Monday 21 December: There are still ways of celebrating Christmas despite the lockdown

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/12/21/lettersthere-still-ways-celebrating-christmas-despite-lockdown/

967 thoughts on “Monday 21 December: There are still ways of celebrating Christmas despite the lockdown”

  1. Lewis Hamilton wins BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. 21 December 2020.

    Lewis Hamilton was named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, putting the seal on a year of exceptional professional achievement and political activism that sought to change the shape of the sport he has dominated for a decade.

    Morning everyone. Surprise! Surprise! Lol!

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/dec/20/lewis-hamilton-wins-bbc-sports-personality-of-the-year-award

    1. Like the Nobel Peace prize, I don’t give a shit.
      It was kind-of worth something until Obama was awarded a prize for being a gobshite, demonstrating so clearly it’s worth nothing. Same as the BBC WhoHe of the year. Yawn.

      1. Tom Lehrer said he was going to retire from writing satire because he felt he could no longer compete with reality when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize.

    5. Heard the BBC were always referring to him as ‘favourite’ to win. Were there any observers checking the vote?

      1. Morning VOM. Marcus Rashford wasn’t allowed on the shortlist in case he split the Woke Vote and Tyson Fury won!

      2. ‘Morning, Oldie. Some here may recall that R4’s Toady ran a ‘person of the year’ (or some such title) every Christmas, but it was scrapped when Blair’s people hijacked it. No reason to believe that the ‘sports personality’ is not subject to the same kind of campaign.

  3. Boring, metro-woke, letters today with barely a mention of Tier 4!!!

    *****************************************************

    SIR – Thinking about unusual names (Letters, Decembr 19), I remembered that our first house was next door to one named “Llamedos”. I assumed that the owners were Welsh, until I was advised to read it backwards.

    Janice Dark
    West Wratting, Cambrideshire

    *****************************************************

    The village in Dylan Thomas’s “Under Milk Wood” was called Llareggub.

    1. I think the BBC censored it and called in Llaraggeb in case an anagrammist with a penchant for reversals picked it up.

  4. Drink Driving
    I would like to share with you all an experience that I recently had regarding drinking and driving. As you would know, even those of us who are just social drinkers have had near brushes with the law on our way home.

    Well, I for one have done something about it. The other night I was out for dinner and had a few drinks with some friends. Having had a few too many glasses of wine and knowing full well I was struggling, I did something I’ve never done before. I took a bus home.

    I arrived home safely and without incident, which was a real surprise as I have never driven a bus before.

      1. Good morning, Herr Oberst. That’s the perfect snack for this season. Oh, I thought you wrote “Stollen”!

        :-))

        1. I had a glorious row with a loud-mouthed member of a U3A German group (not mine) over that very issue. She wanted us to give the tutor a Stollen for Christmas, but she wrote ‘stolen’ in her round robin. I replied in a round robin: Do you want us to deal in stolen goods?
          She wasn’t amused & hostilities broke out.

          1. I’m sure it was a typo rather than a spelling mistake – you have been known to be rather premature with your castigations!

          5. The only (slight) spoiler on my special day was some of my cinema chums complaining about how people should/should not be wearing masks. I kept my peace, because I am in the middle of the cautious/reckless spectrum and if I voice an opinion I get a two-barrelled blast from both sides.

  5. Britain faces EU-wide travel ban to curb spread of Covid mutation. 21 december 2020.

    Britain was hit with a travel ban on Sunday night by a host of EU countries to halt the spread of the new, more infectious coronavirus strain.

    The ban on passenger flights and freight transport from the UK threatened to disrupt food supplies, Christmas gifts and even the Covid vaccine as well as hitting the festive travel plans of an estimated 250,000 Britons.

    Right I’m heading down to the supermarket earliest on the principle that they who do not panic buy starve first!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/20/britain-faced-eu-wide-travel-ban-wake-covid-mutation-could-disrupt/

    2. And where, pray, is the scientific evidence that this “new strain” is more infectious? Is that the result of more of Fergusson’s dodgy modelling?

  6. Look who’s back! Professor Lockdown Neil Ferguson who broke the rules to see his lover has key role in Boris Johnson’s dramatic U-turn on Christmas

    Professor Neil Ferguson quit SAGE after being caught breaking lockdown rules
    But he has now returned to work on the government’s advisory body Nervtag
    Group found new coronavirus variant was 70 per cent more transmissible
    The findings were instrumental in Boris Johnson’s U-turn over Christmas plans

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9073767/Professor-Neil-Ferguson-key-role-Boris-Johnsons-dramatic-U-turn-Christmas.html

    2. The findings also gave France the excuse to stop activities at the Channel ports. No doubt our illegal “friends” will be allowed to set sail to the UK.

      1. No doubt our French “friends” will be actively encouraging them. Business as usual, on the continong eh?

    3. ‘Show us the evidence’: Scientists call for clarity on claim that new Covid-19 variant strain is 70% more contagious

      Boris Johnson was urged to publish clear evidence of coronavirus data last night
      Said new variant may be up to 70 per cent more transmissible than other strains
      Professor Carl Heneghan expressed his scepticism over the 70 per cent figure

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9073765/Scientists-call-clarity-claim-new-Covid-19-variant-strain-70-contagious.html

      1. Not just doubt as to the 70% figure, but as to whether it is any more (or even less) fatal than the previous version. By the way, what happened to the US-based pending claims against China, anyone know?

      2. Too late, the damage is done and the French, in particular, are pleased about it – bigly!

        ‘Morning, C1.

    4. If Ferguson was in on it, then that’s more or less a guarantee of fakeness! I reckon Boris only hauled him back to be a target for everyone’s loathing. Boris doesn’t like to take the blame, as we know.

  7. Good morning from a Saxon Queen with blooded axe and longbow .
    So we are apparently even more plague ridden, can’t go anywhere and
    Europe is ‘ cutting us off ” revenge for Brexit .

    Maybe the Saxon Queen should venture back to the previous dark ages and compare that to now .

    Anyway, its pitch black and I don’t know what the weather is doing but I’ll make a cup of tea.

    2. ‘Morning, Ethel. It’s precipitating down here and as dark as Guy Gibson’s dog in a coal cellar at midnight.

    1. The fishwife is telling her people that they should have fork ‘andles at the ready in case of power cuts.

  10. The Arab spring wasn’t in vain. Next time will be different. 21 December 2020.

    A decade later, when the phrase “Arab spring” has become synonymous with shattered dreams of liberation, it is painful to think back on the early days and weeks of protests. It is painful now to remember the heady months of joy and optimism – the sense of power that we had as Arabs for the first time in our lifetimes.

    Most of all, it smarts to remember the sense of camaraderie and excitement: when you cried in streets and cafes with strangers, crowded around a radio or a TV as the news of another dictator’s demise came through; when you congratulated them on their country’s revolution and they promised that this time your country would be next.

    No it won’t! Any movement toward Democracy or Freedom in the Arab World will always shatter on the Rock of Islam that demands absolute supremacy over all other competing systems.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/21/arab-spring-people-movement

    1. Good morning to all NoTTLers (Bob3 included). Despite the rain, I am determined to enjoy myself today.

        2. Good morning, Peddy.

          My school motto. Later in life I turned it into, “Try to learn something new every day”. Served me well in my career, such as it was; with building and maintaining my long and happy marriage and assisted with the more mundane pursuits of life e.g. gardening, DIY and now cooking and baking.

        1. Thank you, kind Sir/Madam. (NoTo Nanny is one of those avatars where I have difficulty in remembering the sex of the poster.) But your good wishes are very much appreciated so thank you once more.

        1. Thank you, Sos. Well I kind of did. The cinema which six of went to had a very early screening, so that when the film ended at 2.20pm it was still daylight.

        1. Assuming that those are Welsh birthday greetings and not Welsh for “You Silly Sausage”, I thank you kindly, Mistress Stormy.

      14. Happy Birthday, do have a excellent day and enjoy yourself,
        my birthday was last week, another December baby 😉

        1. Good morning and best wishes for your day last week,

          Please may I add you to the Nottlers; Birthday List? If so please give me further details.

          02 January – 1947 : Poppiesmum
          07 January – **** : Lady of the Lake
          08 January – **** : Rough Common
          10 January – 1960 : hopon
          16 January – 1941 : Legal Beagle
          18 January – **** : Stormy
          23 January – 1951 : Damask Rose
          27 January – 1948 : Citroen 1
          11 February- 1964 : Phizzee
          22 February- 1951 : Grizzly
          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—– **** : 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——– **** : Oberstleutnant
          25 June——– 1952 : corimmobile
          01 July——— 1946 :Rastus C Tastey
          12 July——— **** : David Wainwright
          18 July——— **** : lacoste
          19 July——— **** : Ndovu
          26 July——— 1936 : Delboy
          29 July———- 1944 : Lewis Duckworth
          30 July———- 1946 : Alf the Great
          01 August—— 1950 : Datz
          03 August—— **** : molamola
          10 August—— 1967 : ourmaninmunich
          18 August—— **** : ashesanddust
          19 August——-1951 : Hugh Janus
          04 September- 1948 : Joseph B Fox
          07 September- **** : Araminta Smade
          11 September- **** : Peddy the Viking
          12 September- **** : Ready Eddy
          13 September- **** : Anne Allan
          15 September- **** : veryveryveryoldfella
          26 September- **** : Feargal the Cat
          07 October—– 1960 : Bob 3
          11 October—– 1944 : Hardcastle Craggs
          25 October—– 1955 : Sue Edison
          01 December– 1956 : Sean Stanley-Adams
          06 December– 1943 : Duncan Mac
          10 December– **** : Aethelfled
          16 December– **** : Plum-Tart
          21 December– 1945 : Elsie Bloodaxe

          E&OE

          1. Good morning, Richard, I notice that despite informing you a few days ago I, on 24th May 1944, don’t make the cut.

          2. Sorry – missed it but I have noted it now. To misquote from the Mikado – we’ve got you on the list.

          5. I think you might have put in the wrong date, Rastus. Your list says 20th May, whereas N-t-N said 24th May.

          6. Thanks for pointing it out. I have corrected it.

            My incompetence is well known and recognised.. Please let me know of any other errors or omissions.

          9. Good morning and thank you.
            My birthday is 10th December. Its nice to know when birthdays are, best keep on baking cakes 🙂

            PS My husband , Richard shares his birthday with Caroline ( 26 March 1962 ) .

          11. Seems to be a popular day to be born; two of my friends were born on 26th March (but there is a gap of quite a few years between them).

        2. Drat and double-drat, Ethul, had I known that I would have wished you a Happy one. I did write down the list which was posted on this site a few months ago, but there were only two other names for December and neither was yours. Please give us the date and I will do better next year.
          And many, many thanks for your good wishes.

          1. I hope you’re having a lovely birthday with plenty of cake:)
            Mine was last week on the 10th December, was due on Christmas Eve but popped out earlier.

        1. Thank you kindly, Sue M. So far, so good. I’ve just got back from the local cinema where 6 of us watched Kevin Costner and Diane Lane in LET HIM GO (15). It was a superb film which we unanimously voted a “Thumbs Up” although it was rather strong meat for some of the more faint-hearted (it was a 15 certificate, after all). Do see it if it comes to a cinema near you – provided, of course, that you are not in a Tier where all the cinemas are closed. Here in Colchester, we are lucky to still be in Tier 2 so that our local Curzon is still open.

  12. TV licence fee: Boris Johnson ditches plan to decriminalise non-payment. 21 December 2020.

    Boris Johnson is preparing to shelve plans to decriminalise non-payment of the BBC licence fee, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

    Ministers have delayed a decision to end the prosecution and imprisonment of people who do not pay the licence fee until at least 2022, it is understood, amid concerns it could create an even harsher system in which bailiffs pursue elderly people and poor families for unpaid debts.

    Of course just abolishing the licence fee would avoid this entirely. The truth is that Westminster has no wish to get rid of the BBC with whose views they are (secretly) in accord.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/20/tv-licence-fee-boris-johnson-ditches-plan-decriminalise-non/

      1. My thoughts exactly. When he says he’s going to do something, expect the opposite to happen. Extension and no Brexit will be the next thing.

    3. Is he whetting our appetites for the great betrayal by giving us an apéritif before le plat principal?

      1. Morning Richard. He’s probably going to cram in as many as possible before the end of the year!

      2. 327606+ up ticks,
        Morning R,
        Precisely, pointing this out has been the direction of my comments since 25/6/2016.

    4. The BBC is the government’s propaganda mouthpiece – of course it must be protected from non-payers!

  15. More from the ‘behavioural charlatans’ and spouted by Vallance. Described as a scientist, Vallance lost any right to hold that title when he decided to align himself with this government of rogues and liars. When this fiasco unravels he, Whitty and those of the SAGE group will be the first in line to take the responsibility as the political vipers attempt to shed their guilty skins: “…following the science,” will be the politicians’ plea. Somehow I don’t think that that claim will wash with a beaten down and vengeful people.

    https://twitter.com/danjgregory/status/1340339196012183555

    1. I totally agree. We are no further on in dealing with the latest coronavirus after nine months of gross interference in our lives. Mad Hancock’s latest scaredy pronouncements have caused the French and most of the rest of Europe to treat the UK as a leper colony. Thalidomide anyone?

      When those taking the rushed and untested vaccine(s) are exposed to the wild virus people will drop like flies. If they do not die immediately they will take the form of zombies and attack those who steered clear of it.

      Heads will have to roll at a Nuremberg style tribunal.

      1. Morning, cori.

        I’ve read several articles re this untried genetic vaccine and the possible effect a ‘wild’ virus can have on those that have allowed themselves to be infected with it. In one trial with something similar ALL the test animals died. If I was a conspiracy nut I’d think that the drive to have everyone vaccinated had sinister overtones.

        What the government attempts to do to those not prepared to have this unknown elixir put into their bodies will be enlightening. Tweets are showing a government document that purports to be a contract agreement for vaccination passports. Government ministers have denied that such passports were being considered: most probably going to happen, then. Excuse – the new virulent strain?

    1. As a student for three weeks one Summer I had a job with Initial Towel Services. My route Plymouth base to the whole of Cornwall. Establishments included Banks and medieval slaughter houses. I must be bullet proof!

  17. BBC Breakfast TV

    Haulier doesn’t know what to do with lorry load of fish that is going to France that has closed accompanied imports due to mutant virus.

    (Fish have probably got three heads anyway).

  18. With all the travel restrictions it appears we are the Millwall of Europe
    “Nobody likes us and we don’t care”

      1. ‘Morning, Rastus.

        This past year has been a shambles and next year doesn’t promise to be any better. As someone tweeted this morning, “If you elect clowns you get a circus”.
        I feel for people like you and Caroline who are trying to make an honest living and end up being frustrated by clowns who are creating this situation to attack hard working people.

  20. SIR – As a constituent of Jacob Rees-Mogg I was dismayed to hear his comments on the assistance that Unicef is providing children in Southwark (report, December 19).

    The free-meal schemes for the poorest children in our society are critical to sustaining their health in the short term, as well as their long-term life chances. We know that children concentrate for longer and learn better when they are not hungry.

    What we also know about the current pandemic is that its impact is being disproportionately felt by the poorest in our communities. Children are innocent bystanders in this unfolding economic and public health catastrophe, and it is incumbent on a civilised nation to ensure that they are protected so that they can fulfil their potential and one day make their own contribution to society.

    Rather than criticising Unicef, Mr Rees-Mogg might have been better off reflecting on why, in the 21st century, in the capital city of one of the world’s wealthiest nations, the yawning gap in provision to support the most vulnerable is laid bare for all to see.

    Jonathan Layzell
    Hinton Blewett, Somerset

    I do wonder whether Jonathan Layzell has gone after the right target. Is not poor parenting just as likely, if not more so, to result in hungry children, or are we not allowed to say this?

