Monday 22 March: Vaccine chaos in Europe has increased the threat from Covid variants

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/03/22/letters-vaccine-chaos-europe-has-increased-threat-covid-variants/

644 thoughts on “Monday 22 March: Vaccine chaos in Europe has increased the threat from Covid variants”

  2. I wonder how all the people that have had the vaxx in order to travel abroad are feeling now that the powers that be are backtracking on it? as some of us on here suspected they would all along

    1. Morning Bob – Our youngsters will not tolerate fully vaccinated elderly being free to go abroad on holiday whilst they are kept in the UK until they get their delayed vaccinations.
      Our PM has no backbone – he refuses to retaliate against his EU “friends” when they act against the UK interests

      2. As I’ve said previously, the EU is at war with us. Blockades at the border, complete embargo on some items, threats legal and illegal.

  3. Vladimir Putin issues new ‘kill list’ – and six of the targets live in Britain. 22 March 2021.

    Vladimir Putin has issued a new “kill” list of opponents – and six of them live in Britain.

    A sympathetic Russian intelligence officer says Putin has warned “long arms” will reach his enemies.

    The warning of a deadly post-pandemic campaign comes from the spy who warned that Salisbury novichok victim Sergei Skripal was earmarked for assassination.

    In a letter to one target, the officer says: “They are out to shut you up completely. Take the precaution of quickly changing your place of residence, even if only temporarily.”

    The spook, who uses complex technology to avoid detection, is in the FSB – Russia’s equivalent of MI5.

    Morning everyone. There’s no dearth of Anti-Putin/Russia propaganda in the MSM at the moment but this one is by far the most stupid; though admittedly followed closely by the Telegraph’s story about Vlad’s inability to impregnate the entire female population of Mother Russia. What makes the Mirror superior is its truly moronic nature. One would think with the cash available that they would be able to hire someone with at least the pretensions to intelligence but since the author is the Political Editor we must assume that they can’t afford to hire anyone at all.

    The story in essence is quite simple. Vlad has personally (it’s always personal) decided to knock off another load of nonentities (six to be precise) and has sent out the orders to do so, but a friendly FSB officer has intercepted these orders and sent warnings to the purported victims by the “Complex Technology”of the Royal Mail with letters written in Russian. That someone who was in the loop of Kremlin decisions about such a matter could probably be traced in around ten minutes, is (thankfully) glossed over. There are some further additions; most notably that of Russian Special Forces hiding out in Ireland, (one hopes that they have knocked the snow off their boots) and having evaded the lockdown are now poised to cross the Irish Sea and create mayhem with acts of derring doski.

    One imagines the creation of such twaddle is based on the not unreasonable assumption that someone will always believe whatever is out there and everyone else will ignore it, so there’s no direct loss. On the other hand this perpetual dumbing down has led to the frank disbelief of the more intelligent part of the population which is exhibited most obviously online and in the Mirrors own comments.

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/vladimir-putins-issues-new-kill-23765739

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/21/people-die-leave-putin-fails-promise-repopulate-russia/

    1. This is just bollox. What mole publishes his/her stuff openly? What person, receiving threats from the FSB, publishes it openly? This story is just preparing the ground for an anti-Russia campaign. And who uses snail-mail, FFS? If moving house was so urgent, why write it down, put a 2nd class stamp on it and hope it’s delivered in the next six weeks? Bah!
      But, at least the snail-mail would be reasonably free from interception, I suppose.

      1. How is your wife coping with her recent loss? I hope all is well with your family.

        1. I read of the family’s loss early this morning, Sos. My condolences to you all.

          EDIT: Of course I meant to write Herr Oberst, not Sos. I am a very Silly Sausage and will now go and sit on the naughty step. (Time for another cuppa, methinks.)

          1. Easily done when one comes across such tragic news out of the blue on the threads.

        2. Morning, Sos.
          So far, just gloom in the house. Even the cats are feeling the atmosphere and not behaving as their normal ebullient selves. It’s a bit easier now that the inital shock has worn off, and we had a chance to sleep on it – bizarrely, I heard my brother-in-law’s voice several times in the night. No wonder people believe in ghosts…

          1. I hope that you all remember the good times and do not dwell on how you are going to handle the aftermath, it always sorts itself out eventually. Understand and accept what you can’t change in the current circumstances.

