top nation and History came to a .

    Perhaps it should have been a semi-colon rather than a full-stop – but it looks as if America under Biden and his Democrats is not going to remain top nation for much longer

      1. Thank you for your pedantic addition. I jotted it down from memory rather than checking it from my copy of the book in my library.

        What, apart from giving an example of your pedantry, has your post added?

        2. Are you rattled again? I don’t need your, or any one else’s, permission to make a post.

          So glad to see that for the last 9 days, Rastus, that you are taking much more care with the typing of your posts. Of course, that has nothing to do with my pedantry.

          1. Not rattled – bemused by your strange motivation. Have you some strange perversion involving control, criticism and manipulation?

            Didn’t you to try to drive one of our fellow Nottler friends on this forum away a few weeks ago by your constant corrections and didn’t you yourself vanish from the site for a day or two? I am glad that both of you have returned. My advice is not to bother with picking nits if you can control your urge to do so as it pisses people off – which I hope, is not what you want to do.

          2. The noun pedantry refers to the behavior of a pedant, which comes from the French word pédant, meaning “schoolmaster.” While it is a schoolmaster’s job to ensure that students learn, someone who is guilty of pedantry just seems to brag, using his or her knowledge to get attention or seem better educated than the people …

            pedantry – Dictionary Definition : Vocabulary.com

          3. I did NOT try to drive away another Nottler. If he chose to have a hissy-fit, after an exchange which he started, that’s his problem.

          4. Now you can clearly see why the Swedes (who are exceptionally nice people) were more than happy to be rid of him after just three years of suffering his obnoxious superiority complex.

      2. As I understand it in the States the “.” is known a a period, thus “and history came to a .” could mean half the population became angry and irrational on a regular basis. >ducks and scuttles off screen<

      3. As I understand it in the States the “.” is known a a period, thus “and history came to a .” could mean half the population became angry and irrational on a regular basis. >ducks and scuttles off screen<

    2. Ah, but remember that the WEF intends that the US should not remain the top nation – and I’m sure Biden is going to help them achieve that goal.

    1. Aparently there are now moved by activists to try and take away funding and platforms for ALL alternatives to twitter, Facebook and YouTube, who appear to have a direct line to the finance houses and payment processors, as well as Amazon.

  42. Totally off topic.
    An article about soccer from a different era.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/football-fancies/

    The greatest football hero I remember having watched play was Stanley
    Matthews, a man who had started his professional career in 1932. Though
    the son of a boxer who wanted him to pursue the same career, he was a
    natural gentleman who never fouled, never cheated, never questioned a
    referee, and remained modest despite world fame. When, age 70, he
    injured his cartilage playing a friendly game, he wrote that his
    promising career had been cut tragically short. When he died, age 85,
    practically a third of the population of his native city, Stoke, turned
    out to pay its respects. This was fame, not celebrity.

  43. UK calls for immediate release of Putin critic after ‘appalling’ arrest. 18 january 2021.

    Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed Western concern over Mr Navalny’s case, casting it as an attempt to distract from the West’s own problems. “You can feel the joy with which these comments are coming out,” said Mr Lavrov.

    “Judging by everything, it allows Western politicians to think that by doing this they can divert attention away from the deep crisis that the liberal model of development finds itself in,” he said.

    When one thinks of the treatment meted out to Tommy Robinson and the State organised smear and harassment campaigns run against the likes of Farage one can see Lavrov’s point of view!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/alexei-navalny-putin-russia-release-raab-sanctions-b1788778.html

    1. And what will the UK do when its demands are not met? Nothing. They are just grandstanding.

      1. They haven’t grasped the basics of threats; never threaten anything you can’t or aren’t prepared to carry out.

    2. I still think it ironic that certain left wing papers support Lavrov and yet think it perfectly fine for our or the US authorities to arrest people in the UK for political (but not inciting to violence) speech and the deplatforming/ruining of said people. I bet though they wouldn’t say much about China, given how in bed they are with their chums from Big Tech, woke Hollywood and many of the Internet-only stores.

  44. Possible US shindig on Wednesday…

    I was wondering what might happen in places like the now fortified Capitol Hill if both the Patriots and the far left Antifa/BLM thugs turn up. Who’s side would the troops take?

    MSM reports today tell of the FBI scrutinizing individual members of the National Guard to see if they had right wing thoughts and might take the “wrong” side should trouble break out.

    Ironic that Trump mobilized the troops during his term in office to protect Biden as he begins his term of office.

    1. Looks more like a scene from the inauguration of ‘El Presidente’ Chavez. I’m waiting for a sensitive mic to pick up the ‘Hail, Hydra’ when Creepy, Sleepy Crooked Joe ‘takes’ the oath (probably with fingers crossed).

    2. I’ve been wondering about the National Guard’s affiliations. I would have thought they were traditionally right wing, NRA supporters etc. But has recruiting in the last 20 or so years winnowed out that type of guardsman?

    1. Its not just the museum I will avoid visiting particularly when Kan’t starts charging for the dubious privilege.

    2. “We hope the baby’s place in the museum will stand as a reminder of when London stood against Mr Trump – but will prompt those who see it to examine how they can continue the fight against the politics of hate.”

      Absolutely no insight there, then.

      1. Unbelievable pm! Which bit of “the politics of hate” does he not get? He appears to have the cloth-ears, brass neck and lack of self-awareness of our own dear Nikeliar!

      2. Unbelievable pm! Which bit of “the politics of hate” does he not get? He appears to have the cloth-ears, brass neck and lack of self-awareness of our own dear Nikeliar!

    6. Love it where they say ““We hope the baby’s place in the museum will stand as a reminder of when London stood against Mr Trump – but will prompt those who see it to examine how they can continue the fight against the politics of hate”. Seems they don’t do irony either!
      Added: sorry poppiesmum and Sue- didn’t look further back.

  46. Do any of you watch ” Upstart Crow ” with David Mitchell as Shakespeare .
    The Christmas addition of ” lockdown of 1602 was very funny
    especially ” remember last May when we were told by the government that the plague
    was nothing more then the flu with b0ttom warts, here we are at Christmas still in lockdown, this is a tale told by a fool that will come to nothing ”

    We watch these a lot. The Marlowe character is hilarious and so is the young actress who plays Shakespeare’s daughter. A difficult stroppy teenager of this age speaking
    Tudor English with a thick Brummie accent.

    1. I was lucky to see it at live theatre and got to meet them all before lockdown. Mark Heap is the same on and off the stage.

      1. Mark Heap, yes, his name escaped me for awhile, the way his Marlowe is plotting away is brilliant . I’d love to visit the theatre and see them all, it after all should be on the stage. I should imagine it was amazing .