    1. There may be many reasons. We should concern ourselves less with the reasons than looking at ways of obtaining a good life outcome for the children.
      Parents may well be feckless, tattooed druggies etc as popularly assumed but as society we should be looking at ways of helping children avoiding the same fate.
      The relentless pressure of a fake universe observed via TV, adverts and programmes, whereby the poor can see people living the kind of life that they can never afford, may also play its part. As mature grown-ups we can disregard the overblown fakery of adverts where everyone lives in a better house than us, but I’m not sure that is true of the people who are struggling to pay rent.

      1. Funny how when I was growing up we were poor but happy and well fed. There was no such thing as “child benefit” when my brother was born, either.

    2. 327606+ up ticks,
      Morning HJ,
      The mogg might also inquire into the likes of childrens welfare in regards to the likes of the rotherham 16 plus year cover up of mass paedophilia by in the main pakistani’s, and the very early release of such dangerous
      creatures back onto the streets after one third of a sentence served.

      The likes of mogg was & still is the importers of such evil tripe, mogg & party in collusion with lab / lib, will they deport as quick as import ? WILL THEY BOLLOCKS.

    3. Another mug falling for the Rashford propaganda.
      There is no excuse for hungry children in Britain today. Food has never been so cheap is it is today, relative to other things. As the councils are obliged to house families, you can safely risk being evicted before you let your children go hungry.

    4. I have seldom been as disappointed in a politician as I have been in Grease-Smogg.

      My approval seems to have a Jonah effect – as soon as I think a politician is trustworthy, sincere and praiseworthy he or she is wrecked.

      Kate Hoey, Bill Cash, Owen Paterson, Bill Cash – please don’t suffer the curse of being trusted by me!

  21. A problem that no doubt keeps him awake at night…

    SIR – The Government’s rules for Tier 4 have left me with a serious dilemma. How am I to “pass the port” when there are just two of us, facing each other over the Christmas table?

    Martin Watts
    Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire

    2. ‘Morning, Hugh, simple, simpleton Watts, who ever poured last must wait until the other has poured before pouring again.

  22. The EU, led by the French, have instigated an economic blockade of the UK. There are a number of aspects to this. One is that it is possibly illegal in international law. Will the UK government indemnify those exporters and importers of fresh food whose loads will be lost as a result of the delays?
    This reaction is not merely a response to the UK governments wild panic about the alleged new variant Covid-19, about which nothing is actually known, but is possibly an orchestrated pressure on the Brexit “negotiations”. A demonstration of power – “see what we can do to you”.
    Moreover one must surely ask the question as to why at this moment the members of SAGE and the new cabal (name?), decide to create panic on almost no evidence. Could it be that SAGE members are Remainers putting a spoke in things?
    Given this state of affairs, the UK should walk out of trade talks forever, while discussing the maximum tariff we can put on EU cars under WTO rules…

    2. If none of the Lorries exporting French good can get back then they are harming themselves, also what good is a 48 hour blockade.
      Do they think the virus will be gone by then?

        1. No. It’s all about the Great Reset which includes C-19 and Net Zero.

          Note Mr Johnson’s and Mr Hancock’s close contacts. Gates, Soros and Schwab.

      2. Morning Bob – Grant Shapps was on BBC Radio 4 News this morning. He said not all goods were being stopped from crossing the Channel. Apparently non accompanied trailers, ie trailers dropped off at the Channel ports will still be crossing in considerable numbers. Disruption will still affect the majority where the driver and tractor will be taking the trailer into Europe and bringing it back with goods for the UK.

        1. How does a “non accompanied” trailer get on and off the ferry? It has to be accompanied by a prime mover at some time.

      4. If none of the Lorries exporting French good can get back then they are harming themselves

        We have to keep in mind that we are ruled over by people who don’t care about anything other than destroying their political/ethnic enemies. Why have the BBC destroyed Dr Who and Top Gear? Why does any European country allow the immigration of Gypsies or Somalians? Why is Joe Biden promising to amnesty 10-20 million illegal immigrants? These are all acts of deliberate sabotage.

    3. Ooh, the PDV (Phantom Down Voter) has struck again. Clearly she doesn’t like anti – EU sentiments being expressed, nor the possibility of remainers trying to put spokes in wheels (despite past evidence that it isn’t made up).

  23. SIR – Christmas is not cancelled. The date, as always, is December 25. For many it will not be celebrated in the usual way but we are lucky to live in an age when there is radio and television to keep us entertained, and Zoom and other ways to keep in touch. Places of worship will also be open to those who wish to attend them.

    It will be different, but at least we in Britain have the freedom to celebrate Christmas or any other religious festival, which is not the case in many countries.

    Carmel Stockman
    Harrow, Middlesex

    “Always look on the bright side of life” sang Monty Python. Yesterday evening we went to a ‘drive-in’ carol service organised by our church. Many of the cars were decorated with Christmas lights. Being out in the open air there was no requirement for masks and no restriction on singing. A thoroughly joyful occasion and an opportunity to be with old friends. It was good to indulge in some of the hitherto missing Christmas spirit …and another kind of spirit once home.

    1. Well, Ms Stockman, you may think so. The “new normal” may well suit you. However, living in a totalitarian state may not be to everyone’s taste.

    2. Do we, Carmel? Do we really? Tell me that again, when we know whether Easter will be cancelled for the second year running.

    4. Clearly Carmel has not encountered the Bishop of Chester; my place of worship can only be accessed by ticket if I want to attend a service. As for radio and television keeping us entertained? Words fail me!

  24. Was Hancock’s gloating over the ‘new strain’ followed by Johnson’s precipitous reaction the first major breach in their strategy? Rumours re the food chain have been around for a few days: large meat processing factories in the USA and Canada closing down; fires at huge chicken rearing farms killing hundreds of thousands of birds and concerns over soya beans. Now, the UK has the problem of Dover being closed and the UK being isolated from imports of food from Europe. Incompetence doesn’t come much higher and certainly not at a higher cost than causing food shortages.

    If the ration books appear suddenly then we’ll know that it wasn’t incompetence, won’t we?

    https://twitter.com/LukeJohnsonRCP/status/1340761631295496192

    1. It all looks deliberate and that Mr Johnson and Mr Hancock are double agents acting for the Davos billionaires.

    2. It was always on the cards that the globalists would try to punish Britain for attempting to escape.

  25. Another humbling obituary for a very fine soldier and, subsequently, clergyman. One wonders what he thought of the current shambles that is the Church of England…

    The Ven David Rogers, communications officer who served with Montgomery at Lüneberg Heath – obituary

    As a member of Monty’s ‘Phantom regiment’ he was on duty when the message came through that the German army wanted to surrender

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    20 December 2020 • 6:03pm

    The Venerable David Rogers, who has died aged 99, served with Field Marshal Montgomery at Lüneberg Heath in 1945 and received the radio message from the frontline that a German general was requesting safe passage to surrender; years later he recalled feeling “exhilaration that at least the German part of the Second World War was over”.

    Lieutenant Rogers was part of a small innovative communications network Montgomery established to ensure he personally had the speediest, most accurate information from the front. The “Phantom” regiment was established in North Africa when Monty realised that the traditional passing of tactical information up and down the army hierarchy meant that intelligence moved too slowly for rapid modern warfare.

    Phantom became Monty’s personal eyes and ears. Small, lightweight teams were attached to frontline commanders. Equipped with jeeps, motorbikes and powerful radios they got information to Monty almost instantly.

    As part of a Phantom information co-ordination unit, Rogers sat at the centre of the spider’s web when a dramatic message came through on May 3 1945. He later recalled:

    “I was actually on duty when the message came through from one of the senior commanders near the front line that a senior German officer wanted to come through and negotiate the surrender of the German army, in front of all of Monty’s forces.

    The Ven David Rogers: ‘a very Christian soldier. And a soldierly Christian’
    The Ven David Rogers: ‘a very Christian soldier. And a soldierly Christian’
    “So there was I with this piece of paper and I took it to his caravan. But he wasn’t there and nobody there could tell me where he was. And obviously this needed to be got through to him very quickly. Anyway, somebody there took this message off me and he was able eventually to get in touch with Monty and he came back pretty quickly to his headquarters ready to receive these people.

    “And then, after a few hours, a delegation of very senior Germans arrived at Monty’s headquarters and we saw them all coming under guard, because they were Prisoners of War.”

    As well as conveying the news of the surrender Rogers also found himself informing Montgomery of the successful capture of the Remagen Bridge over the Rhine. Later he was entrusted with delivering a package of papers personally from Montgomery into the hands of General Eisenhower at Allied Headquarters in the Palace of Versailles.

    Born into a Yorkshire clergy family on March 12 1921, David Arthur Rogers was the oldest of six brothers, all of whom served in and survived the war. In his own words Rogers lived a sheltered and conventional childhood in a vicarage and at public school.

    In 1939 he was 18 and planning to head to Cambridge to study and follow his father into the Church of England. With his future ordination in sight he could readily have secured an exemption from combat or military service. He refused, in his words, to “play that card”. He believed in the “just war” but also felt that after the war he would have no credibility as a clergyman ministering to parishioners if he had ducked serving his country.

    After regulation initial training and square bashing, he eventually found his way into the fledgling Phantom unit. David Niven was a fellow officer who also trained at Phantom’s base in the genteel surroundings of Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park. There, he learned how to ride and maintain motorbikes, to operate sophisticated long-range radios and use Morse Code.

    Rogers landed in Europe in early 1945 and was immediately deployed to shadow a US Army unit. This unit had been detached from the main body of US forces by the surprise German counter-attack through the Ardennes.

    His job was to extract information from his US general, and feed it back to Montgomery. But the American was chafing under temporary British command and not inclined to yield secret US Army intelligence to a whippersnapper British officer.

    But Rogers played the situation cannily. As well as feeding information into the Phantom network he could listen in and gather information from his counterparts in other frontline outposts. Rogers plotted that information on to a map of the area of conflict across northern France. Soon he had a map that the US general was desperate to see. From then on the Americans were more than happy to yield their secrets and trade information. Phantom had given the British an asset the US could not then match.

    On the way from the Ardennes to Lüneberg Heath Rogers was privileged to pass to Montgomery the news that the bridge over the Rhine at Remagen had been captured intact. Rogers later recalled: “I was actually with the Americans when the exciting thing happened when the railway bridge over the Rhine was captured intact. One of the most exciting things I was able to send back to Monty was that particular very important strategic bit of information.”

    During and after the surrender at Lüneberg Heath Rogers, despite his youth and junior rank, developed a strong relationship with senior intelligence officers on Montgomery’s staff. Shortly after the surrender Montgomery had a package of papers and communication he wished to have delivered into the hands of General Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, then headquartered in splendour in the Palace of Versailles.

    Rogers set off with a driver and a jeep across 400 miles of devastated northern Europe. After two days he reached Versailles. But a problem arose. The US Military Police were not about to let an unknown British officer into Eisenhower’s presence with a package. But Rogers had orders from Monty that the package needed to be delivered into Ike’s hands.

    A clever compromise was found. The sets of gilded doors were opened to reveal Eisenhower at his desk, deep within the Palace of Versailles. The MP marched the package to the desk and handed it over, in the sight of Rogers at the threshold. Mission accomplished, Field Marshal.

    War over, Rogers made up for 6 years lost time, going to Cambridge, from a line of family Cantab clergy. He took a Third, with pride. Later in life he argued that those with higher classifications had taken insufficient advantage of the opportunities Cambridge provides.

    Once ordained at Ridley College, he embarked on his ministry across the north of England. He ministered to poor urban congregations in Stockport and Manchester, as well as to rural parishioners in Sedbergh, Yorkshire. He rose to become Archdeacon of Craven, in the Bradford diocese.

    His ministry and sense of service were profoundly influenced by his wartime experience. At the age of 21 he had needed to command a platoon of men, all significantly older and more worldly wise than he was, hailing from the mines and steelworks of Yorkshire.

    The lessons he learned then lasted a lifetime: Never eat until all the men have eaten; learn everyone’s name; never ask someone to carry out a task you would not do yourself; realise that the apparently toughest of men can conceal personal anguish.

    His true sense of duty to all, on an equal basis, was formed in those military bonds. He always emphasised that he had never fired a shot in anger or faced real danger. But he was, in many senses, a very Christian soldier. And a soldierly Christian.

    Near the end of his life he recalled playing his part in that moment of history in 1945: “It was all very exciting being present and being literally on the site where it all was.”

    David Rogers’s wife Joan and son Jeremy predeceased him; he is survived by his daughters Janet, Rosemary and Anne.

    The Venerable David Rogers, born March 12 1921, died November 23 2020

    1. Welby was an Atheist plant by fellow Old Etonian David Cameron.

      He is doing an excellent job in destroying the Church of England.

      Can anyone think of an Atheist who would be just as effective if planted into the House of Islam?

  26. Our Sportsperson of the Year has been given a spot as a Guest Editor for BBC Radio 4 News over the Christmas period. I am a fan of LH for his driving expertise. I hope he doesn’t push BLM propaganda in our faces.

    3. ‘Morning, Clyde. No reason to think he’s going to desist, and especially with the tacit support of the Black Broadcasting Corpn! This is right up their street, and there will have been much ‘high-fiving’. Nothing is too much trouble for a spot of force-fed diversity.

    4. He will – and the BBC will not point out that BLM is a Communist inspired political organisation which wants to defund the police and get anarchy and has nothing to do with promoting racial harmony but it does have everything to do with stirring up hatred and resentment.

      1. Yo mt t

        As soon as BLM reject racial equality, ie by NOT saying All Lives Matter, it is them and those of that ilk, who become the RACISTs
        and it now nigh on illegal to make adverse comments about their behaviour

  28. 327606+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    ” 21 December: There are still ways of celebrating Christmas despite the lockdown”

    The perfect time for ALL good men to come to the aid of constructing a new
    party along the lines of say the Christian Soldier party / marqui.

    Personally I have a very strong feeling we as a people have a combined decision to make & that being while on the pot,sh!t or quit, and take up a
    one knee kneeling stance.

    The fortyeight percenters are out to take the decent, freedom seeking peoples down via the lab/lib/con coalition party that is so bloody obvious and has been for years.

  29. Just 46 minutes until the solstice, and then we can rejoice as the sun starts its journey back. :•)

    1. Not as important as it used to be, Grizz, what with the declining obliquity of the Earth’s axis. (It’s the science, innit?)

      1. Maybe not, Joe, but it’s still a point worth celebrating as the days start to get longer.

        My favourite seasons:
        1. Spring
        2. Winter
        3. Summer
        4. Autumn.

        2. Abso, Grizz. And how thoughtful of the fates to put the winter solstice so close to Christmas.

        1. …and this evening is the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn…weather permitting, of course. At its last appearance in 1620-something it was apparently obscured by the sun, and but was visible in 1200 and something. It will be just our luck for cloud to obscure it tonight…

      3. Are you saying we will end up in a continuous season, perhaps a never ending winter. (Like COVID-19) 😥

        1. No, the difference between the seasons will diminish until the cycle turns and it starts to increase. 41ky cycle, no rush.

          1. Thanks for that, don’t suppose many of us will be around by then, except Covid scientists and of course the Brexit negotiators.

    2. At my location in Norf Zummerzet it is now at the time of posting 24 mins an 40 seconds.

  30. Martin Watts letter regarding his problem of which way to pass the port when there’s only 2 at the table is surely in line to take the prize for the most inane post of the year and ‘twat of the year’ cup for the DT editor for printing it.
    Talking of ‘Twat of the year’ I see Hamilton won the SPOTY……….JFW

    1. Even now by having been thus educated I shall still only continue to pass the port after due processing by my giblets to remove the alcohol and nutrients.

    2. Even now by having been thus educated I shall still only continue to pass the port after due processing by my giblets to remove the alcohol and nutrients.

  31. 327606+ up ticks,
    Tell me, if Dover falls as a casualty to the blockade will the inflatables still
    get through in time for Christmas ?

    1. Clearly these great seats of learning, packed with men and women of knowledge and erudition have no one who has heard of the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper.