            Good fortune to all.

      2. I didn’t realise the Federation of Small Businesses was so politically engaged.
        Morning, Herr Oberst.

      3. Good morning OL and Nottlers. Please accept condolences from Alf and me on your recent bereavement. Your poor wife will need your support after losing a brother at such a young age.

    2. A friendly and believable FSB spy gave warning that Sergei was in danger.

      Didn’t help much did it…

  4. Vladimir Putin issues new ‘kill list’ – and six of the targets live in Britain. 22 March 2021.

    Vladimir Putin has issued a new “kill” list of opponents – and six of them live in Britain.

    A sympathetic Russian intelligence officer says Putin has warned “long arms” will reach his enemies.

    The warning of a deadly post-pandemic campaign comes from the spy who warned that Salisbury novichok victim Sergei Skripal was earmarked for assassination.

    In a letter to one target, the officer says: “They are out to shut you up completely. Take the precaution of quickly changing your place of residence, even if only temporarily.”

    The spook, who uses complex technology to avoid detection, is in the FSB – Russia’s equivalent of MI5.

    Morning everyone. There’s no dearth of Anti-Putin/Russia propaganda in the MSM at the moment but this one is by far the most stupid; though admittedly followed closely by the Telegraph’s story about Vlad’s inability to impregnate the entire female population of Mother Russia. What makes the Mirror superior is its truly moronic nature. One would think with the cash available that they would be able to hire someone with at least the pretensions to intelligence but since the author is the Political Editor we must assume that they can’t afford to hire anyone at all.

    The story in essence is quite simple. Vlad has personally (it’s always personal) decided to knock off another load of nonentities (six to be precise) and has sent out the orders to do so, but a friendly FSB officer has intercepted these orders and sent warnings to the purported victims by the “Complex Technology”of the Royal Mail with letters written in Russian. That someone who was in the loop of Kremlin decisions about such a matter could probably be traced in around ten minutes, is (thankfully) glossed over. There are some further additions; most notably that of Russian Special Forces hiding out in Ireland, (one hopes that they have knocked the snow off their boots) and having evaded the lockdown are now poised to cross the Irish Sea and create mayhem with acts of derring doski.

    One imagines the creation of such twaddle is based on the not unreasonable assumption that someone will always believe whatever is out there and everyone else will ignore it, so there’s no direct loss. On the other hand this perpetual dumbing down has led to the frank disbelief of the more intelligent part of the population which is exhibited most obviously online and in the Mirrors own comments.

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/vladimir-putins-issues-new-kill-23765739

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/21/people-die-leave-putin-fails-promise-repopulate-russia/

  5. Good morning all.

    A year ago, it was the last day when we could live our lives in some kind of freedom. Who knew, that “three weeks to squash the curve” would end up as a year and counting of living under a medical dictatorship?

    Lord Sumption has written another excellent article which I commend to you. It should be required reading for everyone who supported this wholly unnecessary act of self-harm:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/22/lockdown-proponents-assumed-worst-had-no-evidence/

    1. Morning Kuffar. Sumption is one of the few public voices of integrity left in the UK. You could count them all on the fingers of your hands!

      1. Indeed. Steve Baker and Mark Harper have been rattling their sabres in the last few days. I hope they stand strong and vote down the Coronavirus Act.

        I don’t understand why it is only a few backbench Tory MPs who try to stand against this tyrannical government. Is there really no-one in Labour who cares about the rights and freedoms of their constituents?

        1. Is there really no-one in Labour who cares about the rights and freedoms of their constituents?

          Actually. No!

        2. Good morning to you, the sabre rattling is pure theatre, just enough rebel votes to ensure the Coronavirus Act still passes.

  7. ‘Kill the bill’ protest in Bristol condemned as ‘thuggery and disorder’

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/40a85c24151af6344f10e3ecb3efa6d3e3a1a3b156a1c22a9cf12ea8cc3a6eb1.png

    Hundreds had gathered at Bristol’s College Green to demonstrate against plans to give police increased powers to shut down peaceful protests before marching to a police station on nearby Nelson Street. Many were wearing masks and carried placards saying “Say no to UK police state” and “Freedom to protest is fundamental to democracy” and “Kill the bill”.