        1. It was very funny with lots of visual jokes which i won’t mention. A good atmosphere from the audience made it a wonderful evening.

        2. Mark Heap , IMO , always plays Mark Heap, whether playing Dr Statham in Green Wing , Thomas Brown in Lark Rise or Brian in Spaced to name but a few, still makes me laugh though.

    4. I looked up Upstart Crow and it is available on BBC I player. Another programme to enjoy.

        1. That’s what I thought; only 29 and killed in an argument over a bill (or as Bill S put it “a reckoning”).

  47. Re The Wring Neck Parakeets – we thought we had problems. In Colombia they have a slightly larger problem:

    “Colombia’s rapidly breeding ‘cocaine hippos’ must be stopped, scientists say:
    The marshlands of Colombia have been home to these giant mammals since they were illegally imported in the late 1980s by the notorious drug lord, Pablo Escobar.

    When he was shot dead in 1993, the Colombian government took control of his extravagant estate, including his personal zoo.

    Most of the animals were shipped away, but four hippos were left to fend for themselves in a pond, and now there are dozens of them living in the wild.

    Although nobody knows exactly how many there are, estimates put the total number between 80 and 100, making them the largest invasive species on the planet.

    Scientists forecast that the number of hippos will swell to almost 1,500 by 2040. They conclude, that at that point, environmental impacts will be irreversible and numbers impossible to control.

      2. The cure might be worse than the disease, Issy. What if the hippos ingested cocaine, along with the drug pushers?

        The last thing they need in the Colombian marshlands is packs of coked-up hippos rampaging around.

          1. I confess to having dabbled with it over Christmas (The game that is not the substance….)

    2. I used to sing this to a guitar accompaniment to my sons when they were little as it had been sung to me when I was little.:

      I Had a Hippopotamus: by Patrick Barrington

      I had a Hippopotamus, I kept him in a shed
      And fed him upon vitamins and vegetable bread
      I made him my companion on many cheery walks
      And had his portrait done by a celebrity in chalk

      His charming eccentricities were known on every side
      The creatures’ popularity was wonderfully wide
      He frolicked with the Rector in a dozen friendly tussles
      Who could not but remark on his hippopotamuscles

      If he should be affliicted by depression or the dumps
      By hippopotameasles or the hippopotamumps
      I never knew a particle of peace ’till it was plain
      He was hippopotamasticating properly again

      I had a Hippopotamus, I loved him as a friend
      But beautiful relationships are bound to have an end
      Time takes alas! our joys from us and rids us of our blisses
      My hippopotamus turned out to be a hippopotamisses

      My house keeper regarded her with jaundice in her eye
      She did not want a colony of hippotami
      She borrowed a machine gun from from her soldier nephew, Percy
      And showed my hippopotamus no hippopotamercy

      My house now lacks that glamour that the charming creature gave
      The garage where I kept her is as silent as the grave
      No longer she displays among the motor tyres and spanners
      Her hippopomastery of hippopotamanners

      No longer the orchards does she gambol in the spring
      No longer through the village do I lead her on a string
      No longer in the morning does the neighbourhood rejoice
      To her hippopotamusically-modulated voice

      I had a hippopotamus but nothing upon earth
      Is constant in its happines or lasting in its mirth
      No joy that life can give me can be strong enough to smother
      My sorrow for that might-have-been-a-hippopota-mother

  48. Re: Covid Snitchers:

    BTL Comment:

    “Freedom Addict
    18 Jan 2021 7:44AM
    @John Steed Great points made. My experience is that BBC watchers have become so invested in the lockdown since autumn, that they now see any “subversive” behaviour (as defined by the authorities) as representing a barrier to their freedom.

    As I’ve said before what the government’s propaganda barrage has managed to achieve is half the frogs in the pot blaming the other half for the water getting hotter, whilst ignoring the governments hand turning up the gas.”

    1. What I’ve been amazed at throughout is how many supposedly well educated people have been so easily duped into believing the ‘lockdown is good’, ‘mask-up everywhere’ mantra. Maybe they were the same dopes who always fall for the ‘your shoelaces are untied’ gag. Talk about naive.
      Frog in water now at 95degC. Them – ‘Problem? What problem?’

    2. That’s what they want. It means half the population will do the job for them. Pressure on the rest.

    3. I read a report in my local rag that the police snitch line had been overwhelmed with the volume of callers dobbing people in – not that it put it in those words, exactly … 🙂

  49. Re: Covid Snitchers:

    BTL Comment:

    “Freedom Addict
    18 Jan 2021 7:44AM
    @John Steed Great points made. My experience is that BBC watchers have become so invested in the lockdown since autumn, that they now see any “subversive” behaviour (as defined by the authorities) as representing a barrier to their freedom.

    As I’ve said before what the government’s propaganda barrage has managed to achieve is half the frogs in the pot blaming the other half for the water getting hotter, whilst ignoring the governments hand turning up the gas.”

    1. Ah but this is SuperCovidSARslikeFluespeciallyfatalistic
      and if you say it loud enough they’ll offer you the Jab prick.

    3. I like the “‘Circulating influenza’ was blamed, released by the Office for National Statistics”

      1. much more dangerous than straight line pneumonia and heavenly anyone catching stationary flu.

          1. at least they stamped out the need to lick stamps, without self adhesive stamps we might have suffered another pandemic

      2. I am very wary of “fullfact”.

        They are extremely selective in how they put their facts forward, at times they are little better than the people they claim to be correcting.

        Covid gets blamed for far too many deaths that are really from other causes, where the one dying might have tested positive for Covid, but in the majority of cases, it was not the cause, merely an additional straw breaking the back of people who were already near death’s door.

        Yes Covid is dangerous, but what is being done in its name is almost certainly going to do far more harm to the nation’s health in the long term.

        1. I’m sure that I saw somewhere that fullfact had some income or a donation of cash from one of Soros’s organisations, I’m also wary of Snopes these days. my favourite goto , NHS News ( https://www.nhs.uk/News/Pages/NewsIndex.aspx ) seems to have disappeared into a white hole. The truth these days is slipperier ( if that’s a word ) than teflon on ice or the word of Antony Judas Blair.

          1. Agreed on all counts.
            They appear to get some “moral authority” yet are often little better than the lefties that seem to infest them, Snopes in particular…

      3. I don’t think this is relevant though, because the most meaningful comparison is total deaths (ok, as a percentage, and even then you’d have to correct for age…but still 2018 is similar enough to 2021 to just compare total deaths).
        If you start trying to compare the deaths for each virus, then you’re getting into the whole died of, died with argument. Plus you need to count people who died of cancer because their operations were postponed.
        I’ll be interested to see the total deaths for January.
        Depending on how high it is, I might panic then.