      1. Come in, No 373, your time is up. Probably they would be more familiar with that than with 2 Thessalonians 3.10.

    2. Some of these universities will be absolutely perfect to house illegal immigrants and asylum seekers. Halls of residence with bedrooms, bathrooms, dining areas, cafeterias, lecture halls, places of worship, open spaces, playing fields, etc etc.

        1. I can’t get the article but I do know that there are certainly plenty of universities that still retain both those features.

          1. My daughter is in her final year at Huddersfield which always scores very highly for student satisfaction. She’s very happy, the teaching is great, and before lockdown the town was a buzzing community for students with all the local pubs offering deals and events and what have you.
            The first 2 years she spent in halls. There were 8 blocks surrounding a small car park that can take about 15 cars. Yes that’s right, parking for 15 at halls that probably hold a thousand residents. The halls had a library. Well they call it a library, I’d call it a bookshelf. There’s a small gym that is stuffed if 20 people are in it, and a cinema room. No fields. No open spaces. No place of worship for any religion.
            That’s exceptionally common these days.

          2. I doubt that Huddersfield is truly representative, and there most certainly are many universities with the facilities I describe. Whether they are in danger of closing is a different matter.

            My OP was tongue in cheek, but when ex barracks and hotels, some of them 4 star can be used, why not redundant universities.

          3. Redundant?

            Anything redundant like that is soon snapped up by a property developer for transforming into flats/HMOs.

            Huddersfield is fairly representative of any uni based in a town rather than a campus outside town. We visited five. None had the facilities you’d expect.

            Huddersfield has about ten sets of halls dotted around town, and 1 a 20 min bus ride away. That one may have better facilities but no students liked it because it was out in the sticks with no nightlife.

      2. PlaceS of worship? There will only be one place of worship allowed and it won’t be a church or a synagogue.

    4. There are far too many of them. Most of the ones which were previously tertiary colleges should go back to teaching practical skills.

  34. I do often wonder when this Covid stuff will end or if it’ll ever end, its becoming a way of life .
    The presenter on ClassicFm said she can hear more birds in our ” quiet new world ” new world ?. My young hairdresser whose only 24 year of age believes that mask wearing will stay, that she’ll always have to wear one. Its all very weird and monstrous.

    1. 327606+ up ticks,
      Morning A,
      Independent thought is frowned upon already, block / flock thinking for the ovis is the establishments way.

    2. It will only end when the next phase begins. I have a strong feeling we will like the next phase even less than we do the current one.

  35. Have we closed the borders from the RoI yet. No point allowing them in if their exit point to Europe is shut.

    2. That would be construed as retaliation and a breach of the Good Friday Agreement , and everything else…

      1. No surely not, we would be thinking of their best interests, only ensuring none of their people travel in the UK and then possibly return home with the virus.

    1. I am given to understand that this has been brought about by erosion of the volcano surface. The volcano has been worn way by people on mountain bikes enjoying the thrill of hurtling down the side of an active volcano.

  39. Good Morning all, I had another of those waking ponders this A.M.

    Q.
    What’s the difference between Scientology , Mormons, Jehovahs Witness, Branch Davidians, The Moonies, Heavens Gate etc and the E.U.

    A. Well, on the one hand we have a swathe of cults that are based on a bizarre or a malign philosophy that demands a total and life times adherence to it’s rules regardless of how extreme or damaging they may appear and any attempt to leave the cult is met with threats of financial , emotional and physical harm.

    On the other hand ….. eerrrrrmm

    1. Datz, you forgot the mother of all cults, cult de Mo’. If it isn’t stopped it will destroy all those other cults you mention, and more.

  41. Lewis Hamilton voted as sports personality of the year by the invisible viewing public eh………really ?
    I wonder who sat and counted the upticks for him as opposed for the other sporting personalities, at least some of them actually become short of breath during their chosen practice ? I wonder if it was, as i suspect, just another fait accompli.
    In the past year he’s made himself one of the all time most unpopular ‘sporting’ people this country has ever had.
    And let’s be realistic he’s only the driver, (his stand-in was pretty convincing) with millions of pounds of money behind him and a huge team of experts to take car of all his needs and requirements, and no doubt his tonsorial needs.
    This in the same week that an elderly comedian singer takes first prize on the dancing show is it’s only a coincidence his partners’ sister is one of the judges ???
    And also a coincidence the method of voting was exactly the same as the sports personality.
    Most sensible people would understand the BBC motive behind the results.

    1. I’m not surprised by either win.

      I wanted Bill Bailey to win strictly. I’ve always liked his sense of humour and he is in general an all-round decent bloke. Perhaps he wasn’t the best dancer on the show but he moves well for a man of his age. Oti is one of the best pros on strictly and it seems she’s also a good teacher. The public choose the winner it has nothing to do with the judges and if you check back through the scores each week you’ll see no favouritism.

      Lewis Hamilton became the most successful F1 driver of all time this year. It’s a sport that bores the pants off me, I just can’t watch it, but I am reliably told he’s a brilliant driver.

      1. I couldn’t be bothered watching Strictly this year but I do agree that Oti is one of the best of the pro dancers, and seems to be able to teach her partners well. Possibly it’s not good to have her sister as a judge, though.

        1. It was actually a good year.

          I’ve watched it for a few years now as the wife and kid love it. It’s quite surprising how much i enjoy it as I have two left feet and can’t do much more than headbang 🙂

          1. I enjoy dancing but I can’t abide Strictly – the over-the-top luvviedom and the hooting and whooping from the audience really grind my gears. I have to say any TV show with public voting is also a turn-off for me.

        2. I saw bits of a couple of episodes.
          In fairness, I do get the impression that Oti is a good teacher, and BB’s keen, but rather laid back style made him more entertaining that some of the more driven contestants.

        3. I have always had an uneasy feeling about the dancer/judge sisters being on the same programme.

      2. A brilliant driver ( in the best car ) who had a young man called George Russell drive brilliantly in the spare car while LH fought off the virus ( how DARE that nasty virus attack him? ). Someone must have been highly embarrassed watching that car go so fast – the first time GR had raced it .

    3. Maybe they’re using the same data compilers as in Dem cities in the U elections or the NHS do in compiling COVID ‘infections’, ‘hospital admissions’ and ‘deaths’.

      1. Could be, but it would be far easier to ignore votes for more genuine sports stars who actually represent their country, not a German car company and their own self interests.

      2. There are quite a few sports people in the UK and including Obama who never acknowledge their mothers as being white, insisting they are black. It says a lot for their inherent attitude when they malign one of their parents like they do.

      1. Robotic, as i pointed out Bill he has every thing going for him with the minimum of sporting effort involved. I didn’t watch the prog and it was quite obvious he wasn’t available to be on the programme anyway, can there be another conclusion that he was going to win because it had already been decided. And he did have a convenient trophy besides him at his multi million dollar apartment in the tax haven of Monaco.
        I did read not long ago although he claims to be ‘black’ his now ‘manager’ father abandoned his white mother, when he and his brother were very young little boys.

    6. Presumably Bailey’s success has nothing to do with him being a Labour Party supporter and endorsing Jeremy Corbyn for leader. Guess, though, he has enough cash to indulge his whims without great consequence.

      1. I don’t make a habit of watching the prog, but was subjected to it by my good ladies’ interest. He BB wasn’t bad, but he certainly was not the best all-round dancer. And of course It’s so easy to fiddle the result by using these phone in methods.
        I was very disappointed that the as usual brilliant band didn’t get a well deserved accolade. One of the members for several years is a guy i use to play football and squash with ….back in the day.

  42. I know you didn’t ask for my opinion….. but here it is anyway…………………

    To achieve control of the Western world via their 2030 sustainability targets, the Davos billionaires have to break Western economies first, roll back capitalism and introduce international socialism. Except for themselves as they obviously get a free pass.

    That’s why their tame politicians Mr Johnson and Mr Hancock are so keen to lockdown the UK forever and force Britons to have an untested vaccine which some doctors believe might reduce fertility and even cause cancer in the long term. That explains the sudden panic about alleged virus mutation and consequent closure of transport links through channel blockade.

    Everything we need to know about the Johnson administration is helpfully explained by Mr Hancock and his Davos allegiances……..

    Here’s Mr Hancock enthusing about billionaire Soros……..

    https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1075319635464081409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1075319635464081409%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fby%2Fdisqus_Vs7PX8srwh%2F

    Here’s Mr Hancock enthusing about billionaire Gates……….

    https://twitter.com/matthancock/status/1088390904858202112?lang=en

    Here’s Mr Hancock enthusing about Klaus Schwab, chair of Davos, and close friend of Soros and Gates…………

    https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/956851034797891584

    Mr Johnson is closely aligned to billionaire Gates, which is why Gates controls the UK’s C-19 response…………..

    https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/who-controls-british-government-response-covid19-part-one

    So I don’t think this is really about a virus, this is about billionaire global control put into effect by the billionaires’ tame politicians …… the so called ”health emergency” being just their excuse for a power grab, and the channel blockade is just the latest twist

    See also Net Zero and Build Back Better which, along with tough C-19 restrictions, are part of the Davos desired ”Great Reset”.

    ”The Megalomania of Bill Gates” who is directing the UK’s C-19 response……….

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

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

  43. ‘Morning, all.

    Since Wee Krankie has decided to lockdown the country tighter than a duck’s arse, folk are unable to eat out so, just for a change – and to brighten the longest night – Mrs. Mac has decided that this evening we shall dine à la française. She’s preparing for us a four-course meal, consisting of :

    Bouillon de mouton
    Harengs en bôite de conserve
    Viande hachée avec purée de pommes de terre et navet suédois
    Pouding de pain

    She can be quite cosmopolitan when the mood is on her.

      1. My word she is so awful, how can honest self respecting Scottish people support something like that ?

        1. Nicola Sturgeon’s policies are identical to Soros policies.

          Same with Mark Drakeford in Wales. Coincidence ?

          I think devolution was on Soros’ shopping list when he met with Tony Blair in New York in April 1996 to exchange funding for policy and that he wanted to break up the UK to bring about another opportunity to attack the Pound.

          1. All the more reason(s) Polly, to close down her wee pretendy parliament and the assemblies and bring all devolved business back to Westminster and get the lazy bastards there to do something constructive for once.

          3. https://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/1187

            The referendum on the creation of a Welsh Assemby was held soon after the funeral of the Princess of Wales. As a result the turnout was only just over 50% (51.3%) and the Yes vote was only just over 50% as well (50.3%) which means that only just over a quarter of the people eligible to vote for it (25.8%) actually wanted it.

            You may wish to check these figures in the link above.

          4. Someone doesn’t like the data – or, more likely, the conclusions drawn from it (and we know who).

          5. How did the prince of darkness manage to get into her head so easily, could have been the delivered suitcases of dosh ?

          1. Can’t remember (and I’ve burned the packaging). You surely didn’t think I had made it myself, did you? 🙂

  44. Good morning all

    Wet wet wet day , strong wind . Sorry to sound gloomy .

    Even more gloomy , remember this ?

    Remembering the 270 who perished on this day in Britain’s deadliest terrorist attack. 21st December 1988 Lockerbie!

    2. Had the plane been on schedule, it would have been over the Atlantic when the bomb went off and we’d still be trying to piece together what happened.
      Had it exploded a few minutes earlier, it would have come down near here.

      3. And when you look at Lockerbie on the map – and all the more or less empty countryside around it – you have to wonder at the ill-luck which brought it down right on the town.

        But, as you say, had it been on schedule it would have been over the Atlantic, so to suggest that it was an act of terror against Britain simply doesn’t add up.

        1. Agreed. The target was the USA.
          The UK just happened to be the unfortunate country that the plane came down in.

          1. Indeed, as the folk of Lockerbie understood at the time; quite a few of them were more bitter about the Americans with their endless trouble-making than they were about the bombers. A friend’s mother lived there and there was a very frightening gap before news came through but she was not in the area affected… though I think her daughter aged a bit that night.

      4. Two minutes later and the wreckage would have fallen on a nuclear power station.

        Now that’s a really big bang!

  47. If the easily spreadable new variant Covid-19 has been around for several months, why is it unique to the UK? Why is it not also well established in the EU?

      1. Hello Father 😉 I’ve been back and forth to the dark ages comparing the plague then and now. Lots of red crosses on doors etc ..

      1. Korky.

        I think you may well be right.

        A friend rang me, earlier this
        morning, to declare himself
        totally free of all viruses and
        therefore will I vote for him in
        the local elections to be held i
        May, 2021!!

  48. Has anyone been blessed in the last couple of days with clear skies at sunset? We were lucky yesterday evening for an hour or so and managed to see the Great Conjunction in the WSW after sunset though tonight marks the closest approach of the two planets concerned. It was rather beautiful. Look for a very bright ‘star’ about 20 degrees above the horizon and train your binoculars (or telescope if you have one) on it. You’ll see Saturn and Jupiter (along with its four Galilean moons) almost on top of each other. This is the most visible occurrence of this event for over 800 years.

  49. 23rd Game Sausages
    24thSea Bass with cream and tarragon sauce with prawns .
    25th A few Partridges
    26th Ham and Mash
    27th Fish Pie
    28th pasta
    29th Hungarian Goulash
    30th Lasangna
    31 Venison Sausages
    Ist ( God knows )

    The above is the Christmas Dinner list, sweetly printed off by my husband,
    heaven forfend I be spontaneous and change those days around, hmm 😉

    2. My elder sister and expert cook having run her own exclusive catering business for several years, baked a huge Christmas pie a variant of a Mary Berry recipe. As her and BiL have now ‘been banned’ from visiting their family in county Durham, she shared it with us. Delicious cold with a little chilli jam.

      1. I would normally make that after Christmas for New Year Eve party at the neighbours. Uses up all the left over turkey and gammon. I use a hot water crust pastry and a heavy egg glaze. Looks great when you cut into it.

  50. Note to everyone that Mr Layzell’s likely leftist political leanings are evident by both the tone of his ‘letter’, but also that he sent a variant to The Guardian, also printed today. He may also be the same person who works for woke organisation ‘Stonewater.org’. I suspect he isn’t a subscriber to the DT.

    1. This ‘yawning gap’ – precisely what is it? As I don’t see starving children. What I do see all too often is smoking, drinking, swearing, tattooed yobs pushing prams about living off welfare.

      If unicef wants to make a political point by spending 5p per child in a single borough in the UK, they can, but it’s wasted money. The problem here isn’t a lack of welfare, it’s too much. As it is, the solutions needed are simple but entirely against those this twerp would likely espouse. That’s why we’re in this mess, after all.

    1. It’s the smell, not what you look like. You can look different, but you always smell the same. Dogs don’t care what you look like, for them it’s a bit like someone wearing different clothes if your smell changes.

      1. Big Cat, as a young moggy, got really agitated when I took my glasses off while he was watching. Frightened the doodah out of him, it did.

    2. Our Lab was lying fast asleep warm and cosy in front of the TV last night, when she was awoken by barking Huskies on a programme about Inuits living inside the artic circle. She looked as if the she was thinking, well good luck with that………..and zzzzzzzzzzz

  52. Disturbing account here from Lockdown Sceptics of the heavy-handed policing of Saturday’s London demo.

    The policing of Saturday’s
    anti-lockdown protests was deeply sinister and unjustifiably
    heavy-handed. I say that as a seasoned demonstrator and a globe-trotting
    football fan. I’ve been around the houses and back, but this was
    different. I could almost taste the lust for violence on the part of the
    police from the moment I arrived in Parliament Square.

    Gangs of
    highly menacing masked-up policemen came up very close, way beyond the
    designated two-metre distancing rule. They were towering above me – I’m
    not a tall woman – peering right in my face, smiling, smug and
    sneering. By the time I’d been crowded by the third PC asking “What are
    you doing?”, “Why are you here?”. etc., I could tell that the general
    vibe was that they were there to intimidate, gloat and bully under the
    guise of policing in a civilised manner.