    One suspects here; mostly from the blanket coverage, (there are several more frames) that this demonstration was hijacked by Antifa. It must never be forgotten that any disturbance works to the advantage of the Borg . If it is in their favour all well and good, and if it isn’t, well it adds to the sense of chaos and disillusionment!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/21/demonstrators-against-policing-bill-clash-with-officers-in-bristol

    1. I see the controlled anarchist groups are coming to the aid of Boris again and his plan to continue the emergency measures for another six months with the vote in Parliament this week.

      1. Antifa is quite clearly an agent of the hidden PTB though controlled nominally by the State!

        1. The people protesting didn’t look like your typical Bristol demonstrator, all strangely middle class and pale

    2. Usual pattern: daytime is normal people demonstrating their disquiet with government policy. Nighttime brings out the professionals.

    3. Of course the protest marches under the guise of “Kill the bill” would never be interpreted as anything other than an invitation to march peacefully about an act of parliament.

      No, of course not.

    4. With the great unwashed turning on their protective law enforcers, Minty, should that send a warning to Boris and his little playmates?

  8. In my remaining few hours of trial subscription to the DT I decided to add my two penny worth to the comments on the Letters page on he subject of the EU threatening to block vaccines to the UK. It appeared briefly and then disappeared here’s what I wrote:

    “Hande Hoch all those who still want to remain in the EU”……

    Morning all. 🙂

    1. I’m sure most remainers are in agreement with Ursula De Ville and will gladly wait til next year for their vaccine. Yes?

  9. Fighting Irons

    Sir,
    On Ascension Island in 1982, a call was received for 12 knives. Irritably an overworked logistics officer demanded to know why a small order for an everyday item deserved his “immediate attention”.
    The Special Boat Squadron , sailing South that night, amended the request: “Reference knives, these are knives, stabbing, not knives, eating”. The request was met with alacrity.

    LT Col Ewen Southby – Tailyour RN [retd]

    Ermington
    {edited to correct failures in my transcript]

    1. My brother, who was in the Royal Navy (but does not, Mr Southby-Tailyour, use his rank) recalled a request for “pipes”.

      The reply came back from stores: “Your request Pipes; Gas, Water, Tobacco or Bag?”

    2. Something Dai Slexic is afoot at the DT

      LT Col Ewen Southby – Tailyour RN = Royal Navy [retd]

      There was me thinking Lt Cols (whether Retired or Not) are Booties, aka Royal Marines

  10. Good morning from a dull but dry Derbyshire. A bit chilly outside, 0°C, but with almost calm air. no movement from the trees at all.

    Only just made it home from helping the DT at Bursledon yesterday, a stiff gear change I’d noted going down there deteriorated to my having to force the gear lever into place and, as I left the M1 at the Kegworth turning, something broke, leaving me to limp home the last 25 miles in 3rd & 4th and a nasty rattle coming from the innards.

  11. Violent protests…

    These appear to be more spontaneous than organized. One clue is the quickly cobbled together banners…all hand scribbled rather than printed in advance using corporate themes. Any Antifa types may have been acting as individuals rather than rallying to the flag. Agent provocateurs may not have been active due to the injuries sustained by the police. The AP’s always miss their targets. No BLM thugs in attendance as it’s not their fight. They are already exempt from from not being allowed to protest.

    Also, this is not a left v right issue, but rather the public at large and the violence was sparked by the police themselves. The majority of protesters turned up for a peaceful march and the police turned up for trouble. Riot gear…horses…dogs…batons. Viewing the pockets of violence in London showed that a few people were sitting in a park when the police showed up and changed the mood. Had they resigned themselves to accepting the protester were already on the street and simply stayed out of sight then it would have remained peaceful.