          1. Once the PTB get hold of that it will become: “nothing like the first – thousand times worse”.

  56. Another change to the vaccination protocols which may be insignificant. I think it applies to the Pfizer vaccine. The vaccine comes with 5 doses in a vial. Each dose has to be drawn out individually but it appears the vial is not empty when the 5 doses have been withdrawn. It has been decided that 6 doses can safely be drawn and administered from each vial. If there is 30ml in each vial I suppose that could work but each dose would need to be carefully drawn from the vial and checked before administered..

      1. I think the supply of vaccine is much less than the demand at the moment and they are cutting corners. I will need assurance that they are not intending to give me the Pfizer vaccine when my invitation comes.

        1. Same here. If/when we are offered the vaccine, we will make that quite clear. The only way is Oxford.

    4. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulatory-approval-of-pfizer-biontech-vaccine-for-covid-19/information-for-healthcare-professionals-on-pfizerbiontech-covid-19-vaccine

      This explains how to thaw, dilute and the possibilities of getting 6 doses out of the phial and the need to check that each is a full dose. A dose is 0.3ml.

      I remember having great difficulty in persuading a farm assurance inspector (with no experience of livestock or medicines) to believe that it was impossible to withdraw exactly 100ml from a 100ml bottle of Pen and Strep. Even after showing him the bottle he still kept saying that our records “in” and “out” didn’t match!

  58. Afternoon all.

    I guess that if I were in Engerland, I’d get a letter very soon about my jab, but
    here in uuseless-labour-wales I’ll have to wait ages Thank you Tony
    Blair for destroying the UK.

    1. At the risk of sounding like ogga, Blair only started the process, voters could have chosen to ditch Labour 🙂

      1. Maybe the voters thought it was all lies, like almost everything politicians say & promise. But just for once, it wasn’t.

      2. Voters take the easy way out and never face up to reality untill its to late as with Blair. yet people still support him.

    2. Its not just Blair, it is anything left. For a feeling of superiority have a look at the canadian disaster.

      Tried going with the Chinese (Trudeau loves them) got brushed off after paying them. Now buying leftovers from the Pfizer and Moderna, so far behind the rest of the world that even his liberals are beginning to notice.

      Oh and in love with Biden who on day one is canceling a desperately needed oil pipeline.

  60. If anyone is interested in scrolling back three hours to an earlier thread, I have answered, comprehensively, a claim that it was a personal decision of Margaret Thatcher to increase police pay in 1979. I have shown (with supporting evidence) that it wasn’t the case.

    2. I remembering it happen, but not when. I thought taht it was a couple-three years after she came to power, but the memory isn’t what it w…look! A squirrel!

  61. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/214afa425b06ae5ee829a1bb0694229440b74ab79c9bfa531ca4c2a066b5edda.jpg

    The best way to combat the most depressing Monday of the year (which doesn’t affect me) is to knock up some home-made sausage meat. Most of that can be then rolled up in puff pastry to make some sausage rolls. Those can then be frozen along with the curried chicken pasties that were made the other day.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e46ea7b04db8e2ca3fb7ac98a90174e923364ffa7df4cb79aac133c463ecd9c2.jpg

        1. I taught the bugger all he knows. He might be hot poop on fine dining; but I have it when it comes to rustic stuff! 😋

      1. I am, Eddy.

        I only eat one meal a day, between 1300 and 1400 hours. The other 23 hours I just drink water. Most of the above are now in the freezer.

        1. I am skipping lunch, just a banana today, you’re making my stomach rumble,,,,,,,, just more than a tad.

          1. Bananas are racist, Eddy. They are the fruit of plantations – established by brutal British colonialists – where millions of unfortunate Africans, transported from their Arcadia-like homelands, were forced to toil all night for a tot of rum, at risk from deadly spiders and other horrors.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/23d75adc3127505c84e2219b6b94fd97361f32b56e4c4d33d8cc5e3a4846845c.jpg

            I well remember the late Harry Belafonte’s poignant song about it.

          2. Duncan! Stop it! I’m appalled!

            What are dem niggers doin’ pickin’ banana? Dem should be pickin’ cotton!

          5. What on earth can you mean? Free transport to work, healthy open air work in the sunshine, regular meals, free clothing, accommodation provided, and opportunities for advancement. What’s not to like?

          9. I blocked her and two others months ago.
            They continuously harangue others for no apparent reasons except for promoting their biases.
            Stick around.

          2. V Good. He explains most if what I knew already but in a much more logical way.
            I’m going to see if I can give it a go.

            I did wonder though, about this saying by the Amazon tribe wh said “I store meat in the belly of my brother”; sounds to me like a proverb of a cannibal :~

          8. We are doing the 5:2 diet (or in our case the more severe 4:3 diet) and on ‘diet days’ I am far from being gruntled. This reminds me of a P.G. Wodehouse character who was obliged to go on a strict diet by his doctor but he must have been a masochist because he read cookery books describing the most delicious food as if they were thrillers: “he had just got to the bit where you pour thick, whipped double cream on top of the dark chocolate gateau .. etc.

            .

        1. I’ll eat them cold but the flaky pastry is so much better when it’s hot. Personal preference isn’t it.

      1. I’ll put my pastries up for a taste (and quality) test against Greggs’ any day of the week. 😉

      1. I usually make my own puff pastry but, since I’d run out of unsalted butter, this time I cheated with some ready-made.

  62. Afternoon, all. Chilly here and very dull, so I’ve given up any thought of gardening and have come to be cheered up by Nottlers. I thought I would share with you this joyful instruction from Telford and Wrekin Council (I get their daily bulletins): “What you need to do – Act like everyone has the virus, act like you have the virus yourself …” Yeah, right. Live in fear, be terrified. Whatever happened to “keep calm and carry on”?

    1. Thats original. All we get is Stay home, Stay safe. Repeated every fifteen minutes on all radio and TV stations.

      1. We get that, too – Save the NHS! Sod the NHS, it’s supposed to be there for US; that’s what we’re forced to pay for. Strangely enough, it isn’t there for us when we need it unless we’ve got Covid.

        1. But it is exceedingly generous.

          If you go in for something other than Covid, chances are the NHS will give it to you.

    3. Can you just imagine it during the war – “What you need to do – Act as if the Germans are marching up your High Street. Act like you’re a prisoner of war…”

  63. Branson must be creaming his jeans after his old jet liner launched an airborne rocket, more satellites to keep watch. It’s a bit of a shame he cant keep his broadband speeds up to the required strength……………..did you get that Dickie ?

    1. I knew a guy who planted his seeds in a local hedge row and gathered what he wanted when he wanted it.
      Nobody noticed.