    There were around 2,000
    armoured robocops compared to between 700 and 1,000 concerned citizens, a
    ratio of over 2:1. Strange, because when my son was mugged at
    knifepoint, as many others have been in my locality, there wasn’t a
    policeman in sight. When my 81 year-old mother, who lives alone, had an
    attempted break-in, with her front door being kicked in and then a van
    reversing into it, she had to wait four days before the police visited.

    It
    was a hugely mixed London demographic. Young, old, black, white, dogs, a
    snowman, a unicorn and a few ghetto blasters. Just freedom-loving
    people from across our great City questioning the insanity of yet
    another damaging lockdown and yearning for freedom. Before we even left
    Parliament Square, there had been a couple of arrests.

    An
    articulate guy with a megaphone was trying to firm up the latest set of
    completely nonsensical rules. He was asking the police questions and
    repeating the answers over the megaphone so that we could all understand
    what we could and couldn’t do. He was aggressively carted away for
    absolutely nothing. He wasn’t rude or dangerous, he was just trying to
    communicate.

    To be honest, it was the swarms of police that made
    social distancing impossible. We set off down Whitehall harmlessly in
    our own small groups, mine no more than three, a really interesting
    bunch of people, who were there for a range of reasons. We passed the
    cenotaph in good spirits, until the army of police horses pulled in
    front of us and then officers blocked our path. It’s a well known police
    tactic, called kettling, used to break up aggressive groups at football
    matches. It splits crowds up, but also creates panic and confusion.

    Next
    came the charging groups of big burly riot police, heading toward
    various random people. It was indiscriminate and remarkably forceful. My
    camera footage shows the full volley and disproportionate force and how
    many officers were used to take down people, leaving them face down on
    the pavement, while they wrenched their hands up behind their backs.

    There
    was no rhyme nor reason to who they picked on or why. I believe that
    was part of the tactic of wider intimidation. I also noted that many
    badge numbers were covered up and masks made the police
    unidentifiable. Again deeply sinister. When people were forced to the
    ground other officers formed circles around the group to stop observers
    from seeing or filming what was happening. I politely asked what the
    person on the ground had done. An officer told me to get back, leave, or
    I would be arrested. No amount of questioning elicited an
    explanation. Eventually, I moved on. Not far because we were blocked and
    told to go back. There was nowhere for us to go

    By now there were
    more police arriving in vans. To make it even more surreal, I saw a guy
    dressed as Frosty the Snowman being charged at and thrown to the ground
    awith such violence you would have thought he had just robbed a jewelry
    store. His only “crime” was walking up Whitehall in a Frosty the
    Snowman suit.

    I witnessed another group of police charge down a
    young woman. The officer who led the charge was well over six-foot tall
    and he pushed her with such force she flew to the ground. She was
    screaming. Again, hands behind her back face down.

    Really
    disturbing. I wanted to come to her aid, but was told to leave or be
    arrested by an incredibly aggressive officer who yelled in my face. His
    colleague was calmer and told me: “You must go or I promise you, you
    will be arrested.” But he refused to tell me what for. He was completely
    out of control – they were all out of control. I backed off and he kept
    coming towards me shouting at me to leave and move back. I retreated
    some more, passing yet another young woman being arrested.

    It was
    an abrupt and rude awakening. I’ve not witnessed anything like this
    before. How have we been stripped of our freedoms and ended up with our
    paid servants attacking and abusing citizens in our streets for
    exercising their right to protest peacefully?

    1. Very worrying.
      Presumably next to no TV coverage.

      No doubt the police getting their own back against weaker demonstrators as revenge for their humiliation by BLM, antifa and the like.

        1. I liked this comment in one of the articles: “Not surprisingly, the Government’s scaremongering about the “mutant” strain prompted other European countries to start imposing travel bans on visitors from the UK. Apparently, this entirely predictable reaction wasn’t something the UK Government had predicted.“

        3. I liked this comment in one of the articles: “Not surprisingly, the Government’s scaremongering about the “mutant” strain prompted other European countries to start imposing travel bans on visitors from the UK. Apparently, this entirely predictable reaction wasn’t something the UK Government had predicted.“

  53. Yay. MB and I have found some different – and forgotten – Christmas lights. We have found adaptors, experimented with them and they work.
    Best of all, we haven’t killed each other.
    It’s a Christmas miracle.

  54. 327606+ up ticks,
    breitbart
    Exclusive Video: ‘The Government Are the Criminals!’ — Police Clash with Anti-Lockdown Protesters in London,

    Governing legal branch employees in action, proof that they take care of their own.

    ‘Asian’ Rape Gang Leader Released Just Eight Years Into 26-Year Term.

  55. And talking of Christmas miracles: Amazon were originally delivering my new printer on Tuesday (tomorrow). Then they changed it to Sunday – yesterday …. and it arrived about lunchtime.
    My best Christmas present would be D-i-L or grandson to set it up. (Note to self: this time watch and learn)
    Remind me again about the advantages of denationalised industries that are still subject to union militancy. Yes, PO, I’m looking at you.

    1. The Canadian PO have just reported an unexpected peak in mail so deliveries are going to be later than normal. A small Amazon package has just taken ten days to reach me from just outside Toronto. The tracker shows that the package sat for eight days in the main PO sorting office before making the 250 mile trip in about a day ,

    2. Does it come with a disc and instructions? If so, follow the sequence of instructions and put the disc in when it tells you. The computer should do the rest automatically. I have just done this for a friend of mine and it worked fine.

      1. Thank you. I’ve a couple of busy days, so it will be Wednesday before I settle to it. I suspect there is a disc, but I’ve not had the time to check.
        I like lots of time and no people when doing such things.

        1. Given the season, may I suggest that you unpack it and check that all the expected contents are in the box and that there are no pieces of broken plastic. If there is a problem you can probably get someone on the phone tomorrow… it might be harder on Wednesday or Thursday.

          My last one proved surprisingly simple to get going, fingers crossed yours is the same.

      1. 327606+ up ticks,
        Afternoon AtG,
        You don’t think it could be, no, but could be,no but then again it could be, best inform
        “hunting adolf” showing on telly, but I do agree.

    2. Will Heath ever be forgiven? And if there is an afterlife what odds would Ladbrokes give on him not being in Hell?

      1. 327606+ up ticks,
        Afternoon R,
        Could not the same be said of the party membership knowingly voting on the strength of
        party first, to keep out another party of the same proven odious ilk.

        Each denying the other the seat of power yet being a coalition on policy’s, ie mass uncontrolled immigration / mass foreign paedophilia.
        In point of fact, an evil close shop.

        Dover invasion and ultralight time served regarding incarceration of foreign paedophiles,
        is a large part of the legacy they leave when & if sanity returns.

    1. Blimey,time flies,keep the piccies coming Willum,they’re one of the few things that make me smile these days

  58. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – I can assure Brian Organ that the redwings have been very active here is Buckinghamshire. My holly was stripped of all its berries in the first week of December.

    This is a change in behaviour by the birds. Until about three years ago, and for the previous 20, they ignored our holly until the New Year, regardless of how cold it was.

    This will be the first Christmas that we have not been able to deck the halls with boughs of our own berried holly for 23 years.

    Julian George
    Chearsley, Buckinghamshire

    I think he meant to say “This will be the first Christmas in 23 years…”

  59. Just received a scam phone call. This time it was an automated voice advising me that Amazon wished to query a £1,000+ order I had apparently made. “Press 1 to cancel order, press 2 to speak to an operator.” As they didn’t refer to me by name, but just gave a random reference code, and the caller-ID was somewhere in India, I just hung up and blocked the number.

    1. We’ve just had a very similar one, but we are obviously regarded as poorer as our “queried order” was only for £300!!

      1. I was getting emails, supposedly from myself, threatening me that all the naughty sites I had been using would be emailed to all my friends in my mailing list. . . .Problem – I do not go on the “naughty” sites. It informed me that I had to pay some large amount in bitcoins to the account specified and I had two wks to comply. Over a month later – same one – less amount. Next time – same – lesser amount. etc etc. Then one came through from an actual email address in China. Exactly same layout. I printed it out, with a letter of explanation as to what had happened – and sent it to the Chinese embassy – telling them to do what they wanted with the criminals – even shoot them. Oddly enough I haven’t had one since.

        1. I’ve had some of those – they ger filtered into the spam box and I don’t have to see them. They get deleted after 30 days or sooner If I remember to go and have a look.

    2. I never get nuisance telephone calls here in Sweden but when I did in the UK I was invariably short, loud, terse and extremely Anglo-Saxon in my retort before slamming down the receiver.

    3. Jeez, and another one. This time with a different caller-ID, so it wouldn’t be blocked.

  60. Social media blitz to warn migrants against UK voyage. 21 December 2020.

    The first social media advertisements, to be posted on Wednesday, will warn people they will be prosecuted for steering a migrant boat and risk death.

    They will also be warned they face being returned to Europe, that their asylum bid stands no better chance in Britain than the rest of Europe, and that they will get no benefits or work while they wait for their application to be processed.

    “Criminals are exploiting vulnerable people for profit and are selling false dreams of life in the UK. This new campaign will aim to dissuade migrants from making this dangerous and unnecessary journey.

    “This campaign will build on our work with the French to stop people leaving French beaches and dismantle people smuggling gangs, while also fixing the asylum system to make it firmer on those who seek to abuse it and fairer on those in genuine need of our help,” he added.

    What unutterable tosh!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/21/social-media-blitz-warn-migrants-against-uk-voyage/

    2. “…they will get no benefits or work while they wait for their application to be processed.”
      Which is why the streets of English cities are piled high with the bodies of economic migrants who have died of hunger and exposure.

    3. Even if they get no benefits and cannot work we will be keeping them, feeding them, clothing them, housing them etc. And in any case we know the French will continue to guide them all across the Channel even though we’ve recently paid them another wad of money.

  61. My bit from DT BTL

    SIR – Would people please stop discussing the pronunciation of their
    exotic surnames? Such showing off just serves to make me jealous. Ian Smith Wickham Bishops, Essex

    I am really fed up of people mispronouncing name .

    It is Hieronymus Featherstonehaugh

    Signed

    Harry Fanshaw

  62. SIR – What a lovely photograph the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have chosen for their Christmas card (December 17). I hope this means that the wearing of smart jeans by ladies in their 70s has now officially been given the royal seal of approval.

    Jane O’Nions
    Sevenoaks, Kent

    Yes, a nice photo, as was that of the Cambrige family. But with no fewer than three future heads of the C of E on display, am I being picky in expecting something a little more supportive of our annual Christian festival?

    1. Did you not know, Hugh, that Her Majesty has a valid claim to be descended from the Prophet Mohammed?

    1. If one County gives way, the rest will follow like a house of cards built by a 5-years old.

  64. DT Story:

    Oxford dons could be sacked for having sex with students as university considers relationship ban

    Either an adult is or is not is old enough to decide for himself or herself whom he/she wishes to sleep with?

    While I deplore the idea of allowing adults to have sex with children by reducing the age of consent I think the state should not interfere with the decisions of adults to make their own decisions. It smacks of authoritarianism.

    If someone aged over 18 is not mature enough to make that sort of decision for him/herself should we not raise the age of consent and voting to 25!

    2. I totally disagree.

      The opportunities to influence grades etc. are too great and can, and will, be used to “persuade” students.

      1. But surely people have to be responsible for their own decisions when they are adult? Yes, resisting pressure is not easy but one cannot be featherbedded for ever; one has to stand on one’s own feet without nanny state holding your hand.

        2. I have always been of the view that when someone holds authority/influence over another that changes the game.
          By all means get together once the professional relationship has ended, but while it is there I think it is too open to abuse.

          Doctor patient, teacher student, director actress, even policeman criminal or priest parishioner etc. etc. I’ve lost count of the number of cases where undue advantage was taken.

          2. But making rules about such a matter is a step too far.
            Rely on people’s good sense; if they don’t have it – well, such is life.

          3. If your daughter gets a poorer mark than her fellow, stupider, student because she refused to sleep with the lecturer, how would you/she feel?
            Or your doctor placed a woman who slept with him above you on the waiting list for an operation?
            Or the council housing officer gave your promised council house to his mistress?
            There are such rules for a reason. If they are not laid down (ho ho) then people will try it on.

            Perhaps I’m just too old fashioned, but I think those vulnerable to coercion should be protected.

      2. ‘Morning, Sos. I completely agree with you. The abuse of authority is akin to bribery, which is of course illegal. While such a rule should be unnecessary for Oxford dons- and everyone else in a position of influence and/or authority over others – the sad fact is that standards of behaviour and conduct require such a rule these days. I know from my time in uniform that a significant minority are without honour or sound judgement in such matters.

      3. My feelings too, Sos.
        The same applies to bosses and underlings. There may be undue pressure and undue influence, or there may seem to be. Either is damaging to both parties and thus most unwise.

    3. Some years ago, I heard of an undergraduate course at a British university that has no final examinations. It is all marked on course work. Apparently the University had decided it was too difficult to stop certain tutors giving the exam papers out in advance to their favourite students, so the preferred solution was to abolish exams altogether.
      Same mentality, I guess. Wouldn’t fly in the real world.

          3. While I’m here, this from the self-styled anarchist’s blog I follow when I remember. Jobcentre+ related.

            “I am not a happy blogger right now. The bloody jobcentre, whom I have told to be 110% discreet when communicating with me (if I must have them contact me by phone at all), have just disregarded that entirely and told the family member I live with that they are from the jobcentre. This is a big deal because I have tried to keep that a secret because I really really do not want to have to deal with the grief of explaining I am a feckless scrounger to someone that will not understand. I know they won’t understand.”

          4. Does this person think there is only one person from the Jobcentre that will phone him? If the customers are not going into the office they should expect phone calls. It’s up to him to deal with his family member.

          5. Recent years he’s been playing the “Mental Health Issues” card and getting away with it.
            His doctor refuses to give him any more fit notes, says there’s nothing wrong with him that taking a job won’t cure.
            His mother, who he still lives with in his 40s, thinks he’s a deadbeat who spends his days playing games on his PlayStation. Which is why he didn’t want the Jobcentre knowing his home number.
            I only look in in the hope that DWP have gotten wise to him and stopped his benefits.
            9 years so far and no sign of that happening.

          6. It’s nearly 10 years now since I retired from DWP so I’ve no idea how they persue the leadswingers these days.

      1. Not at all, Eddy.

        My village is on the same line of latitude as Kelso in the Scottish borders and (at 7ºC today, grey and drizzly) around the same temperature.

        1. I know what the cause is it’s the gulf stream and varying jet stream patterns but I also believe that very cold places in Canada are on the same latitude as the UK Labrador comes to mind.
          It’s a grey day again but still green and i’m a bout to take our own Labrador for a 5 mile walk in the surrounding Hertfordshire country side. Probably back home through my old golf course of Mid Herts. I might bump into a few old golfing mates.

  68. Excellent article here from Independence Daily.

    I particularly like this from Prof Henegan and Dr Michael Yeaden’s response. Again, lost on Hancock and Johnson.

    “Can anyone point me to the evidence that this new variant is “70% more transmissible than the old variant?”
    – Mike Yeadon: “I suspect it’s invented. It’s one of around 40,000 variants, typically emerging from error prone replication. It would be
    funny if it weren’t so serious if it turns out to be an asymptomatic variant: easy to catch & pass on but doesn’t make you ill. We could
    call it a vaccine.”

    1. “Easy to catch & pass on but doesn’t make you ill” was the assessment my boss made when we spoke on the phone this morning. He was a medical student at Barts before deciding it wasn’t his vocation and becoming a lawyer instead. A die-hard globalist but smart and knowledgeable

      More rational than members of my family are being. I’m stuck in Shepherds Bush for the first Christmas ever spent alone. Have a ticket for church on Christmas Day morning so need to book a taxi and pay double to get there and back but as long as I manage that, it will keep me from total isolation. Well peed off.