    This was probably the reason the police were attacked in Bristol. Notice that public/private property was spared apart from the police station and police vehicles. There were similar events across Europe and the UK where violence broke out in Newcastle. The police have created a problem for themselves which could easily escalate out of control. They took a beating yesterday which could spur more citizens to join the fray. With sufficient numbers, the protesters need only to work in shifts for a few days in a row by keeping the cops awake until they virtually fall asleep on the job. Then Antifa and the BLM will have a field day and the army gets called in.

    Potential for a very interesting summer ahead.

  12. Morning all. Vaccine news…..

    SIR – Europe’s politicians are getting Covid policy very wrong. The lack of scientific understanding is putting all European populations at risk, including Britain’s.

    They have forgotten or do not understand fidelity – the faithfulness with which the enzyme RNA polymerase reproduces the Covid virus. Sometimes this enzyme does not faithfully copy the virus’s RNA. It makes a mistake and this mutation can give rise to the spread of a new variant.

    The chance of this happening is proportional to the number of times the enzyme copies the virus RNA. The more people who incubate the virus, the greater the chance of a mutation, so those refusing jabs increase the likelihood of new variants spreading.

    In Europe, the reluctance of politicians to organise and push for vaccinations, as well as their political posturing with AstraZeneca, means more infections. This puts the whole of Europe at higher risk from variants.

    Advertisement

    Dr Stephen P Mann

    Ixworth, Suffolk

    SIR – Yesterday, Mairead McGuinness, a European Union commissioner, told The Andrew Marr Show about how the EU had exported so many vaccines.

    She missed one important point, namely that they are not the EU’s vaccines. They belong to Pfizer, AstraZeneca and others. These companies manufacture them and sell them. They are only the EU’s when it buys them subject to contract.

    Graham Mitchell

    Haslemere, Surrey

    SIR – Chris Ashley (“Telegraph readers on the EU vaccine row”, telegraph.co.uk, March 18) rightly stated that “no company in their right mind is going to invest in the EU if its leaders, having shown themselves to be so utterly incompetent, are going to trample over the rule of law so that they get what they want”.

    At the same time, the EU is taking Britain to the European Court of Justice over its unilateral easing of conditions in the Northern Ireland Protocol, saying it has broken international law. If this is not hypocrisy, what is?

    Geoffrey Johnson

    Runcorn, Cheshire

    Advertisement

    SIR – My friends in England who are over 50 had their first dose of the vaccine three weeks ago, while in this part of Scotland the over-60s are only just beginning to get it. It would seem that we do not need to look across the Channel to witness incompetence.

    Alastair MacMillan

    Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire

    SIR – John Seager Green (Letters, March 19) asks if the Government could vaccinate Britons living overseas who will have to wait longer for a jab than those living in Britain.

    As in so many other ways, the Government can learn from Israel, which in January set itself the target of ensuring that no Holocaust survivor, regardless of nationality, anywhere in the world, would go without a vaccine.

    Jonathan Roland

    Sale, Cheshire

    1. I’m sure I read somewhere that the definition of a Holocast survivor is anyone who was alive in Europe during WW2 and afterwards.

  13. Good morning, all. Bright and sunny and almost no breeze. Set fair all day. They say.

    Did anyone else see the chart in the Sunday Grimes showing, in diagram form, the no=umber of “covid dead” compared to the population as a whole.
    A very clear piece of evidence to show how HMG have completely, totally and utterly mismanaged the plague.

    I can’t reproduce it – but, if you can find it, it is sobering.

    1. I saw a video of people in Germany who’d erected a pole 8.3m high to represent the 83 million inhabitants of Germany. They’d marked the births last year at the bottom – 77mm I think, and the deaths at the top – 96mm. They put a stripe in the deaths in orange to represent those who had died of Covid-19. Four millimetres. Four. Haven’t seen the Times graph but assume it was making a similar visual point.

    2. Being anally retentive, I log the COVID figures as published on a regular basis.
      For the UK, using “Deaths with COVID on the death certificate”, 09 March 2021, the proportion dead (146,487) as described of the whole UK population was 0.22%.

      1. I met one of my neighbours when out walking my dog the other day. I mentioned I’d had Covid in February last year and she looked surprised that I’d survived. I pointed out that 99% of those who got it did survive and she was shocked. She had thought it was a death sentence (no wonder with all the doom and gloom being pushed out by the government and media).