      1. Biblical characters seemed always to be spilling their seed on the ground… was that the same thing?

          1. “Ille sciens non sibi nasci filios introiens ad uxorem fratris sui semen fundebat in terram ne liberi fratris nomine nascerentur

            Et idcirco percussit eum Dominus quod rem detestabilem faceret”

            — Gen 38:9-10

            Sic transit quicumque coitum interruptum exercet!

        2. Howard was the least biblical figure you could ever imagine. Nice guy with a decent singing voice.

        1. Back in the day, my young nephew after his first term at Highgate school came home with some plants some older boys asked him to look after…..

        2. Great stuff.
          I believe that I told you previously Richard I saw Jeremy Taylor one evening at a hotel when I lived in Port Elizabeth in the late 60s.

  65. Bad news this morning apparently Australia has shut it’s door for the whole year. We were hoping to hop over for a few weeks later in the year before it gets too hot.
    I’ve spent 3 hours on the phone and internet trying to get a temporary insurance cover for a low mileage elderly van that needs an MOT this week. 53 pounds for three days was the cheapest i could do. But much better than the full premium that almost doubled from last years, despite it being unused for over three months.
    Rummaging through some old CDs I found on a shelf. I’ve also been having a fun looking at old family and friends photographs from way back. Emailing some to various people just to keep them in the picture as it were.
    I found a photo of two ex navy vessels moored side by side in the harbour at Falmouth in 2008. They had been decommissioned and sold on. Both possibly used in the Icelandic (fishery protection) cod wars, one of my nephew’s was a lieutenant during that period. We could use his expertise at the moment.

    2. The SNP has proved completely incompetent at running Scotland’s affairs but of course it has always been a “one-trick pony”. Without ramping-up the “Indyref2” bollocks, they have nowhere to go.

      For them, it’s shit or bust!

      1. Hi Duncan. I don’t want to sound smug but your last statement sounds like a forecast for the Scottish Economy should Independence be granted….

          2. When Labour ruined the economy and plunged us 10tn in debt we still had a reasonably healthy economy.

            Now we’re 16trn in debt thanks to the Conservatives not reversing Brown’s tax hikes and splurge on the public sector and facing a truly monumental bill with the economy on it’s knees and the moronic (Warqueen’s words – as she is far more rational than I am, that’s strong stuff) tax considerations the tree hasn’t just been plucked but torn up, cut up, burned and the ground salted.

      2. Hi Duncan. I don’t want to sound smug but your last statement sounds like a forecast for the Scottish Economy should Independence be granted….

    3. All very well, but they’ll have to ask for a referendum. I vote to give the English a say and we can finally kick these scrounging wasters out completely.

      Scotland’s poor. It hasn’t got any money. It has no industry. It’s education system is collapsing. It’s economy exists on the UK public sector and handouts.

      If Sturgeon wants to rip Scotland away from the UK then we must immediately remove any and all handouts. We must relocate all those people employed by the UK taxpayer from Scotland and then set about lengthy treaty negotiations over North sea oil, such as on a GDP basis for shares with Scotland able to buy back more when it’s economy is stronger.

      Now, faced with massive unemployment (even higher than ever), poverty, a health crisis (as there will be no funding for the NHS, a failing education system her bid for independence will bring her nothing but ruination and hammer the Scots for electing the wretched woman. Hammer, beat, smash, crush their will until the most frenzied nationalist is dragging that bint through the streets by her hair. All the while we must remind Scotland that the SNP has all the levers it needs to create financial independence – and look what a mess it has made.

    2. Why don’t we ask the natives what they want? If memory serves, they all voted to remain. That’s fine, but did they want to remain as British citizens?

  68. Christian girl chained up in cattle pen for five months after forced marriage to Muslim. 18 January 2021.

    John Pontifex, of British-based charity Aid to the Church in Need, which campaigns on behalf of persecuted Christians worldwide, said the case “called into question” the effectiveness of UK overseas aid.

    “Pakistan has for many years been the top recipient of UK aid and the premise for it has been the need to tackle extremism, abuse of girls and people from minority faiths,” he said. “Yet when push comes to shove, cases such as this show that Pakistan is doing very little both to help the victims and bring the culprits to justice.”

    Only the British Government would be dim enough to think that they would get something for their money. It hardly needs to be said but Foreign Aid no more than immigration has ever been on any Party Manifesto in the UK. It’s one of those things that is dispensed without concern for the electorate, a sort of Gratis payment from the Elites to make themselves feel good at someone else’s expense!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/18/christian-girl-chained-cattle-pen-five-months-forced-marriage/

  69. Poor choice of words by DT headline writer:

    “Saudi Arabia says it cut executions by 85 per cent in 2020”

  72. I can’t post photos but suffice to say I have a picture of NSie dressed as a schoolboy.

    At Glasgow University she was known a SEAWEED because even the tide wouldn’t take her out. :-))

          1. Have tried many times with several attempts each time but continues to say ‘You must be signed in to post’.

      1. Thing is, a kelpie in whichever of its forms – usually a horse – was a creature of such rare beauty, it could lure its unwary victim to his death.

        Anyone who finds himself lured by Sturgeon’s rare beauty should seriously consider sending his guide-dog for retraining.

  73. That’s me for today. Lots of thank you letters prepared – but the link to the MR’s brilliant video was, when added to e-mails and sent, on arrival, “corrupted”. So we have spent about four hours working out a more successful route. And re-sending a lot of messages. Grrr.

    We managed in the end – but most other things today went by the board.

    Anything much happen? I’ll read all about it tomorrow.

    A demain.

      1. Dear Boy – I think even the most fervent NoTTLer would not wish to watch a half hour film of people lavishing praise on me!

          1. Thanks G and rl. Having gone through life being bullied, insulted, abused, denigrated, slandered and shat upon, a little thing like having a post moderated is nothing! Funnily enough, the same thing happened yesterday with a Youtube link I included. Oh well, thanks for sorting it out.

      2. We had a dog we called engineer…….every time we kicked him up the backside he made a bolt for the door.

    3. That’s how I feel when my children are at home, plugged into their computers with the doors closed, and having left a key in the front door so I can’t unlock it.

    1. Can you send a copy to BLM, Antifa, David Lammy and while you’re about it a copy Cur Kier Starmer.

  76. Just been sent this by our daughter. Haven’t heard a word about this here. Maybe it’s too simple to administer and show up the complete horror that the NHS is.

    No stabbing with needles. No government control. No news.

        1. One of the most unsavoury aspects of the whole corona thing is the way cheap, easy remedies were swept aside in favour of vaccination. Vaccination is not the only answer to everything!

      2. Phew, Alf … wipes brow in relief! :-))

        I thought you had been apprehended
        by Cheltenham, I was just about to send
        out the hounds to rescue you:
        Dolly refused.
        All the others were too wise to become
        involved.