        1. There are times when I catch myself wishing I were totally on my own (even the dog keeps getting under my feet!) 🙁

      2. I’ve been graciously allowed to attend Christmas Day Communion without booking on Eventbrite. I’m hoping that Uber will be in operation (let’s be honest, they have few Christian drivers), otherwise I have a three mile walk…

  69. On Look North Lunchtime TV

    Complaints in Bradford from people who can’t [wont?] speak/learn English!
    Just interviewed someone who said – [translated!] ” Lived in Bradford for many years but never felt the need to learn/speak english”
    Complaining that they don’t understand the Coro19 information and want special assistance !

    What the H is going on. . . ?

        1. Except Bames of course..
          We have lost the BBC that we once relied on . It has been infiltrated by the most appalling arty farty leftie twerps with no sense of National fervour or loyalty .

          The BBC is uncouth , it has dropped it’s national standard , it is only appealing to the lowest denominator .

          1. Yet still the over 60s watch/listen to/read it’s output each day..
            Then post on their safe spaces about we “sheeple” being brainwashed by the Beeb. Go figure 🙂

          5. I think the thing here is that when us old fogies were young, the BBC were the only ones supplying the news on radio and tv. We trusted their broadcasts and as far as we knew they reported the events as they happened in an unbiased fashion.
            I keep an eye on the BBC online news but trust it not at all. I’m very bitter about what has happened to the BBC, but also find it a bit difficult to let go completely.

          6. I stopped believing the Bbc in the mid-nineties. They started spouting bollux about things I knew a lot about and that was the end of it as far as I was concerned.

          8. Are you talking about Nottlers? I think most of us here take the BBC output with a large pinch of salt.

          9. You and Breitbart regulars seem to be the only people who provide reviews of the Beeb’s output.

        2. Apart from the over-60s, seemingly their core audience OLT.
          The very group they seem intent on alienating, while failing to attract younger audiences.
          If the Beeb was a private business it would be insolvent by now.

          EDIT: Obvious typo I should have spotted at the time.

    3. They know that WE have to pay for translators for them. Why should they bother? I remember reading years ago of a Somali woman in Holland? Been there 40 years on benefits – couldn’t speak a word of the language. When told they had to learn and look for work – they packed their bags and came here – and didn’t learn English either. I’d give them “special assistance” -LEARN — or else – goodbye. No appeals – NOTHING.

      1. Government has had 4 years plus to bring in legislation so that ALL non English speaking immigrants must provide/pay for all translations, whatever the circumstances, and that they must learn English if they wish to live here. I’d be OK with providing schooling for them to learn English and have to take a test. No pass, no stay.

      2. The Dutch inburgering (naturalisation) test must be taken within a certain time limit. It is conducted entirely in the Dutch language. That is why many moozlims left the Netherlands for cities like Birmingham and Leicester.

    6. The vitamin D dependent culture almost has its own flag of convenience .. what more do they want, they have their own mosques , specialist food shops and frequent visits back to the birthplace of their grandparents and no go areas, plus their own banks and money supply , free sheep and bakers , and health and education benefits courtesy of the British Government ( with a few underage concubines thrown in)

      Why do they need to speak our language , they are as protected as gypsies and travellers , and there’s nothing any one of us can say to be critical of their lifesyles.

    8. They need to be told in no uncertain terms (translated if necessary) that if they’ve lived in England (even in Bradfordistan) for any length of time they MUST learn English and this will be the last translation done for them. If they don’t like it, go back to where their native language is spoken as the language of the country.

  71. Politics latest news: France expected to drop freight ban in coming hours as Boris Johnson holds Cobra meeting

    Can we please get away from the drama and panic inducing use of the word Cobra

    Cobra is just the acronym for Cabinet Office Briefing Roof A(lpha)

    1. All through the pandemic thousands of lorries a day have been coming over with no regard for the spread of the virus, now we have a new strain all of a sudden it is important to prevent movement of freight.

      2. Yo Bob

        Or more importantlyesterer.

        This could be one of the last chances to well and truly crap on UK and Brexit, let it not pass us by

        1. I come up with an alternative version: couldn’t organise a Bacchanalian festival in a vinery.

    3. Cobra is just the acronym for Cabinet Office Briefing Roof A(lpha)

      So what you’re saying (© Cathy Newman) is that they hold their meetings under the stars.

    4. Because it’s one of the most venomous snakes in the world and Hancock, Johnson et all want to emulate it.

    5. Cobra is just the acronym for Cabinet Office Briefing Roof A(lpha)

      All set for a night on the tiles then.

  72. SitRep 21/12…

    Arlene is a twot. The Fishwife, with her closed border is an even bigger twot. But by a country mile, Boris and his Tier 4 Reading is still the biggest twot of them all. Beginning to wish we hadn’t voted Conservative last three GE.
    Cue ogga.

  73. 327606+ up ticks,
    Heard some woman on I think, world at one, saying on account of johnsons actions peoples were flocking to lab.

    To me this shows the consequences of the serious neglection regarding
    mental health issues.

    It is also on par with leaping from the frying pan into the towering inferno.

    To be quite candid about it these lab/lib/con coalition party politico’s have
    a good % of the nation down on one knee & it is work in progress to have ALL the peoples down on two…… on prayer mats, a great deal of the groundwork is already done via these same politico’s / party’s.

    1. The instructions are clear enough. If you find yourself in a towering inferno, you are to stay put in the hope that someone might organise a feasibility study into your rescue plan, taking into account Diversity & Equality, Health & Safety, and the elimination of historic colonial white privilege and unapproved non-koranic child abuse, such as photographing your son or daughter during sports day.

      Difficult choices must be made, but you know it’s for the best.

  74. Interesting feature on a special licence granted to fishermen from Bruges in Belgium to fish in British waters. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55190259

    This was granted by King Charles II in gratitude for the city giving him refuge during the Commonwealth after the execution of his father, and is in perpetuity. It was tested by a Bruges skipper in 1963, where he was arrested trawling for fish just off the coast of Sussex. After presentation of the Charles II dispensation, the court abandoned the prosection.

    While this law was suspended when we became party of the Common Fisheries Policy, could not such licences be restored when this lapses?

    What threat does the fleet stationed at Zeebrugge pose to our fish? Could environmentally-hostile industrial factory ships be registered on a flag of convenience to Zeebrugge in order to get at our fish?

    1. In the Med masses of yachts are registered under flags of convenience. Many boats owned by Turks are registered in Delaware.

      Portugal and Spain are countries with long and proud maritime histories so I find it very sad that so few ordinary Spaniards and Portuguese people sail because the taxes are so eye-wateringly high. Mind you that did nor affect the corrupt King Carlos whose son, Felipe, the current king, was in the Spanish Olympic Sailing team.

    2. Half of the “British” fishing fleet is owned by European fishermen. The British flag is the “flag of convenience”.

    5. Small detail, Jeremy. Bruges (one of my favourite places) is somewhat inland. The Fisheries Privilege was limited to 50 fishermen. Presumably, this limits the number of Belgian trawlers to single figures.

    1. 2016 UKIP Leadership Election…
      Did you vote for Batten sponsored Lisa Duffy or Nigel/Banks Diane James?
      Trick question, I already know the answer.

  76. “Jack S Whereinthe Wildblueyonder • 6 minutes ago • edited
    UDA/UVF/UFF et al have the same stash of buried guns.
    Take it you’re not Northern Irish?

    More likely one of those cowardly Yanks who dived into your bunker after the Boston Marathon bombing and haven’t come out since.

    3•Edit•Reply”

    Americans on Breitbart London, what would we do without them.

  77. Here in Scotland we are not allowed to travel to England. The border is closed.
    Iain Livingstone, Chief Constable of Police Scotland, has made his statements.

    “Following the announcement by the First Minister, there can be no doubt that, other than for the most essential journeys, people should not be travelling between Scotland and other parts of the UK.”
    “I remain clear I do not consider it appropriate or proportionate for officers to establish check points or road blocks to simply enforce travel restrictions.

    “Today, I have authorised the doubling of our operational presence in the Border areas of Scotland.

    “These highly visible patrols will be proactively deployed on our road networks to continue our operational activity to ensure drivers and vehicles are in a fit condition to drive.”

    How clever of you, Mr Police Weasel, to send out patrols to stop people near the border on the pretext that they may not be in a fit condition to drive and that their vehicles should also be inspected. Of course, these will not be official “check points” will they? The blatant, deceptive inconsistency of these statements should be obvious. The police love nothing better than throwing their weight around when it involves innocent citizens, the poor, the inarticulate, the humble. (A far cry from real baddies – ah, yes.). As far as I am aware there is no legal basis for these actions, but hey!, it’s the police, right?
    Not wishing to complicate things but when we go to buy ice cream in Eyemouth we go into England and out again, because that is what the main road does. Back roads are available, but a nightmare. A minor inconvenience, although we do have experience of being interrogated by incredulous police officers when we were stopped in a census point while on a 30 mile trip to buy ice cream in Musselburgh. But I digress.
    Sick people and hospital out patients from Eyemouth and the area will have to cross the border, into England and out again, to travel to the Borders General Hospital. I wonder how many will be harassed, frightened or even arrested by our brave policemen?

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/health/coronavirus/police-scotland-double-its-presence-border-areas-no-checkpoints-planned-3074144https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55392678

    1. Since Schengen and no customs controls at ports the French authorities have set up customs checks at motorway péage posts where people have to pay their tolls.

      As there is a port quite near us at St Malo they regularly set up a check on lorries at a roundabout near us. They cannot do it at the port itself but they find a way around that by setting up checks wherever and whenever they feel like it.

      The whole edifice of the EU i founded on total hypocrisy.

      1. In the early hours a truck driver phoned into the radio show. He said he was parked up in a truckstop on the French/Belgium border, after catching possibly, the last train over, before the blockade went up. He also said he had seen no-one at the port (could explain the migrants ease ) and that he had been doing two trips a week for about 9 months. He had NEVER been given a temperature test nor a covid check on any of the trips. He had been asked a few times for his travel check documents.

      2. Customs checks?

        You sure that’s what they are doing?

        Filling every available gap in a trailer with an illegal immigrant more like it.

      1. I know, I know. But seriously, we have stoats hereabouts and they don’t care much for weasels.

    3. I wonder by what authority she orders closure of the border?? I would like to see that challenged in the courts.

      1. By what authority is any of this happening?
        If Boris is invoking Tier 4 on the basis of something that was passed by Parliament a few weeks ago we are sliding into dangerous territory. If he is using Orders in Council, we may already be there.
        The Enabling Act in 1933 allowed the Chancellor of Germany (technically the Cabinet) to pass laws without involving the Reichstag. Thus did the legally elected Chancellor become a dictator, quite legally.
        Are we there yet?

      1. I forwarded it to my former student flat mate, a keen railway modeller. He was much amused.

  81. I am signing off – got to get ready to go for the CT scan.

    I hope to be around tomorrow. Play nicely.

  82. Latest Breaking News – The French people traffickers have suspended their rubber dinghy cross channel service for 48 hours, things are getting very serious. very serious indeed.

  83. That Neil Ferguson scientist whispering in Boris Johnsons ear has said draconian lockdown measures should be in place until Easter . So another year wrecked, its endless.

    1. You might have thought that Fergusson’s past performance would have convinced any sane politician not to pay him any attention; sadly …

      2. Congratulations; you managed to combine ‘sane’ and ‘politician’ in one coherent sentence.

    2. Hello daughter. They have, obviously, never looked at the history of Ferguson’s pronouncements to see how he’s never made a correct forecast. Our politicians are as defective as Ferguson’s modelling programme.

    3. …….unless we, the people, do something about it. Time to get that longbow out and blow the dust off that axe, Aesthel, methinks. You first as you have the necessary wherewithall…….

      In the end, this will be sorted only by the people.

    4. I wish that I could say it was your problem but these scientists(?) appear to have a close exchange going on. Ontario is now facing a shutdown on Christmas eve – same words, same reasoning.

      At least our lockdown is not until Easter- yet!

    4. I wouldn’t trust anything given as a present by that mentally disturbed American .

      She is mendacious and manipulating , and a coercive controller.

      She has her eyes on the Crown for Harry, don’t know how that would work , but what Megain wants , Megain gets .

    2. O’Brien and others like him need to split from the Conservatives and form a centre-right conservative party

      1. 51 – signed not because of any climate emergency but it’s a shocking waste of money and environmentally destructive.

    5. HS2 is horrible, but it’s part of a Europe wide network of high speed rail. Stopping it was never going to be a local decision. Similar local campaigns are going on in other parts of Europe, with no chance of success.

    1. 327606+ up ticks,
      Afternoon C,
      If so four and a half years late, if done straight off we would be about breaking even now instead of future generations being in debt.

      Ps What any of them say and reality, are two different Country’s.

    2. Hmm – Boris also said that a second lockdown would be “catastrophic” and that it would be “inhuman to cancel Christmas”. I don’t trust the bar stewards.

      1. It was in a reply to Peston’s question at the press conference just after 5 pm today. He was smiling as he answered and an extended transition period has already been turned down several times.

        1. He exchanged a look with Grant S. which said “Here we go again”. The question was about Brexit & nothing to do with Covid, so totally irrelevant. That’s why he was smiling.

    1. Or do what many of us seem to have been doing. Ignore them all and get on with life as near normal as possible.
      Using common sense where necessary.

      1. It’s not normal to have no social life, to not see one’s friends for lunch, to never go anywhere, to have no concerts, theatre or sporting activities. I’m sitting here at my keyboard instead of going out and about. I’m not getting enough exercise, and certainly drinking more than before.

        I do the weekly shop, and not much else. It’s exisiting, not living. I’m lucky to be in good health, and so is my husband, but it’s boring.

        1. Now imagine you’ve only got 70 quid a week and more than 50% of it goes on utilities and council tax.

          And yet people still seem to think that others choose this life deliberately just for the 70 quid every week.

          1. Well I used to work for DWP and many of our customers put a great deal of effort into not looking for work.

          2. I know kids in their early 20’s who have never worked a day in their life. They are carrying on a family tradition, their parents have never worked either.
            £70, far too much in those circumstances.

          5. They do.
            “I don’t want to move away, my family’s round here”
            Plus the ones who supplement the bennies with casual work are mostly quite comfortable.

        2. This far north we seem to be avoiding all that near as dammit. Few problems so far.
          It’s all about working round the restrictions and using common sense where necessary.
          Maybe we’re outside range of the MSM.

          1. It wasn’t too bad during the spring and summer – but since October and the dark nights, things seem to have closed in. Normally, at this time of year, we’d have concerts, table tennis matches, get-togethers for a dinner, events for fundraising for our charity, etc, etc. Not just sitting at home.

    2. If the Government’s scientific advisors are correct, it seems to me that there would be very few dissenting voices.

      The fact that so many scientists, medical staff, and pharmacologists in relevant fields, with reputations to protect, are speaking against “The Science” suggests that everything is not what the Government is trying to sell.

      1. The naysayers to government policy are professionals with standards to uphold – the integrity of the scientific method is under threat. I doubt that they would want to be tarred with the same brush as those who have taken the 30 pieces of silver.

        2. Spot on KtK.

          The censorship of the scientists, those expressing dissension from stated government policy, by MSM is an abomination and should be a criminal offence. All views should be aired, not the pro-lockdown, pro-vaccine slant that is projected by the BBC and press.

        1. I certainly think that they are; but as to a reckoning, short of civil war, I don’t see them getting what they richly deserve.

  92. I know you didn’t ask for my opinion… but here it is anyway……….. (Updated with John Major)………………………….

    George Soros and Open Society Rule Britannia Alert !

    Why are Con/Lab/Lib pretty much the same ?

    Because since the 1990s, certain UK politicians have colluded and conspired with George Soros and his multi million dollar foundation, Open Society London.

    As Nigel Farage tells us……….

    ”George Soros has spent billions in the EU to undermine the nation state. This is where the real international political collusion is”……………

    https://twitter.com/nigel_farage/status/930368687638564864?lang=en

    Here’s a brief synopsis of the ”political collusion” and conspiracy between Con/LabLib and George Soros and Open Society as I see it…………………

    When did it all start to go seriously wrong for the UK ?