    3. Being anally retentive, I log the COVID figures as published on a regular basis.
      For the UK, using “Deaths with COVID on the death certificate”, 09 March 2021, the proportion dead (146,487) as described of the whole UK population was 0.22%.

    4. Being anally retentive, I log the COVID figures as published on a regular basis.
      For the UK, using “Deaths with COVID on the death certificate”, 09 March 2021, the proportion dead (146,487) as described of the whole UK population was 0.22%.

  14. Short cosmonaut

    SIR – As the author of a new book, about Yuri Gagarin, Beyond, which marks the 60th anniversary of his flight into space, I can confirm that his height (Letters, March 19) was indeed a key factor in his selection as a cosmonaut.

    He was in fact just a smidgen over 5 ft 4 in. All the early Soviet cosmonauts were short. They had to be, in part to fit inside the spherical capsule, which replaced the thermonuclear warhead that normally sat on top of the R-7 missile they flew into space.

    As for Gagarin’s tour of Britain in July 1961, he is reported to have had a highly successful tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. He was driven there past wildly cheering crowds in an open-top Rolls-Royce sporting the number plate YG1.

    It was a sensational spectacle, if hardly in the best traditions of Soviet proletarian behaviour.

    Stephen Walker

    London W6

    1. My father drove the family to the Bath Road so we could see the gallant Major in his motorcade on the way to London from Heathrow.

      2. Yes, one of my English teachers was on the short side. He’d flown a fighter in WW2.

      3. Good morning, Annie. With the ever-increasing cuts in armed forces personnel I think the top brass should now re-locate to the North, specifically to Knotty Ash where Doody’s Diddy Men might make an excellent UK defence force.

        :-))

      4. Good morning, Annie. With the ever-increasing cuts in armed forces personnel I think the top brass should now re-locate to the North, specifically to Knotty Ash where Doody’s Diddy Men might make an excellent UK defence force.

        :-))

  15. Short cosmonaut

    SIR – As the author of a new book, about Yuri Gagarin, Beyond, which marks the 60th anniversary of his flight into space, I can confirm that his height (Letters, March 19) was indeed a key factor in his selection as a cosmonaut.

    He was in fact just a smidgen over 5 ft 4 in. All the early Soviet cosmonauts were short. They had to be, in part to fit inside the spherical capsule, which replaced the thermonuclear warhead that normally sat on top of the R-7 missile they flew into space.

    As for Gagarin’s tour of Britain in July 1961, he is reported to have had a highly successful tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. He was driven there past wildly cheering crowds in an open-top Rolls-Royce sporting the number plate YG1.

    It was a sensational spectacle, if hardly in the best traditions of Soviet proletarian behaviour.

    Stephen Walker

    London W6

  16. SIR – I worked for BBC News for 25 years and was involved in the BBC’s relocation to Salford a decade ago.

    A feature of the Salford move was that, while hundreds of staff relocated, very few senior managers went with them. This meant that editorial decisions were still made by London-based managers. Not one member of the BBC executive board was moved.

    Most of the criticism about bias at the BBC is aimed at its news programmes. Licence-fee payers are not particularly concerned where Line of Duty is made, but many do feel that the BBC’s news output does not reflect their areas, views and experience.

    Until some of the BBC’s major news programmes, together with their senior editors, are located away from the capital, I fear that little will change.

    Nick Serpell

    Darwen, Lancashire

    1. It’s not just that. The Left have infested all sorts of programming – Doctor Who, Marvel, Star wars, Star Trek, She-Ra, heck, even Seasme street.

      They ‘see them as vehicles’ to push an agenda. Of course, viewing figures and sales plummeted. Comically, those same people pushing their insane agenda now blame the fans for not watching/buying their tripe. It is a stunning lack of perspective on their own guilt but hey, that’s Lefties for you!

      1. In principle I agree with you, wibbling. But in the case of Marvel films, their popularity with the masses ensure that ever more are produced. Money talks.

  17. SIR – I worked for BBC News for 25 years and was involved in the BBC’s relocation to Salford a decade ago.

    A feature of the Salford move was that, while hundreds of staff relocated, very few senior managers went with them. This meant that editorial decisions were still made by London-based managers. Not one member of the BBC executive board was moved.