      3. Phew, Alf … wipes brow in relief! :-))

        I thought you had been apprehended
        by Cheltenham, I was just about to send
        out the hounds to rescue you:
        Dolly refused.
        All the others were too wise to become
        involved.

  77. 2000 National Guards have just been sworn in as US Deputy Special Marshals. They assist in the smooth running of the US courts service.

    The Federal Communications Commission has pre-empted broadcasting networks from Wednesday, January 20 for up to 3 days.

    1. Polly,

      Is this usual for Inauguration Day?
      I do not doubt you but do wonder
      how different this seems to previous
      ones.

      2. Inauguration Day is supposed to be a celebration of the election of a new President and open to the populace who voted for the President elect to wave flags and cheer. There is usually a nominal security presence and Washington is open for business.

        Whether the fencing, razor wire, military vehicles and 40,000 National Guards are there to protect the Biden entourage from the populace, (Trump’s supporters will stay away), or to entrap them prior to their arrest for treason is not yet clear. I rather hope it is the latter and that the missile defences are to check the perceived CCP threat.

        The CCP are building a naval and military base in Kingston Jamaica which is perceived to be a similar threat to the Cuban Missile Crisis of the Kennedy era.

  78. BBC apologises for calling murderer Phil Spector ‘talented but flawed’

    The BBC confirmed it had received complaints about the headline in the
    wake of the death of Spector, who was sentenced to a minimum 19 years in
    prison for murdering the actress Lana Clarkson.

    I bet he wished he had gone to Spectorsavers

    3. Spector was extremely talented. Perhaps not in the same league as Caravaggio but the latter was also a murderer and four hundred years on, who cares.

  79. 3 men from a mental hospital were being assessed for possible release
    Sitting together in the psychologists waiting room

    The first was called in
    Doctor “What’s 2+ 2 “
    Patient 37
    Doctor “Get out your not ready “

    The second man was called
    Doctor “What’s 2+2?
    Patient “ Wednesday “
    Doctor “get out your not ready”

    The 3rd man was called
    Doctor “what’s 2+2 “?
    Patient “4”
    Doctor “Thank god for that how did you work that out?”
    Patient “I took 37 from Wednesday “

        1. We sort of did. Junior School was year 1-4. Secondary School was year 1-5 then there was Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth. The new numbering is meaningless to me.

          1. The new system is based on the French one. Year 1 is when they start school in the maternelle, then they move up to sixième when they reach collège and keep counting the years they’ve been in school).

          2. It was a bit similar for me. ‘baby class’ in the Infant School (where I only spent two terms) was Class 6. I then progressed through classes 5, 3 and 1 before moving up to the Junior School and classes 2, 4 then 6. At Secondary School it was first year (1A) then 2A, 3A, 4A then ‘Fifth Year’ (one class).

            I’m guessing, after that lot, that year numbers must be much simpler!

  80. Building up,time to drop a few off

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/324598e3a9bc81382ec798461ca460e59ec088870b5192a337f9ed02ca8e8c9a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f813b5e46fc977a708c952bf2f5605789ebfd2b0e227ab2afa5f0451ff727205.jpg

    This forest is next to the spagetti fields

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f066c9691867a210fd9e35659f6a2d3693b61b533bb4e1e3d05bfe3d55ac8330.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cd128797f76480185eb2867787789bb248cbb065076083b77c2abc1877a17437.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5da7b0140d0f6aeff7db6927fa60b82bb56bb38d1c6cc21a5f78a3ba603628d0.jpg

    https://scontent.flhr2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p526x296/139813705_203112358218882_7362404436247489098_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=2&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=BYaMvIYaDLUAX8pYGYD&_nc_ht=scontent.flhr2-2.fna&tp=6&oh=49afd7b55a5f61d97b94b849fcdae424&oe=602C19BD

    1. With ref. to the last one:
      Shortly before Christmas our
      [truncated] local UKIP branch held a meeting
      … all three of us… and I was told about this …
      [I sat there open-mouthed!!]
      Are you referring to what I think you are referring to?

      Good evening, Rik.

      2. I have read that the two girls were on loan to the Obamas from another black couple. What a terrible example to the girls and what a terrible way to live one’s life.

  83. EXECUTIVE ORDERS

    Executive Order on Protecting Law Enforcement Officers, Judges, Prosecutors, And Their Families

    LAW & JUSTICE

    Issued on: January 18, 2021

    By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

    Section 1. Purpose. Under the Constitution and Federal law, our Government vests in judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers the power to make decisions of enormous consequence. Because of the importance of their work, these public servants face unique risks to their safety and the safety of their families. Some who face or have received an adverse judicial decision have sought to intimidate or punish judges and prosecutors with threats of harm. Moreover, judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers are symbols within our communities of law and order and may be targeted for that reason alone. And at times, family members of public servants have become victims. Last year, a former litigant before a Federal judge in New Jersey tragically murdered the judge’s 20-year-old son and critically wounded her husband. Judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers’ resiliency in the face of the danger they regularly face is an inspiration for all of us in public service.

    Judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers should not have to choose between public service and subjecting themselves and their families to danger. My Administration has no higher priorities than preserving the rule of law in our country and protecting the men and women who serve under its flag. Accordingly, I am ordering enhanced protections for judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers. Federal law already allows Federal and State law enforcement officers to protect themselves by carrying a concealed firearm, but the Federal Government can do more to cut the red tape that Federal law enforcement officers must navigate to exercise their right. The current threat to Federal prosecutors also demands an expansion of their ability to carry a concealed firearm, as allowed under the Department of Justice’s existing authorities. Finally, the Congress should act expeditiously to adopt legislation extending the right to carry a concealed firearm to Federal judges and pass other measures that will expand our capacity to combat threats of violence against judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers.

    Sec. 2. Removing Obstacles to Federal Law Enforcement Officers Qualifying For Concealed Carry Under the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004. (a) It shall be the policy of the United States to remove any undue obstacle preventing current or retired Federal law enforcement officers from carrying a concealed firearm as allowed under the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004, as amended (18 U.S.C. 926B, 926C) (LEOSA).

    (b) The heads of all executive departments and agencies (agencies) that employ or have employed qualified law enforcement officers or qualified retired law enforcement officers, as those terms are defined in the LEOSA, shall act expeditiously to implement the policy set by subsection (a) of this section.

    (c) The heads of all agencies that employ or have employed qualified law enforcement officers or qualified retired law enforcement officers, as those terms are defined in the LEOSA, shall submit a report to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, within 30 days of the date of this order, reporting on the implementation of this order and analyzing qualified persons’ ability to carry a concealed firearm under the LEOSA.