    At the meeting between billionaire George Soros and Tony Blair at the New York Plaza Hotel in April 1996 where Tony Blair wanted election funding and George Soros wanted legislation, policy and favors if Blair won in 1997. It was a trade and exactly the same as subsequently happened between Soros and Obama.

    That explains why Tony Blair sold George Soros 750 UK government buildings in a low price sweetheart deal in 2000 which George Soros immediately sold for a very substantial profit… to repay the election expenses provided to Tony Blair and New Labor……….

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2000/jul/31/5

    Meaning in effect that the British people paid for New Labor’s 1997 election victory.

    A further example of Tony Blair’s conspiracy and collusion was the astonishing low price sale of 31% of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough (renamed QinetiQ) in 2002 to John Major’s new employer, private equity fund, Carlyle Group of Washington DC.

    If one wondered if this was a ”sweetheart deal” designed by Mr Blair to benefit Mr Major’s employer, Carlyle Group, where just by ”coincidence”, Mr Blair’s close friend Mr Soros had $100,000,000 invested in a ”buy out fund” from 1994 (probably part of the proceeds of the 1992 ERM event managed by Mr Major), all doubt is dispelled by the revelation that Mr Blair in effect paid Carlyle to buy 31% of QinetiQ with a lucrative defence contract on the day of sale, and it all likely landed in Mr Soros’ fund!

    So I wonder who got a payoff? Probably everyone !

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-377208/A-scandal-sells-taxpayer-short.html

    The extraordinary ”coincidence” of Mr Major being awarded a million dollar position at Carlyle where Mr Soros of all people had $100,000,000 invested from early 1994 should be particularly noted. Does this have implications for the ERM event, and did Mr Major meet Mr Soros at Davos in January 1990?

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1993/12/08/soros-pledges-100-million-in-carlyle-fund/c679195a-cb3c-45fb-a5f2-4ba0cbf8a583/

    https://www.carlyle.com/media-room/news-release-archive/john-major-appointed-european-chairman-carlyle-group

    The Human Rights Act 1998, the Climate Change Act 2008, Equality Act 2010, Marriage Act 2013, speech laws, no upper limit migration policy and even the removal of Colonel Gaddafi were all ”leveraged” by George Soros and his foundation, Open Society London. This exists to leverage the British government to do what George Soros wants and was given $60,000,000 by Mr Soros in 2018 alone……………………..

    https://twitter.com/BrugesGroup/status/1181569492792598531

    Consequently, in effect, George Soros and his foundation, Open Society London which is just 10 minutes walk to Downing Street, have in many respects been the UK government since 1997 which is why virtually all major UK laws since then are identical to Soros policies.

    That explains why David Cameron was awarded this job rubbing shoulders with the global government multi billionaires……………..

    ”In May 2017 the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) granted Cameron’s appointment as a Director of U2 Frontman Bono’s One Foundation which is also supported by Bill Gates and George Soros’s Open Society”

    George Soros made billions of dollars from a major inside trading operation with Barack Obama which subsequently was reinvested leveraging governments to adopt his ideology, please scroll………

    https://politicalarena.org/2012/01/14/democrats-sugar-daddy-george-soros-helped-craft-stimulus-then-invested-in-companies-benefiting/

    George Soros admits leveraging laws, policy and political influence in his Open Society mission statement……..

    https://hrdn.eu/open-society-foundations/

    A brief precis of which is……

    ”We leverage policy, legislation and political influence and build strong relationships with officials, politicians, NGOs and other actors”.

    Despite the ERM disaster and despite the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by Soros via Open Society London ”leveraging politicians and officials” over many years, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron all omitted Mr Soros and Open Society London in their autobiographies !

    Even the Bill Gates Foundation, which wants to vaccinate the ”entire global population” is in on the act because Bill Gates apparently controls the UK’s C-19 response………….

    https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/who-controls-british-government-response-covid19-part-one

    I wonder why all this is being kept secret by the media ? It must surely be one of the biggest political scandals ever !

  93. Hong Kong activist Nathan Law applies for asylum in Britain. 21 December 2020.

    The Hong Kong activist Nathan Law has applied for asylum in the UK, six months after fleeing his home on the eve of the national security law coming into force.

    Law revealed in an opinion article for the Guardian on Monday that he had submitted a refugee claim to the UK government. He said he had chosen Britain in the hope he could “sound an alarm” over threats to democracy in Europe from the Chinese Communist party..

    Out of the wok into the fire eh?

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/21/hong-kong-activist-nathan-law-applies-for-asylum-in-britain

  94. “A senior representative of a Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece lashed out at Britain’s Mr Brexit, Nigel Farage, telling him to “wear a mask and stop talking shit” on Sunday.”

    Any Nigel fans about? Not you obviously ogga.

      1. I had the same problem in the local Co-op a while back. Couldn’t tell if the mask-wearing old dear stood at the other end of the aisle was giving maskless me the evil eye. Luckily I’m thick-skinned, made her wait before I moved on 🙂

  95. If ‘new Covid’ has already spread across the UK (as ‘old Covid’ did before it) then could someone please explain to me what is the point of the restrictions?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-christmas-tier-4-boris-johnson-lockdown-london/#comments

    The virus most likely started as long ago as September 2019 and had spread across the world before we even knew about it. It is likely that the March ‘outbreak’ was actually the tail end of the seasonal peak of this respiratory virus. The horse has long since bolted. Why then are we still trying to bolt the stable door? What exactly is the point of all this mayhem?

    1. You must have missed the memo:

      Build back better, build back fairer, build back greener.

      And tough if it’s you and yours who lose out, the elites will be coining it and will be consuming even more than ever before.

    3. Now the follow up question should be how could new covid spread across the mask wearing UK, or is it possible that face masks are of no benefit.

  97. Evening, all. Of course there are ways of celebrating Christmas under lockdown; you can drink yourself to death and over-eat, because there isn’t much else left to do. Salop (and I use the abbreviation advisedly, given its French connection) police are threatening to bash your door down to ensure you’re Covid-compliant. Travel has been disrupted, if not actually cancelled, and places of “entertainment” like ice rinks are ensuring that Tier 3 (we’re in Tier 2 here) visitors are turned away. You can’t go down the road into Wales and the Boxing Day meet has been cancelled. Christmas services (no wine for communion, socially distanced and don’t you dare sing!) have to be booked and tickets are limited. Yay! Can’t wait to celebrate. Oh, the instruments of joy – oy,oy,oy,oy – the instruments of jo-oy-oy, the stupid pols employ.

    1. “You can’t go down the road into Wales …”

      Try going Cainryan to Belfast December 23rd. May the Fishwife burn in hell.

    2. I’m Director of Music for a united Parish of four churches. I used to direct two choirs. No more. We’re not allowed to sing. I can play voluntaries on the organ before and after the socially-distanced services. Hymns/carols are purchased from Mr Bezos. This is the ‘New Normal’. None must sing, since that is pleasurable, and will inevitably result in death. Or worse.

      1. None must sing, since that is pleasurable, and will inevitably result in death. Or worse.

        You’ve heard me sing!

        };-O

          2. one of our local choirs has started meeting again. Practices on zoom, performances are outdoors when they must stand nine feet apart.

            I would hate to be the choristor that is told to put their zoom connection to mute.

          3. For info Richard I joined a large Choir and during rehearsal every chorister is put on mute. The only sound is from the Music Director and The accompanist…

          4. that would be a problem if I managed to mumble my way through the rehearsals and they only found out that I was tone deaf at a live performance.

            Although I suppose that they have ways to handle that.

            Our friend is in that local choir and she told me that she finds it very strange to practice without hearing the others around her. Less distracting though than their first efforts when they did not mute the participants.

  98. Who is very influential with Mr Emmanuel Macron ? Mr Alex Soros…………

    https://www.facebook.com/Alexandersorospublic/posts/great-catching-up-with-emmanuel-macron-during-the-inauguration-of-the-second-ann/1402709923224686/

    Who is very supportive of Mr George Soros ? Mr Matthew Hancock………..

    https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1075319635464081409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1075319635464081409%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fby%2Fdisqus_Vs7PX8srwh%2F

    An interesting ”coincidence” !

    2. Hancock’s “in these troubled times”, if only the tosser knew what was to come. Maybe he did.

    1. OK

      You have shown that the Democrats took covid seriously and avoided mass meetings during a time when many states and medical authorities were telling people to avoid mass gatherings.

      Your point is?

      1. Surely you understand really ?

        The Dems obviously did not get 81 million votes. In no way does that figure match the counties.

        1. No no, 81 million is not the number of biden votes, it is a count of the number of state officials that have apparently been corrupted or compromised into reversing the election vote.

          How’s the latest supreme court challenge going, has Trump still lost?

      2. If it is true, of the generally accepted “bell-weather” constituencies, all bar one went to Trump.
        That suggests something strange is going on.

        If the “counties” tally is also correct, it suggests that it’s not just strange it’s a lie.

        1. the vote count is obvious, but the other lines mean what exactly?

          I took it as a count of the number of rallies held to support a candidate. As Trump was on a blitz to hold as many rallies as possible while Biden was staying at home, that kind of disparity makes sense.

          Most democrat strongholds are in big cities, Republicans have escaped to the country. Winning Fulton County, which is basically Atlanta gets many more brownie points than winning a rural county and some have been talking about reforming the system to one county, one vote which would benefit Republicans.

          If Biden only won half of the counties that Obama won, even though that count is in itself meaningless then index something is amiss

          1. I suggest you look at what the Bell weather places are. They have a record of changing and running to the eventual winner, be it Republican or Democrat.
            I understand that this year every one, bar one, went Trump.

      1. So Biden, a gibbering idiot cowering in a basement throughout with a running mate, one of the most unpopular politicians in America, won a higher proportion of the vote than Obama in his speechifying pomp?

        In the words of John McEnroe ”you cannot be serious”.

  100. Despite several refusals and an acknowledgment by e-mail thereof, my electricity supplier is still sending me letters asking me to arrange an appointment for the fitting of a smart meter. How do I get the b*****s off my case? Now they want to know the reason for my refusal.

        1. They are going to control how much electricity you get, smart meter or not so you may as well accept the convenience.

          Cannot you get a smart meter installed and then change suppliers, isn’t that supposed to cause them problems.

          1. “They are going to control how much electricity you get, smart meter or not…”

            How? Shut down the entire neighbourhood? Send gangs out to visit the houses of refuseniks?

          2. They did it back in the seventies with their rolling blackouts.

            When the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t puff they will need to something like that again.

          4. Not beyond possible, just awkward and time consuming.

            Our supplier can certainly control delivery to a small number of consumers, it wouldn’t take much to centralise control here, but there again most of our supply is overhead so they can access it easily and they already use the power lines as a big private network.

          5. The newer ones are a bit smarter and can cope with a change of suppliers. I don’t have one though, because they can’t cope with Economy 7 yet. As my current meter is only a few years old I’m hoping to keep them at bay for a bit longer.

        2. I still advise declining. The problem with my meter is not the meter itself, but its position on the wall (about ten foot up and just below the ceiling).

          3. That baffles me, King Stephen, because it mentions a Bluetooth and all of mine are white.

            :-))

          4. How does that work? I’ve never taken a selfie (with or without a stick) in my life. Does one not have to press a button on the ‘phone to take the photo? If the ‘phone is six feet away do I get an arm extension? 🙂

          6. At that angle, I’d either have to use the ‘phone as a normal camera and stand in the middle of the kitchen, or I’d need longer than 40 inches to get far enough away, pointing away from the meter, to be able to capture the reading with the ‘phone screen vertical. There is, however, one more small problem; it still doesn’t solve the problem of pressing the button on the meter to show the reading – unless there is an attachment to put on the end of the stick to do that 🙂

          8. I stand on a chair and then stand on the electric cooker (making sure it’s off, of course!). It’s the only way I can get close enough to the meter (as an added complication, it sits directly above the oil boiler) to reach the button I need to press to get the reading. Apart from the addition of the oil boiler, this is how it has always been, but when we first moved in (in the eighties) regular meter readings by the electricity company were the norm and I didn’t need to perform the gymnastics. Then they outsourced and lo! We rarely get it read now. The electricity company knows what a difficult job it is for me (and impossible for MOH) to read the meter, but that seems to count for nought, despite our being on the “vulnerable” register.

          9. Completely OT – but I just read your exchange with Jennifer on Saturday’s page about benefits and entitlements, and she is right that you should be entitled to claim Attendance Allowance for your OH. It’s not means tested and is based on the person’s needs.

          10. I do claim Attendance Allowance and I’ve just applied for it to be increased because I now have to do night time care (which I got). I just have to pay for anything and everything I need in terms of care. I am totally fed up with being told “you can have X, but you have to pay for it” or “you should buy Z”, when there are people who have never worked a day in their lives (and moreover have no intention of working, whether they could or not) who get housing benefit, pension credit (and thus free TV licences) and other benefits. I’ve just had a phone call today offering me Y service at £15 per hour. When I think of the money that has been taken from me over the years for NIC etc, it goes against the grain to have to keep paying more, I’m afraid. Saturday came at the end of a long week as well, so I probably wasn’t in the best of moods (and being lectured by Jennifer put the tin hat on it, to be honest, which is why I left early). Attendance Allowance goes on paying things like the increased electricity bill (MOH feels the cold very badly and I have to do a lot of washing), incontinence products (which I have been told I can’t get free because we don’t qualify) and extra food – MOH eats like a horse (and stays lath thin) with no thought that it would be better if things lasted a couple of days rather than stuffing everything down in less than 24 hours. I just feel worn out with the cooking, the washing, the shopping and the waiting on hand and foot. Sorry about the whinge. I’ll feel better when I get more sunshine (and more sleep would be a help, too).

          11. Don’t worry about whinging – you need to let it out sometimes. I didn’t realise you already did claim it. Nothing else available then, except to manage as best you can.

            Jennifer means well, sometimes, but there are few topics on which I would engage.

          12. I will reply to Jennifer’s first response to me, but after that (because I know she won’t take into account anything I’ve said, but will continue to put forward what she intends regardless) I ignore it. If that makes me a bad person, at least it saves my BP going through the roof 🙂 It does have the advantage of leaving her with the last word, which she is determined to achieve. I tend to have a short fuse these days, largely through stress, disturbed nights and having too much to do, particularly things which I don’t like doing and feel I don’t do very well. I was never cut out for the role I have been forced to adopt, unfortunately. Still, mustn’t grumble 🙂

          13. You have the patience of a saint it seems to me! I hope the limited support you find here can help.
            I’ve just replied to Jennifer on another post, so I expect she will have another last word……

          14. I shall get my reward in Heaven, I expect. I certainly won’t get any on earth! I had booked to go out with a couple of friends for a meal on Boxing Day. Thanks to the lunatics in Westminster, the restaurant has been put in Tier 3 (they are 5 miles away) so it’s been cancelled (the proprietor rang me up not long ago to give me the joyful news). The London loons have completely effed up my Boxing Day – no hunting and now no meal 🙁 Thank goodness for Nottl!

          16. Can you not get it moved to somewhere a bit more convenient? OH has to stand on a chair in the hall to read ours with a torch but that’s easy compared with yours.

          17. Yes, I could. I did look at that, but it wasn’t cheap to do it (there was no way the electricity company was going to do it without a substantial fee). I’m sorry to keep harping on about money, but it’s looming large in my daily worries at the moment, as I’m responsible for all the bills (of which there are quite a few hefty ones coming up). If there’s anything left after the house maintenance, etc has been paid, I may well go ahead with it.

          18. Which is why I challenged Richard. My meter is in a box on the outside wall, accessible and readable. It’s not the reading that’s the problem!

    1. Oh NO!!
      It’s ALL my fault…

      That’s what I always put in my mulled wine, (but less heavy on the cloves).

  102. proof if needed that they have lost their marbles in government

    The Ontario government have joined the rest and announced a lockdown later this month. If you read the small print, golf courses are allowed to stay open but ski hills must close.