    Most of the criticism about bias at the BBC is aimed at its news programmes. Licence-fee payers are not particularly concerned where Line of Duty is made, but many do feel that the BBC’s news output does not reflect their areas, views and experience.

    Until some of the BBC’s major news programmes, together with their senior editors, are located away from the capital, I fear that little will change.

    Nick Serpell

    Darwen, Lancashire

  18. SIR – It’s horrifying to think of do-not-attempt-resuscitation (DNAR) orders being applied to groups of vulnerable people (“Care home residents put on DNR orders without consent”, report, March 18). The pandemic has brought the issue to light, but, sadly, incorrect and ageist use of DNAR orders is nothing new.

    Advertisement

    Best-practice guidelines were set out by the Resuscitation Council UK, but aren’t being followed everywhere. Clinicians need to do better, as too often this guidance is ignored or treated as a tick-box exercise, rather than prompting meaningful discussion with patients and loved ones.

    We all need to initiate our own conversations about whether we’d want cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Once we’re in an emergency situation, it’s too late. Only 59 per cent of those aged over 70 have talked to loved ones about their care wishes. And while 81 per cent of us think planning for later life is important, only 22 per cent have a lasting power of attorney in place, setting out our wishes in writing in a legally binding way.

    As a country we must start talking about our wishes should we lose mental or physical capacity or require emergency medical treatment.

    Michael Culver

    Chair, Solicitors for the Elderly

    Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire

    1. The indifference to the million dead because of medical negligence of life saving drugs is perhaps because they were old end expendable. A virus that selected for Conservative politicians would see Ivermectin rushed to the pharmacy.

  19. What an odd little collection of people have put their names to this letter. I wonder what they have in common and why they were selected. (To be fair to Farrell, I dont suppose he’ll be selected for anything else ever again)

    SIR – As we approach the anniversary of the first national lockdown on March 23, we support making it a day of commemoration to reflect on the impact of Covid-19 and the lockdowns. We wish to remember those who have died and those who have lost so much, to thank those who have done so much and to look forward to a brighter future as restrictions are lifted.
    In particular, we wish to amplify the voice of disabled and disadvantaged children, who have felt the impact of lockdown more than most as a result of reduced services, isolation and lost education. We wish to reflect, too, on the amazing can-do community spirit that the public discovered during this period, typified by the late Captain Sir Tom Moore.
    We believe it is important to champion the heroes who got us through the worst parts of the pandemic, and ensure that this wonderful community spirit continues. That is why we have joined with Variety, the Children’s Charity, to pledge that we all do an act of kindness tomorrow to help raise the spirits of our neighbours and the nation. We ask your readers to do the same.

    Dilly Kitchlew-Williamson
    Chief Barker, Variety, the Children’s Charity
    Esther McVey MP (Con)
    Owen Farrell
    Lorraine Kelly
    Eamonn Holmes
    Dr Linda Papadopoulos
    Keith Lemon
    Nick Knowles
    Jamie George
    Maro Itoje
    Mako Vunipola
    Julie Graham
    Nik Speakman
    Eva Speakman
    Dr Zoe Williams
    Ching He Huang

      1. Ching is a lady. She is a Chef and very nice. I do wish people would stop publicising their politics when they are not politicians.

    4. “the heroes who got us through the worst parts of the pandemic” – if they mean the staff in supermarkets, the refuse collectors and delivery drivers, etc, then fine. If they mean the politicians and “experts” then not so fine!

    5. The Occupational Therapy team are coming to see me tomorrow. They originally washed their hands of MOH, but now they want to see how I deal with getting my spouse in and out of the car. This will be their second visit for this purpose – the first time they just turned up and as I had no idea they were coming, I was on my way out with my dog for a walk. Their conclusion on that occasion was that I was doing it right and they couldn’t offer any more assistance. Maybe there’s a box left to to tick.

          2. Ealistic? The hearing aid appointment was last week 🙂 I did get MOH an away day at the local day centre on Friday, but then I had to dash around catching up on things I hadn’t had time to do earlier in the week (big shop, banking, topping up my mobile) and changing soiled bedding and doing two washes (sheets etc and clothes). By the time I’d done all that, it was pretty much collection time. I am hoping that next week will be easier.