    (d) The report required by subsection (c) of this section shall:

    (i) identify any obstacles that the agency’s qualified law enforcement officers or qualified retired law enforcement officers presently face in carrying a concealed firearm under the LEOSA;

    (ii) identify any categories of the agency’s qualified law enforcement officers or qualified retired law enforcement officers who are presently unable to carry a concealed firearm under the LEOSA;

    (iii) identify the steps the agency has taken to implement the policy set by subsection (a) of this section; and

    (iv) identify the steps the agency plans to take in the future to implement the policy set by subsection (a) and explain why it was not possible to take these steps before the report was submitted.

    Sec. 3. Authorizing Concealed Carry By Federal Prosecutors. (a) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General shall propose a regulation revising section 0.112 of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations, to provide that the special deputation as a Deputy United States Marshal shall be granted upon request to any Federal prosecutor when the Federal prosecutor or his or her family members face risk of harm as a result of the Federal prosecutor’s government service and as appropriate.

    (b) The regulation proposed pursuant to this section shall:

    (i) include with the special deputation the power to possess and carry firearms but not include law enforcement powers such as the power to make arrests for violations of Federal law and the court-related duties of United States Marshals; and

    (ii) require appropriate training in firearm safety and use as a condition to any special deputation.

    (c) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General shall revise other Department policies to permit special deputation consistent with subsections (a) and (b) of this section to the extent consistent with applicable law.

    Sec. 4. Expanding the Federal Government’s Protection of Judges, Prosecutors, and Law Enforcement Officers. (a) The Attorney General shall direct the Director of the Marshals Service to prioritize the protection of Federal judges and Federal prosecutors.

    (b) The Attorney General shall prioritize the investigation and prosecution of Federal crimes involving actual or threatened violence against judges, prosecutors, or law enforcement officers or their family members, if the family member was targeted because of that person’s relation to a judge, prosecutor, or law enforcement officer.

    (c) The Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security shall coordinate a review within the executive branch to assess the feasibility, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, of facilitating the removal of, or minimizing the availability of, personally identifiable information appearing in public sources of judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers employed by the Federal Government, and shall use the results of this review to inform such persons of related security vulnerabilities.

    (d) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General shall assess the need to revise subsection 0.111(e) of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations, to protect Federal prosecutors. If any revision is needed, the Attorney General shall take immediate steps to issue a proposed rule that would amend section 0.111(e) accordingly.

    (e) The heads of all agencies shall examine the extent to which they collect personally identifiable information from judges, prosecutors, or law enforcement officers, and as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, allow such persons to provide a Post Office box address in lieu of home address information.

    Sec. 5. Proposing Legislation to Enhance the Protection of Judges, Prosecutors, and Law Enforcement Officers. (a) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General shall develop and propose Federal legislation providing additional protection for judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers.

    (b) The proposed legislation described in subsection (a) of this section shall:

    (i) authorize current and former Federal judges and current and former Federal prosecutors to possess or carry firearms when they or their family members face risk of harm as a result of their Federal government service, irrespective of Federal, State, and local laws which may restrict the possession or carrying of firearms;

    (ii) promote the removal and minimization of personally identifiable information from public websites and records of current and former judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers, as appropriate and as allowed under the Constitution;

    (iii) expand the ability of judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers to use Post Office box addresses in lieu of home address information;

    (iv) authorize additional appropriations and authority for the Department of Homeland Security, Marshals Service, and Federal Bureau of Investigation, including appropriations to hire and train additional personnel and authority for agencies to respond to both civil unrest and threats to Federal courthouses;

    (v) increase penalties for threatened and actual violence against Federal judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers and their families, including providing that violence against a Federal judge, prosecutor, or law enforcement officer’s family member shall be punished as though the act was committed against the Federal judge, prosecutor, or law enforcement officer if the family member was targeted because of that person’s relation to a Federal judge, prosecutor, or law enforcement officer;

    (vi) prevent State and local governments from obstructing the ability of qualified law enforcement officers and qualified retired law enforcement officers, as those terms are defined by the LEOSA, from carrying a concealed firearm pursuant to the LEOSA, including by refusing to issue identification documents; and

    (vii) propose other amendments to strengthen the LEOSA, if appropriate.

    Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

    (i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

    (ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

    (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

    (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

    DONALD J. TRUMP

    THE WHITE HOUSE,
    January 18, 2021.

    1. Surely the only negative responses law enforcement and the judiciary should ever face is from the criminal element?

      Surely if the police are for and of the people they can rely on the people to stand with them against the criminal?

      1. “Surely if the police are for and of the people they can rely on the people to stand with them against the criminal?” That might have been true at the Siege of Sydney Street, but a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then, particularly in the last few years.

      2. 328628+ up ticks,
        W,
        Under these type governance party’s are you sure on that one,
        only in the case say of mass paedophilia in rotherham, that would mean a code of silence would still be in force.

          1. I know.

            I still find it difficult to fathom that you, an otherwise highly intelligent man, are unable to see the utter hypocrisy of the Democratic Party.

            They gave the nod to the major destruction by fire and looting of vast swathes of their cities (a real estate grab) whilst attempting to magnify a relatively minor event at the Capitol led by Antifa and BLM activists and organised by Pelosi.

            I would not want a continuation of Clinton, Obama and Biden family crooks in the White House. My American friends, all devout Christians, in Atlanta, Fort Worth and Houston abhor the prospect of a Biden presidency.

      1. Indeed not.

        Merely Acting President of the United States.

        In view of events, it’s entirely in accordance with the Constitution.

          1. How do you see the next four years
            Will half the country just accept the election steal and take the dystopia that is coming their way?
            Or do you think the election was fair?

          2. “How do you see the next four years”

            Hopefully a return to normalcy.

            And, when Trump has finally gone to well-deserved oblivion (or jail), I hope that you and others will realise that he was a real wrong ‘un.

          3. Your idea of normalcy is regrettably my idea of hell.

            I have concluded that far from being an intelligent older person you are just another useful idiot of the global elite.

            No response necessary because as far as I can see you do not have any credibility and I cannot be bothered to engage you.

          6. Oh dear, I fear the TDS is strong in you, I’ve never really understood all the personal hatred.

        2. So what’s happened to President Trump? You’ve all along been completely confident that he will have a second term. So what’s changed?

          2. more waiting to see?

            Is Chinese involvement being released today, you so promised a few days ago.

            Trump gone, 7AM Wednesday, good ideas he had are already being erased from history.