    We are in a temperate zone (as far as it goes in ontario), we will be lucky to see temperatures above zero . Rhetorically asks, is there no common sense in government?

    1. ‘…, is there no common sense in government?’

      No, Richard.

      Next question, this is an easy quiz!

    1. Sorry, Bob, but I couldn’t be less interested. A year ago, I’d just seen the end of two successful Carol Services. Fast forward twelve months – the two choirs I used to direct are now probably defunct, I’m graciously allowed to play organ voluntaries before and after our increasingly rare services (leaving aside the fact that I can’t read the music with a sodding mask on, since the specs mist up), but in place of hymns or carols, I’m paying bloody J. Bezos for the privilege of downloading them to my phone. We’ve had to cancel half of our Christmas Day services, since most of our clergy live outside Tier 4.

      As I understand it, organised religion isn’t allowed after the Great Reset. In the meantime, most of it is conducted on Zoom. In the last week, my friend Dianne in Devon has been to carol concerts in farm shops, pubs, and in the middle of her zero-carbon eco home estate. The only place where carols are banned is the effing Church of England. Thanks, Welby…

      Meanwhile, in Tier 4, my invitation to spend Christmas Day with former neighbours has been (understandably) rescinded, so lunch on Friday is prolly beans on toast. Frankly, I’m past caring.

      2. So sorry, Geoff. Grim. I’m presuming you’re not in an organ loft, then? Never quite know what you lot get up to up there at the best of times 😉

      3. Sorry about that, Geoff.
        :-((
        We’re short of Christmas guests this year, so if you’re in the area, we’re allowed six visitors and would be delighted if you’d stop by and help solve the alcohol storage problem. ;-))

        1. Just tried to book an Uber to Norway. Doesn’t seem to be working…

          Neighbours say they’re going to drop off a Xmas lunch, which is kind. Meanwhile, we’ve had to cancel a Christmas morning service, since two of our clergy live in Tier 2. Another has decided he’ll never venture acoss his threshold until he’s been vaccinated. Sigh…

      4. It is grim. I have said this before, but I think the church is going to go underground because of Welby’s attitude and his army of obedient drones.

  105. Today’s Breitbart…

    “Actor Eddie Izzard has announced that a “transition period” has begun by which the British comedian will be in “girl mode from now on” and use the pronouns “she” and “her.””

    Some stories we Old Bangorians wish Breibart wouldn’t mention.
    We put it down to Izzard growing up next to Lembit Opik.

  106. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse….The DT is reporting:

    “Professor Lockdown is back. Neil Ferguson, the epidemiologist widely credited as the architect of the first national lockdown in the spring, has emerged once again as the most influential adviser to the Government during the current coronavirus wave….”

      1. Never mind going back into the water, this is a case of thinking it’s safe to put a foot over the threshold!

    3. As our leading, deranged, exterminologist, he should have been pensioned off many years ago …

          1. Raleigh experienced a Jacobean show trial. The end was a foregone conclusion, although he defended himself excellently.

    4. So how can anybody with the remotest bit of brain and memory of goings-on take the government seriously now? How stupid do they really think we are? What an insult to even the collective intelligence of the nation.

      1. Problem is, PM, there’s a lot of stupid out there. And there’s no cure for it, either.

        1. December GE 10 million+ voted Corbyn and all that went with him.
          Referendum 2016, 13 million opted for “Don’t Know/Don’t Care!”
          As you say, no cure for stupid.

      2. 327606+ up ticks,
        Evening PM,
        They are of a very dangerous nature but the politico’s count on them to return the said politico’s to power & it works every time.

    5. With his appalling track record, how is it that this charlatan, Neil Ferguson, is still in Government employ?

      He should have been sacked months ago, given ten minutes to clear his desk, and sent forth to profess somewhere else.

  107. In Scotland we are forbidden to travel to England, as we might have done yesterday and last week. Yet foreigners and returning UK citizens continue to arrive in this country from all over the globe.
    Why is this? I can think of no argument that would make it OK for this to happen. It is too dangerous for someone to come here from 80 miles away in Glasgow, but OK for people to come here from thousands of miles away in Karachi or Wuhan?

      1. Happy Birthday, Elsie!

        Sorry, I wasn’t fully functioning this morning. Was cancelling Christmas and coming to terms with not even being allowed into the office today. On the Beeb laptop at home and calming down a bit now.

          1. Yes, our regular night porter (a Chinaman, incidentally) contacted the building manager in Pakistan and between them they sorted it so the heating came back on at 11 pm.

          3. “Yes, our regular night porter (a Chinaman, incidentally) contacted the building manager in Pakistan …”
            London Sue?

        3. A lot of people are in the same (frustrated) boat, Sue E. Fortunately I have spent most of my life on my own at Christmas (which is my preference). This year I have had the added bonus of not having had to put up with my idiot son Olaf Junior nor The missing Master.

        1. Still no sign of him, Conners. I reckon he is stuck in the sewers of Vienna, and that the sewers have been put in Tier 4!

          :-))

        1. Thank you so much, Maggie. I am very grateful to the very many good wishes received on this site today, as it is a very special birthday (my 75th). If anyone else is kind enough to post me good wishes please accept this as an advance “Thank You” reply. I will now log off from NoTTL and check my other emails which also need to be replied to. A domain, as Uncle Bill might well say.

          2. Danke schon, Herr Oberst. Having arrived in December 1945, I presume I was conceived in March of that year and that my mother had that confirmed by her GP in April 1945. I usually joke that when Hitler heard the news of my upcoming arrival he decided to commit suicide!

            :-))

  108. 327606+ up ticks,
    Once more down to the wire betwixt london / brussels, the very same wire moggy was running day trips to protecting mayday.

    30 con MPs to vote against johnson if he goes for a soft brexit
    30 ? it would NOT reassure me if that numbered 80.

    2. 327606+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      2015 GE, the wretch cameron PM proven treacherous.
      2017 GE, mayday PM proven treacherous,
      2019 GE johnson PM treachery work in progress confirmed shortly.

      Before being allowed to vote again a person should have to show a certificate of sanity, surely, what do you
      say Og ? most definite.

    2. Thanks for your positive and optimistic post, Johnny. Over the past few days I have been struck by an increasingly Scrooge-like gloomy attitude from ever-larger numbers of NoTTLers. Let’s hope that in 2021 things will improve.

      1. I think it’s the pervasive gloomy atmosphere everywhere in the MSM – it seems to seep into everything, even if you keep watching/reading to a minimum.

          1. I do sympathise – thankfully, when I walk the dog I do meet other dog owners and can have a chat (usually about the lunatics in Westminster – I am not alone in feeling as I do, which is reassuring). I do have a couple of friends who ring me occasionally to see how I am and my cleaner comes in once a week. If it weren’t for the riding and the dog walking I think I should be doolally by now.

    1. I bet those sell for a pretty penny & how refreshing to see a residential street without parked cars or wheelie bins.

    3. Vicars’ Close. The street is 456 ft long and its width decreases subtly from S to N – an interesting perspective effect.

      Edit: My neck of the woods. The houses were identical when built to house the vicars of Wells. It is possible to work out some of the original features by reference to surviving parts but otherwise they are much altered. The gardens were added in C15 as originally the street was full width albeit closed at one end by the Chapel.

  111. Just wondering if all these co-ordinated lockdowns are designed to put the squeeze on China’s economy and its unfair balance of trade?

  112. Lady Tebbit, Norman’s wife, has died aged 86. Not Covid related, according to Lord Tebbit.

    Far from it, in fact.

    1. His dedication and care for his wife is an example to us all.

      I hope he gets a few years where he can think only of his own needs.

    2. Sorry to hear that. Since she was paralysed in the Brighton bombing, he has shown exemplary dedication to her and her welfare.

    1. Who should we have voted for back in December?

      ETA: Why do none of the eejits ever answer that question?

    2. Boris gives the impression of being accident prone and lacks the leadership skills that would enable him to choose competent ministers. I cannot believe that he is as mendacious as Hancock but he has surrounded himself with useless apparatchiks and left solid experienced MPs on the back benches.

    3. Who should we have voted for back in December?

      ETA: Why do none of the eejits ever answer that question?

        1. Nigel destroyed UKIP as he destroyed the Brexit Party.
          2014/15 millions of voters gave UKIP their chance.
          Kippers were more interested in in-fighting with their MEPs, Councillors and MP.
          When they weren’t fighting with themselves. Millions of votes wasted.

          1. It got us the referendum though. 10 more days to see if it is honoured. Not holding my breath.

        2. Have a bet with you JN.
          Nigel and his Reform ‘Party’ will go the same way as UKIP & Brexit Party.

  115. Our leaders are trapped in an echo chamber – no wonder they’re making such bad decisions

    By closing down the public sphere, politicians have deprived themselves of their most valuable asset: the wisdom of an engaged citizenry

    CLAIRE FOX

    When MPs and Lords were sent home early last Thursday, we were put on standby. If the UK secured a deal with the EU after endless fraught negotiations, we could expect our festivities (what festivities?) to be disrupted. We could be called back at any time in the next two weeks to debate and vote on the passage of the relevant legislation.

    Putting aside the problem of rushing through legislation to ratify a deal few would have time to scrutinise, this suggests that, when necessary, government is able to use the recall process to allow parliament to deal with urgent business.

    I have every sympathy with those MPs who are demanding parliament be recalled to hold government to account for the drastic decision to impose tighter Covid-19 controls, effectively cancelling Christmas for millions of people. It is telling that this demand has been largely confined to Tory the backbenches. Why on earth aren’t opposition MPs demanding the evidence and insisting that they are given a hearing in parliament? The Prime Minister’s U-turn on his earlier promise – and his proclamation that would be inhumane to call off festivities – is very definitely urgent business; all parliamentarians should want the fullest debate on its implications.

    However, I am less convinced by MP Charles Walker’s rather conspiratorial suggestion that the Saturday night announcement was timed specifically to avoid parliamentary scrutiny. On balance, I think the cabinet were genuinely spooked by new, worrying information and acted (too) hastily. They should have recalled parliament, not just because there is a democratic duty to allow scrutiny of such serious law-making, but also because they need as much external input as possible to sharpen up their decision-making.

    It isn’t just families who are confined to ever narrower bubbles of social contact, reducing the depth of experience and discussion as a consequence. (No disrespect to my nearest and dearest, but our conversations are distinctly less interesting when we have so little out-of-home experience to talk about.) The Government is also governing in a restricted bubble.

    Stuck on a treadmill, our politicians are only hearing opinions from a limited sphere of interest and expertise. More often than not they miss the big picture, oblivious to the consequences of the policies they impose. If you only ever talk to SAGE scientists, or mistake opinion polling and media headlines for the mood of the public, you’re doomed to mess up.

    Who could have predicted that a dramatic press conference designed for a domestic audience that ratcheted up fear about a new variant and more infectious strain of the virus allegedly rampant in the UK, would lead to an international travel blockade? Just about anyone from the political world – outside the rarefied committee rooms filled with modellers and myriad scientists with little experience of international relations. These unintended consequences of rash action, that have now created a brand new crisis, could well have been anticipated and averted if parliament had been recalled.

    Who could have predicted that thousands would flock to railway stations to escape tier-4 madness having been given only a few hours notice of draconian new rules onfamily gatherings? Almost anyone with an ounce of common sense – though certainly not the behavioural scientists† (who seem to view humans as akin to lab rats, and betray scant empathy for real living behaviour). Definitely not Matt Hancock, who had the gall to describe the exodus as “irresponsible”. If he got out more and talked to a few normal people – or even his own backbenchers – he might have had the foresight to work out that panicked travel was inevitable.

    The truth is, our government desperately needs more exposure to new ideas and fresh thinking. They have created an echo chamber of technocratic courtiers whose scientific credentials give them unearned authority to shape policy. Alongside this, we have an opposition and media who might be keen to nit-pick over details querulously and loudly, but are fundamentally in agreement with the lockdown approach. Worse, Covid policies have destroyed any meaningful access to the views of the country. The public are reduced to data points; the media’s dystopian headlines mistaken are for public opinion.

    Granted, the public mood is hard to read at present. After all, atomised individuals and households are often unable to have those invaluable conversations and interactions in staff rooms, at the pub, or among neighbours and family that shape and change their views. Instead, a fragmented populace has been robbed of agency, reduced to sitting on the sofa waiting – full of gut-wrenching dread – for the next proclamation of its fate.

    This is one of the real democratic tragedies of the pandemic. The government’s authority depends on public engagement. Without access to a sense of collective thinking, it has been left rudderless. Historically, the populace has tempered, challenged and mitigated against the arid, technocratic approach of political apparatchiks. Whether they know it or not, by closing down the public sphere, political leaders have also deprived themselves of their most valuable asset: a free-to-access think-tank of the wisdom, pressure, and common-sense insights of an engaged citizenry.

    Recalling parliament may not be a substitute for a vibrant public sphere. But it would at least acknowledge that those who elect MPs haven’t been completely side-lined in decision-making that has far-reaching implications for their lives. And democracy – even a hollowed-out version – is always better than rule by fiat.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/21/leaders-trapped-echo-chamber-no-wonder-making-bad-decisions/

    Unfortunately, they have had chances to grab Tatty and Halfcock by their throats but passed them up.

    † I had a vision of Susan Michie on the edge of a station platform but then I thought of the train driver…

    1. “Granted, the public mood is hard to read at present. After all, atomised individuals and households are often unable to have those invaluable conversations and interactions in staff rooms, at the pub, or among neighbours and family that shape and change their views. Instead, a fragmented populace has been robbed of agency, reduced to sitting on the sofa waiting – full of gut-wrenching dread – for the next proclamation of its fate.” Isn’t that the point of it all? Closing the pubs so we can’t meet up and put the world to rights, stopping family reunions so that people can exchange different viewpoints, filling the days with announcements of doom and gloom so that people lose the will to live, let alone rebel.

    2. “Granted, the public mood is hard to read at present. After all, atomised individuals and households are often unable to have those invaluable conversations and interactions in staff rooms, at the pub, or among neighbours and family that shape and change their views. Instead, a fragmented populace has been robbed of agency, reduced to sitting on the sofa waiting – full of gut-wrenching dread – for the next proclamation of its fate.” Isn’t that the point of it all? Closing the pubs so we can’t meet up and put the world to rights, stopping family reunions so that people can exchange different viewpoints, filling the days with announcements of doom and gloom so that people lose the will to live, let alone rebel.

    1. One thing that hat been guaranteed for years, close to every Service Establishment in Uk,

      there was/iis a Chinese Takeaway/cafe, handy for spying on us

    2. 327606+ up ticks,
      O2O
      The only chinaman I ever trusted in construction Og
      was the chinese PORG, the Wee kin lou.

  118. Chris Packham wants the Royal Family to stop pheasant shooting at Sandringham because an owl got caught in a trap. Very sad Christopher but this does occasionally happen, wildlife isn’t cutesy Watership Down it can be brutal.

    1. Got a good friend who joined a fairly small local pheasant shoot. He’s been a shooter all his life and thought the membership chores were worth the sport. One chore is feeding the birds and watering etc. Also, he has to check the squirrel traps which it appears just lock onto a limb and lets the squirrel die slowly or until the weekly check is done and they are dispatched. They too have caught an owl. He’s leaving the shoot as he regards it as cruel.

      1. I’m not too sure how they go about shooting, its not something I’d ever do myself even if I do eat pheasant, duck etc .. I have hoped they don’t suffer .

        1. The peasants pheasants are beaten and shot at, and if not dead, quickly dispatched and all taken to eat. It’s not one of the industrial sized shoots where thousands of dead pheasants are piled up and rarely all go for food. They have a decent, if shortish life, and apparently owls love a young pheasant. He has no qualms about shooting at a pheasant, in flight at least.

          1. Right on , MM, see my comment above .

            On formal pheasant shoots , no ground game should ever be shot..