          3. Oops! Good to hear. Now, you need to make some of that Conway time, not just jobs and chores.

          4. I know, but the chores have to be done or I get snowed under – or should I say, even more snowed under than I currently am.

  20. The N-word row engulfing SOAS university. 21 March 2021.

    The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)’s newly-appointed director, Adam Habib, has become the latest victim of cancel culture having been suspended from the university. His crime? During an online meeting, a student asked Habib if SOAS’s commitment to the BLM movement was sincere, when some academics continued to use racial slurs, particularly the N-word, in the classroom. Habib responded by saying that he would personally address any of these allegations but in doing so, he ‘verbalised’ the word in question. It was a cardinal mistake. The incident caused an uproar at SOAS, with selectively edited versions of the video adding fuel to the fire.

    Those on the left at SOAS (which is pretty much the entire student body) soon wanted their pound of Adam Habib’s flesh and now the director has been forced to step down while his comments are investigated.

    The School of Oriental and African Studies was once a much respected institution that Fathers who lived in the regions sent their Sons to for an education that would benefit them for life. No longer. It is now a Woke establishment that should be avoided at all costs. This denigration and dumbing down of UK Higher Education is not confined to SOAS. The whole structure will almost certainly become irrelevant sometime in the next 10 years!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/The-N-word-row-engulfing-SOAS-university

    1. There is something amusing about an Arab being attacked by bames for using a word they don’t like. I DO hope they discover he was also descended from slavers…

  25. Yo All

    A good deed tomorrow

    The greatest act of kindness that Farrel and Co can do, for the English, to promote Racial harmony, is to STAY ON
    HIS FEET for at lead up to the start of a Rugby Match and for the first Five Minutes of Play

    Do these people not realise, that going down on one knee alienates the Majority.

    Many England supporters have been cheering for the other side in the recent Six Nations

  26. 330652+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Monday 22 March: Vaccine chaos in Europe has increased the threat from Covid variant

    More like
    Vaccine chaos in europe has increased the threat from variant manipulative peoples controlling politico’s / parties, the peoples are NOW witnessing this on a daily basis, the overseers overbearing campaign is now adding fuel to the “plague of patients in waiting” list.

    They are using the fear factor as a reset tool, in so far as they have taken divide & conquer to a new level.

        1. Coupled with the ‘security forces’ desire to inflict pain.

          ‘Morning, Wibbles.

      2. The guard has the word Охрана (Okhrana) on the back of his uniform jacket which was the name of the notorious Tsarist political police. Needless to say, the Okhrana didn’t survive the Bolshevik-led October Revolution of 1917.

        You’d think somebody would have noticed that anachronism.

  27. Joe Biden ready to go to the border as US migrant crisis intensifies. 22 March 2021.

    “The entire system under United States law that has been in place throughout administrations of both parties was dismantled in its entirety by the Trump administration,” he [Biden] said.

    This was disputed by the former president in a statement.

    “We proudly handed the Biden Administration the most secure border in history,” Mr Trump said.

    “All they had to do was keep this smooth-running system on autopilot. Instead, in the span of just a few weeks, the Biden Administration has turned a national triumph into a national disaster. They are in way over their heads and taking on water fast.”

    Trump is right of course. Joe with his invitation for everyone to come and live in America has created this situation. Just one example of what happens when Woke ideas are translated into reality!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/21/joe-biden-ready-go-border-migrant-crisis-intensifies/

      1. Ain’t it just.
        Interesting that it’s published in a paper that has been Lockdown Central.
        In fact the DM has been one of the propagators of the hysterical reaction to the virus.
        I wonder if its readership is getting restless?

        1. Quite a few of the Comment Sections where one would have expected it are Censorship Free!

          1. It appears that way, but in reality the Mail removes a lot of comments. I told a Left that he and his sort were the fascists, and have been throughout history. That was removed because the Lefty didn’t like the truth.