      2. When President Biden is sitting in the White House on Wednesday evening, what will her next tack be? Here’s the current odds:
        1. Actually Biden is better than I thought 1:100
        2. Armed Militias are about to storm Washington and re-instate Trump or whoever 1:4
        3. Evidence is being prepared for the SCOTUS that will see Biden removed from office and replaced by Trump or whoever 3:1
        4. The military are about to step in with a Coup de Main and re-install Trump or whoever 1:3
        5. Biden and Harris died in an accident on their way to the inauguration so Trump is still President 1:10
        6. A UFO has abducted Biden and Harris so Trump is President 1:20
        Place your bets.

          1. I am getting irritated. Anyway, your bet?

            I’m the bookmaker BTW, I don’t have to bet.

        5. If anything, there’s more chance in Biden dropped dead of natural causes than any of those scenarios. If people think President Sleepy Creepy Corrupt Joe is bad news, wait to they get Kamala!

          PS. If both Biden and Harris die, then Pelosi gets the top spot as the majority leader of Congress if I recall my very limited knowledge of the 25th Ammendment (got through watching The West Wing).

      3. Good evening Geoffrey

        We only hear bad things in the MSM about Trump; we never hear good things about Biden.

        Perhaps you could enlighten me and tell me just why you think Biden will be a good president?

  87. The NHS in Wales, which perpetually under-performs although it gets more money per head of population than England, is trailing badly in the vaccination stakes. Dank Dripford (Mark Drakeford) was asked to explain this. He wasn’t honest and failed to admit hat he and his Health Secretary Vaguely Guessing (Vaughan Gethin) have a sole talent in life and that is climbing the very bent greasy pole of the Welsh Labour party.

    His explanation was that vaccination was being held back so that vaccinators would not be left standing about with no vaccines when they run out. This sounded like good spin to him and far better than the real reason – they have failed to set up the necessary structures and are now unable to manage the situation.

    His ‘explanation’ has caused absolute apoplexy, even die-hard Labour supporters are frothing, even those who normally claim that those who criticize the Labour WAG administration are paid right wing trolls etc. I have never seen anything like it. In WalesOnline.co.uk, page after page BTL “Abolish the Welsh Assembly”.

    What does this mean? I don’t know, but Labour have been declining in Wales for decades, and stupid incompetence with an effort to wash it away with ridiculous spin won’t help much.

    1. So the Welsh Assembly are dissembling about low vaccine rates and Labour diehards want the Welsh Assembly disassembled.

      1. Welsh Labour were never dead keen, but they were shown how St. Tone had rigged it so that Labour would always be in power and they relented.

    2. The NHS in England have been trying to do much the same, stopping well-run areas from getting too far ahead in their vaccination programmes so the poorly-run ones can catch up. The Public Sector – always wanting to work at the speed of the slowest, rather than improving the worst performing to work as the best do.

  88. Glad tidings of comfort and joy:

    From the DT:” Around half a million people from Hong Kong are expected to move to the UK in the next year, and just over one million across five years, according to Whitehall’s highest estimates, but some experts believe this could end up being even greater.”

    It’s just as well that a HK Billionaire is building a dozen or so 40 storey tower blocks on the Greenwich Peninsular henceforth to be known as HK-sur-Thames?

      1. I think you’ll find they will be arriving courtesy of Her Britannic Majesty’s Government….

        1. Why would they want to come here, after the great reset they will be better off where they are.

    3. Twitter ain’t exactly a platform famed for its thruthfulness and accuracy, let alone reasonableness in discord. I tend to only read (from this site) the homourous posts and leave the rest to argue amongst themselves. Unsocial media indeed.

      At the very least, everyone should avoid the platform because of its hardline pro-censorship, pro-leftist views. Free speech platforms may give the nutcases a way of communicating their rubbish, but at least people can say it’s rubbish at them.

  91. 328628+ up ticks,
    I do believe that this chap took to the airwaves and castigated the only party, that forever called for controlled immigration, whilst the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration coalition party were busy over the decades flooding the Country, still an ongoing campaign.

    breitbart,
    Farage: Brexit Britain Must Get a Grip on Immigration

  93. Yo All

    As I was lying around, pondering the problems of the world, I realized that at my age I don’t really give a damn any more.

    If walking is good for your health, the postman would be immortal.

    A whale swims all day, only eats fish, drinks water, but is still fat.

    A rabbit runs and hops and only lives 15 years, while a tortoise doesn’t run and does mostly nothing,
    yet it lives for 150 years. And you tell me to exercise! I don’t think so.

    Just grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked, the good fortune to remember the ones I
    do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.

    Now that I’m older here’s what I’ve discovered:-

    1. I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.

    2. My wild oats are mostly enjoyed with prunes and all-bran.

    3. I finally got my head together, and now my body is falling apart.

    4. Funny, I don’t remember being absent-minded.

    5. It was a whole lot easier to get older, than to get wiser.

    6. Kids in the back seat cause accidents. Accidents in the back seat cause kids.

    7. Its hard to make a comeback when you haven’t been anywhere.

    8. The world only beats a path to your door when you’re in the toilet.

    9. If God wanted me to touch my toes, he’d have put them on my knees.

    10. The only difference between, a rut and a grave, is the depth.

    11. These days, I spend a lot of time thinking about the hereafter… I go
    somewhere to get something, and then wonder what I’m “here after”.

    12. Funny, I don’t remember being absent-minded.

    13. HAVE I SENT THIS MESSAGE TO YOU BEFORE?

        1. Touching you toes. Peeing standing up is only smart if you’re a bloke, or so I’m told!

  94. Right moved in.. The place is a tip

    Bone for dog and Quavers under settee
    Oven filthy
    Butter in disconnected fridge
    Clothes in wardrobes
    Carpets filthy
    Cutlery left in drawers

    Spoke to my new next door neighbour, he moved in Three days before us and his house is worse

    But did get the address of a good Skipster

    What happened to old fashioned values?

      1. When I got the keys to this house (OK it was nearly 24 years ago) not only was the place spotless but the previous owner had left the fire laid for me and a box of matches on the mantelshelf.

        I did repay her kindness by taking her son’s mail round to their new house fairly regularly for the next year or two. He hadn’t been living with them for some years but as he moved a lot (he was in the building trade) he kept a lot of things going through their address and he appeared to have completely neglected to update any of them – I even got the renewal notice for his shotgun about 6 years after I moved in.

          1. Assume – making an ass of you for sure.

            Just this once I will take the trouble to tell you that you didn’t think at all.

            Of course I reported to the police that there was no gun here (I didn’t need to report the notice, the police are the ones who send them); though they were not remotely interested.

          2. You are about the most arrogant self righteous prat on this forum.

            You have nothing of substance to say and it would be better for all if you expressed your various opinions as opposed to downvoting those with whom you simply disagree, or more likely, those to whom you hold a petty grudge.

            Guns should, by law, be secured in steel cabinets and those cabinets should be securely fixed to load bearing solid masonry walls.