            The beaters and pickeruppers have to be protected !

          2. He’s not the pheasant-plucker,
            He’s the pheasant-plucker’s son.
            He’s only plucking pheasants.
            Till the pheasant-plucker comes.

      2. I have had spaniels for ever , and my previous spaniels were used for beating , they were well trained , and I had many shoots where I used to go beating .. paid £15 per day in those days , lunch thrown in , and elevenses. Lots of superb company and decent people who paid big money to shoot .

        Shooting has changed , the old school have gone, retired , manners changed hugely in the 90s. I should relate many stories , some good but many bad of how SOME in the shooting world were an absolute disgrace. Big Money talks .

        My ideas and attitudes have changed completely about country sports and persuits .

      3. Fen type traps should be checked daily, or even twice daily. They are designed to kill but if the animal is very quick they do sometimes only catch a limb or even a tail. All the gamekeepers I used to know went round their fen traps or fox snares at least once a day. At least one used to do so with a flashlight at the end of a shooting in December. Only the local Forestry Commission trapper used to set fox snares and leave them. I’ll never forget the sight of a roe doe with all the flesh stripped from her leg. My father is no softy, but having shot her he got on the phone and blasted seven sorts of hell out of the local FC office.

        I once managed to get a mole caught by just one paw in a half-tunnel trap, and he bit me before I despatched him.

        1. It’s Tennyson.

          I know that because……

          It was a question on the Chase last night at 5am when I was having my dinner 🙂

          2. As for 5am dinner, I’ve done more midnight to midday shifts than one can shake a stick at. 35 consecutive shifts made it seem normal. First couple just to get used to it.

  119. Well, well, well … a real Conservative government :

    Polish Bill Threatens $2.2 Million Fines For Social Media Companies Who Censor Lawful Speech

    BY TYLER DURDEN
    MONDAY, DEC 21, 2020 – 2:45

    As UK lawmakers consider a 2021 ‘Online Safety Bill,’ which would allow fines of up to £18 million (US$24 million) against online platforms that ‘fail to protect users or remove harmful content,” (including ‘disinformation and cyberbullying’) things are a little different in Poland, where sticks and stones still have an advantage over words and political opinions.

    In a new bill which takes censorship decisions out of the hands of ideological activists at leftist tech giants, Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro announced a legal initiative on Thursday which enables individuals to file complaints against social media companies who remove or censor their posts if they don’t break Polish law, according to Poland In.

    Under its provisions, social media services will not be allowed to remove content or block accounts if the content on them does not break Polish law. In the event of removal or blockage, a complaint can be sent to the platform, which will have 24 hours to consider it. Within 48 hours of the decision, the user will be able to file a petition to the court for the return of access. The court will consider complaints within seven days of receipt and the entire process is to be electronic. -Poland In

    That said, while Poland’s constitutional court recognizes that free expression as being “one of the most important values of a democratic state,” they do have some strict defamation laws – while people who bring lawsuits against others risk fines and imprisonment for false accusations.

    “Often, the victims of tendencies for ideological censorship are also representatives of various groups operating in Poland, whose content is removed or blocked, just because they express views and refer to values that are unacceptable from the point of view of communities… with an ever-stronger influence on the functioning of social media,” said Ziobro, adding “We realise that it is not an easy topic, we realise that on the internet there should also be a sphere of guarantees for everybody who feels slandered, a sphere of limitation of various content which may carry with it a negative impact on the sphere of other people’s freedom.”

    “But we would like to propose such tools that will enable both one side and the other to call for the decision of a body that will be able to adjudicate whether content appearing on such and such a social media account really violates personal rights, whether it can be eliminated, or whether there is censorship.”

    If the court rules in favor of the user and the internet service refuses to obey the ruling, they could be fined up to PLN 8 million (US$2.2 million) from the Office of Electronic Communications.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/polish-bill-threatens-22-million-fines-social-media-companies-who-censor-lawful-speech

      1. They know whereof they speak.
        Blighty is spineless because it’s had several hundred years of relative freedom.

  120. As you may have gathered from my earlier post, today has not been a good day. The Rayburn decided to go out and had to be thoroughly cleaned out, relaid and relit. The ash was too hot to put in the bin so had to be left out to cool and I got back too late from town to do it in daylight (the one bright spark is that it will start getting lighter a minute a day from now on), so when I did, I more or less had to do it by feel and the lid of the ash can jammed shut, followed by the handle coming off. The meter reader came, but only put a card through the door so I had to climb up onto the electric stove to press the buttons to read the meter and then telephone it through to the power company. I had to try four times (and in the end use a different number) before I could get a result and give them the readings. It cut me off, wouldn’t allow me to input the readings on the automated section of disembodied voices, then refused to ring at all. Shopping was somewhat manic – clearly we are not going to be able to buy anything for weeks over Christmas and after the New Year, we shan’t be able to buy anything at all due to Brexit (if it happens). As if that weren’t enough, I stacked the dishwasher and set it to run. Instead of 137 (the number of minutes the programme would run on the setting I chose) it showed 80. I tried to cancel it to start again and it refused, but it did stop swishing, which was not a good sign. Eventually it started again (number now 79) and I’ve left it. I expect the fact that MOH opened it during its drying phase the last time I ran it has blown its mind. All I need now is to have to replace the dishwasher 🙁 I can’t get a replacement (like for like) for the indoor/outdoor thermoclock that the builder separated from its probe because it’s out of stock on Amazon and the local electrical supplier doesn’t deal with them. I have decided to go for drugs today (arthritis is very painful so I’m opting for strong painkillers) rather than drink.

    1. I never bother with the do your own meter reading palaver.

      They bill me an estimate, it’s seldom very far out, and sorts itself over time.
      Life’s too short to be jumping to their tune.

      Good luck with the arthritis, it’s a pig.

      2. We mainly get estimated bills. Once a year they read the meter (or not, as the case may be) and there is a massive correction (ie the bill turns out to be twice the “estimated” one. I wish they’d read it regularly. I’m getting too old for gymnastics (that don’t take place on horse-back).

        1. In the past I vowed I wouldn’t willingly have a smart meter installed. The house we bought in the summer came with smart meters
          :-((
          However, the monitor will display the current meter readings at the press of a button.

        2. In the past I vowed I wouldn’t willingly have a smart meter installed. The house we bought in the summer came with smart meters
          :-((
          However, the monitor will display the current meter readings at the press of a button.

          1. My (non-smart) meter will also display the current meter reading at the press of a button. Unfortunately, the meter (with the necessary button) is about ten feet off the floor.

          2. I should have said our meters are in the garage – the monitor is on a kitchen window cill.

          3. Wot u need is the patent Bill Thomas ladder, with added fallery-offishness, when the shock of the reading causes you to reel back.

          4. I use a chair (much less secure) 🙂 The thing is, since I’m such a short-arse (and I’ve shrunk since I’ve aged) I need the chair to stand on the (electric) cooker to be able to reach the button on the meter. I am NOT paying £60 plus to have it moved (and turn into a smart meter at the same time, no doubt).

        3. We had a “smart” water meter installed that is supposed to allow the reader to do it remotely without coming onto the property.
          The current one is number three. It appears that wifi, or whatever they use, doesn’t work here.

    2. Sigh. All I can say, Conners, is tomorrow will be better. Hopefully…

      I’ve left the dishwasher behind. And the washer and the separate dryer. I’ve room in the new kitchen for one appliance only, so I bought a washer/dryer. Not happy. It takes forever. I have a plan. There’s a former airing cupboard, which, with a bit of tweaking, could take the former, leaving space for a dishwasher. But three and a half hours is an awfully long time to dry a modest load.

      1. Rented a cottage recently which had a washer/dryer. It was so slow, as you mention, Geoff. It wasn’t a good washer, nor a good dryer, and all the crockery got broken.
        :-((

      2. That must be the new high speed low energy ”Net Zero” model, Sir, designed to, ummm, er, dry clothes better…..

    3. Did you re-boot the dishwasher (unplug it and wait a few seconds)?
      I have rescued mine a couple of times by uncoupling the waste pipe from the pipe under sink, and attaching it to the cold tap, then turning it on full blast. Clears a few blockages out of the dishwasher!

      1. Wouldn’t that blow all of the snot back onto the dishes?

        Your dishwasher actually plugs in? Over this side of the Atlantic almost every dishwasher will be hard wired into the supply. I could flick a breaker on the main panel to achieve the sample result though so I will remember that trick if our system ever plays games.

        1. I usually take the dishes out first, and then clean the dirt out with my fingers.

          The small differences from country to country in things like plumbing and electrics never cease to surprise me!

      2. Funnily enough, when it read 0 on the indicator (it normally reads ‘-‘ when it’s finished) I opened it up to see if it had run. It had and the dishes were still warm. I unloaded it, switched off the power at the machine and it read ‘137’ as though it was ready to start again. I then switched it off at the wall (it’s on a timer usually, but I overrode it to run while I was still up and about and MOH was unlikely to start fiddling with the machine) so it will be interesting to see what happens when I try to run it next time. It’s the only item of white furniture we haven’t replaced recently, so I think we could be heading down that route, unfortunately 🙁

        1. Dishwashers are a pain!
          Switching it off at the machine won’t re-boot it – switching the plug off should do that.
          Can you get powdered citric acid? Running with the dishwasher empty on the highest temperature with a packet of that, usually helps if you are in a hard water area.

          The tip about running the tap through the waste pipe was given to me by someone who rents out flats equipped with dishwashers, so has a LOT of experience with being called and told the dishwasher’s not working!

          1. I did switch the electricity off at the wall. Whether that has re-set it or not, I’ll find out next time I try to run it. Sufficient unto the day … 🙂 I always put plenty of dishwasher salt in (we are in a hard water area) every time I run it.

          2. The salt isn’t enough where we live – I have to run it empty with citric acid powder from time to time as well. I got my first dishwasher about 8 years ago, and have run through about four since then, as I had no idea how to look after them at first! The current one is the longest lasting, so I hope I have got it now…don’t want to jinx it over Christmas though…..!

          3. I have always lived in a hard water area (Mid and later North Shropshire) since I’ve had a dishwasher. I am on my fourth (in 44 years).

    4. Apart from that how is your day going?

      Strange how even the simplest chore like reading a meter can turn into a pantomime.

      We got official confirmation about an hour ago that we are going into a lockdown in ontario, I am not going anywhere near shopping until the dust settles.

      1. My day is going much as days usually go, thank you, except for the things going wrong and the pain from my arthritis being worse than usual (it’s damp, if not particularly cold). The dog got to the top of the stairs and missed his footing; I just managed to grab hold of him before he slithered down to the bottom. The rain has turned the builder’s sand and cement that was dropped onto the ground into a muddy mess, which the dog and I, with the best will in the world, have not been able to avoid tramping into the kitchen. It looks as though it hasn’t been washed for a fortnight, when it was only done yesterday. The builder wants the scaffolding taken down so he can finish off, but the roofer hasn’t even started (apart from delivering bundles of laths) and the scaffolding can’t be removed until he has finished – oh, and the rain has caused a lake to form outside the studio again. I bet you wish you hadn’t asked now 🙂

          1. Some people are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward – and I appear to be one of them 🙂

    2. “After an intense recount process and the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore, Bush won Florida’s electoral votes by a margin of only 537 votes out of almost six million cast and, as a result, became the president-elect.”
      Jeb Bush, Florida Governor, put his brother in the White House. Seems nothing’s changed since then.

    1. You’ve obviously forgotten the gun I asked for last year.
      Drop the sack and leave, if not, it’s taser or mace… your call pops.

  123. Rember that this year there has been less deaths than in an average year. Keep it in perspective and that we are being led by very poor weak people.

    1. Or you could spend a few minutes considering the truth. That there are already over 65,000 deaths this year above the 5 year average.

      1. Probably a very large proportion of which are non treated cancer patients and sufferers of other serious illnesses who have been let down and ignored by the NHS because of the great C-19 hoax.

        1. Based on an assumed population of 75 million . Work out what %age 65,000 is . . . .and the country is being deliberately trashed for it. The govt MUST be getting a MASSIVE payoff for doing it.

          3. And I suppose that you deny covid for the 300,000 deaths in the US.

            With covid not of covid, hospitals going for the covid bonus, just lies ?

      2. Deaths from what precisely? People die every year from influenza combined with co-morbidities, especially those in their eighties and nineties. It is a seasonal reality.

        Even your figure of 65,000 deaths this year above the 5 year average is suspect. You have not taken account of the additional deaths recorded for lack of effective hospital treatments for cancers and other afflictions, postponed by this ludicrous emphasis on a relatively benign virus.

        Nor have you admitted to the fact that our precious NHS is the principal spreader of Covid by its lack of effective hygiene nor the fact that the deaths attributed to Covid are false. You could be run over by a bus and your death will be attributed to Covid.

        Wakey wakey!

        1. According to my local paper, there have been 30,000 extra NON-COVID deaths (suicides, dementia, heart attacks, untreated cancers) this year. I did post a link a few days ago, but I can’t find it now. I don’t think anyone has died from influenza this year at all, amazingly.

          2. If the tv ad comes on from the NHS listen to the non-white nurse say ” the average deaths each year for flu is 11’000 – -but we all know this is not an average year ” – – – – THEN she does NOT say the number of flu deaths for this year. We can only wonder why. Can’t find it on the Web.

          3. I have seen that ad and it is very misleading. The figure comes from this year’s annual flu report, produced in the spring. The average is for the five-year period including the current incomplete year. In the HoC earlier this year, the figure was given as 17,000. That was from last year’s report (2019) and was given before the 2020 report was published.

            Here are the figures for 2018, 2019 and 2020. Only for these three years did the flu report included this data in tabular form. Earlier data is available but in other sources will take more digging.

            Quite obviously, the average is likely to change significantly from one year to the next with such a small number of samples for a highly variable measure. The last figure in each column (in red) is the incomplete year (to April).

            You will also note that the figures for each year are revised in subsequent reports.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ac54cc2d52392a29527230427f6d2b7133e9460d80c2fab5793698399b97a0d3.jpg

            Average for each five-year period: 17,065; 17,263; 11,292

          4. Top ten leading causes of death in year to date 2020

            Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
            1st
            60,753

            COVID-19
            2nd
            58,068

            Ischaemic heart diseases
            3rd
            47,538

            Cerebrovascular diseases
            4th
            25,313

            Chronic lower respiratory diseases
            5th
            24,751

            Malignant neoplasm of trachea, bronchus and lung
            6th
            24,619

            Influenza and Pneumonia
            7th
            17,453

            Symptoms, signs and ill-defined conditions
            8th
            14,639

            Malignant neoplasm of colon, sigmoid, rectum and anus
            9th
            13,139

            Malignant neoplasms, stated or presumed to be primary of lymphoid, haematopoietic and related tissue
            10th
            10,211

            COVID-19 in year to date 2020

            COVID-19
            2nd
            58,068

        1. Not really. It is not so much what Jenny said but how rudely she says it to one of our most respected Nottlers.

        2. On the contrary. Whilst I use a downvote in very much the same way as I would use an upvote – but to express disagreement rather than agreement – where I do not (for whatever reason) wish to get involved in a conversation. My comments are, in the main, downvoted from sheer spite, or revenge, regardless of their content.

          The comment below (misnaming me as it does) is a shameless lie, which is exactly what I would expect of its writer.

          1. Yes, it is strange that some get so offended by a downvote, when it is simply part of the functionality of this platform.

          2. Indeed… and it can be used however the user wishes – so I neither express astonishment, nor do I complain.

            I would suggest that you do likewise. I’m quite happy to engage in conversation with you but, as you can see, it is unwise to draw fire.

    2. 327606+ up ticks,
      Evening JN,
      I read “very poor weak people” as being highly motivated
      highly orchestrated treacherous politico’s this, is not a
      “just happening” this has been building for years,

  124. My old grannie used to say to never look back only forward, so in keeping with her teachings there is only 181 day, 4 hours and 1 minute at time of posting to the UK Summer Solstice

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