          3. And below, ladies and gentleman, you can see clearly laid out the reason why I choose not to interact with ignorant, arrogant abusers.

            The idea that I do not know the rules on keeping guns is farcical, furthermore his description of what is required is erroneous. The rest is really just the pr*ck who wrote it talking to himself, about himself… the only person who is of the slightest interest to him.

  95. Right moved in.. The place is a tip

    Bone for dog and Quavers under settee
    Oven filthy
    Butter in disconnected fridge
    Clothes in wardrobes
    Carpets filthy
    Cutlery left in drawers

    Spoke to my new next door neighbour, he moved in Three days before us and his house is worse

    But did get the address of a good Skipster

    What happened to old fashioned values?

  96. Before it gets too late I’d like to thank everyone for all the lovely birthday greetings I have had today. I’ve tried to respond to everyone individually but if I have missed anyone out, please be assured it was not intentional.

    58 and counting – I’m gonna make it the best year yet.

    4. 58 …….I remember it well Stormy
      I wish 😉
      I found some 50th birthday celebration China mugs still in boxes in a drawer in the loft at home last week. 24 years old.
      Where did the time go 🤔

      1. Snap .. just the same as me .Bits and pieces when I was fifty , stuff just the momentos … My eldest son will be 52 next month .. He was born when I was 22! where does time go.

        Today I rang my younger sister nr Cape Town , she lives outside CT 2 mts from the sea .. She was celebrating her 70th birthday .. it doesn’t seem five minutes since we were little girls .. 4 year age gap .. 🙄😷

        1. One of my nieces lives in Somerset West.
          And our neighbour ( who broke her pelvis in a cycljng accident, has been stuck in their second home in rural France for nearly a year) sister lives in Simon’s Town where the naval base use to be.

  98. For some reason, it’s supposed to be the worst day of the year. Don’t know how that works, but even the cats can’t be arsed. Both are asleep again, when normally at this time they’re winding up for some serious marauding…

    1. Further evidence. It’s 22:17 GMT, and nobody started a new thread for more than one hour. Are all Y’all in bed?

      2. Nope but close, I’m so sick of all the shonet on the news.
        I might be forced to have a ‘nightcap’. 🥃
        More wind and rain here flood warnings.
        I’m glad that we live halfway up a hill. At least 60 feet above the river level.

      3. No, but I’m listening to music (interspersed with interviews in Spanish – I am working on improving my comprehension).

        1. Their fore sight is truly amazing.
          How did they know that the pandemic would be over by June this year when they were arranging the G7 Conference in Cornwall for 2021. They must have started the planning process months ago. 🤔

          2. It might be an idea to bring that one up again today TB while there are more of us around. I’m a bit busy at the moment.

  101. Has anyone here had local public planning consultations and climate and ecological strategy to study and respond to .

    THEY want to build 750 homes in this village , which has expanded to 5,800 in the past 20 years . The government is putting pressure on councils to allow planning for build build build .

    They are pushing forward these consultations in these covid times , when all people are worried about is when they are due for their second covid jab!

    Everything will rush in by the back door , and whether people are consulted or not , the government gets it way.

    2. They want to build an ‘eco-town’ of 25,000 in the fields surrounding our little village, Belle, on prime agricultural land. We have 49 listed buildings in the village, which comprises 300 or so houses and a population of about 1,000. I simply cannot bear the thought.

      1. Gosh , so sorry pm , I just feel we are all under pressure from Boris’s build build build , we are experiencing something called a government algorithm.. We are also going to lose good quality ag fields and a wonderful rural landscape ..

      2. That’s OK. They’ll all be mud huts which will be washed away in the next big storm…

      3. We heard a day or two ago that there has been a massive drop in population so all these houses are no longer needed.

      4. The same thing is happening in Hertfordshire. And what these greedy people are trying to do is totally imoral. This country is already overcrowded and we are going to need all the agricultural land we can keep hold of.
        Corporate greed is wrecking many parts of our world.

      5. ‘Evening, Mum, see my reply to Mags (True_Belle). You need to get a local protest group together and quickly ‘cos if the Planning Application is already in, you have just 30 days to object and the more who do with cogent reasons, the more likely to get it rejected.

    4. Evening, Mags, I’ve just finished printing of 829 pages of 57 documents submitted by ENSO as their planning application to cover 243 Acres of good arable land with photo-voltaic panels and call it a Solar ‘Farm’ which in fact denies any farming on 243 acres.

      EDF have a similar application down the road.

      We (local residents who’ve formed a committee and have a Facebook page called CARE Suffolk) had to apply to two District Councils to get access and the ability to object. Contact me via Messenger if you need help.

    5. We have had success locally defending rare wildlife.

      I have never sen a Blandings turtle but apparently they nest in all kinds of places that might be used for wind farms, holiday camps or housing. Greenies are wheeled into planning meetings to object on behalf of the turtle and sage councilors suppress a smirk as they agree and reject the applications.

      1. UK planning requires the preparation of archaeological surveys, environmental impact surveys (sometimes referred to as ecology surveys) as well as tree surveys and protected species reports… depending on location and terrain.

        Newts and bats are your best friends if you want to contest a planning application, but a rare-ish orchid will do quite nicely too.

        Solar Farming does not in fact “deny any farming” as good grass grows beneath solar panels and whilst it isn’t generally easy to mow it is very grazeable and sheep actually appreciate the shade. That’s not to say that I support the sort of development over the sort of area which is described below. I don’t. But if you want to fight it, you need to get your facts right… if you don’t you lose all credibility.

        1. Our system is pretty much the same as the UK with many studies required before approval. A friend with a property on the lake had to have an archeological study that checked for native artifacts before planning approval was granted.

          If an application is rejected the applicant can appeal the decision to the provincial government, at which time money often speaks.

          1. Someone I know has just inherited a small and very decrepit stone built cottage on about 5 acres of land. His original plan was to flatten the cottage and build a new house, but the cottage is pre 1845 and he must retain original parts. They have a meeting with the Welsh heritage people shortly to discuss possibilities for development, but the incorporation of the stone into a modern building will be complex and costly. They won’t let him build a separate house on the site (that’s already been refused). A new house would be exempt from VAT on all work and inputs, a renovation isn’t – so even without the complexities of incorporating the old building his costs go up by 20%!

            Sometimes money gets around planning difficulties, but it’s not a good method to rely on – even if you’ve got enough money.

    6. There was a book published about twenty years ago called something like How to Fight Sir Humphrey, could that be useful?

    1. We’ve just finished watching ‘Dunkirk’. It says a lot when watching something based on WWII is more relaxing than listening to or reading about current affairs.

    3. I like that series. A twist on a detective story. And Honeysuckle Weekes (back then) was cute.

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