        2. Quite a few of the Comment Sections where one would have expected it are Censorship Free!

      1. Yo anne

        (EUSSR is a set of initials, like GPS

        RADAR is an acronym

        Inst, Inc etc are abbreviatons)

        1. I thought that RADAR was a medical condition you got by eating carrots, OLT. But you are correct in what you say.

          2. Royal Academy of Dramatic ARts – where most politicians graduate on how to tell enormous porkies whilst conning the public into think they’re benevolent.

          3. And from which arrseholes such as Cucumberpatch emerge to lecture us on politics.

    2. Russia! The last survivor of European Christendom! You couldn’t make it up!

    3. I see Putin spoke to an audience of 80,000 in a Moscow football stadium last week on the anniversary of the Crimea referendum.
      No restrictions and masks optional.

      1. By the looks of it Harry the Russians have given up on the Virus entirely! They are just living their lives and if they catch it too bad!

        1. Vaccine uptake in entirely optional.
          Zenit St Petersburg football club have an area set aside at home matches where you can get the jab but again…its optional.

        1. I live across the border in Finland and used to meet lots of Russians who rent holiday cottages here and who fill the local hotels at New Year.
          You need yo get out more.

  30. Is this another set up? Let the public out for a couple of days and another variant turns up. Blame the public and lock them up for the rest of the summer.

    Anyone for a picnic? Sunny weather with temperatures of up to 63F forecast for the end of March – just in time for the easing of lockdown restrictions and the return of outdoor gatherings
    Temperatures are expected to climb over the next few days, promising sunny weather as lockdown eases
    Britons have been preparing for March 29, with shoppers queuing to stock up on plants and gardening tools
    UK is set to enjoy blast of warm weather this week, with temperatures more than doubling in some areas
    On March 29, restrictions will ease for outdoor gatherings of up to six people or two separate households

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9387349/Anyone-picnic-Temperatures-63F-forecast-ahead-lockdown-easing.html

    1. 330652+ up ticks,
      Morning H,
      The control / manipulating team in the westminster
      control bunker ( WCB) have orders to throttle down on the incarceration valve in view of the 6th May fast
      approaching.

      The reset campaign will resume on the 7th of May.
      The human ovis are to be allowed to stand up to their lower lip in a political sh!te marsh drinking their favorite
      sherbert & smoking king eddies for a limited period but on the 7th May , back on their heads , pronto.

      1. Yes of course…

        I forgot about the elections. Let people out to vote for more of the same.

        Don’t even need trained collies.

    1. The footnote is important as well: deaths where covid 19 was mentioned on the death certificate – NOT a direct death *from* covid 19.

        1. Come, come, gg – the one great thing about Covid-19 is that it completely destroyed the seasonal ‘flu virus…!

    2. Thank you for posting – less than 3,000 deaths with a mention of Covid in approximately 2/3rds of the UK’s population .i.e 40+ millions……

    3. I found this joyless little statistic, of course the disease is totally avoidable , and I almost choked with anger when I read the final paragraph.

      Did you know that 32.7 million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic? That’s more fatalities than World War One. Did you also know that 690,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2019? As in… two years ago. Yes, that’s right. People are still dying of AIDS. As well as the millions who died years before, because they couldn’t access the support, because we didn’t have the medical knowledge, because it was demonised as a “gay disease”.

      It’s A Sin, the new Channel 4 drama centred around the beginning of the AIDS crisis in 1980s Britain, has highlighted just how little we knew about AIDS at the time. What it has also unintentionally highlighted is just how little we know now. Or more, just how little we pay attention to it.

      Every year, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the entire country falls silent for two minutes out of respect to the 20 million who died in the First World War. This is of course, completely warranted. You cannot compare tragedies. But you can highlight when one gets paid disproportionately more attention, when, for example, there isn’t even an AIDS memorial statue in London. There are around 6,000 war memorials in London.

      https://thetab.com/uk/2021/01/25/32-million-died-in-the-aids-pandemic-but-our-remembrance-is-pitiful-191708

      I have 2 sisters and a brother living in South Africa, over 55 years now. My sister who lives near Cape town , says Aids and TB and murders top the statistics, some how or other C Virus is NOT having the same effect as it is in Europe , because the population in Africa is younger than in Europe , old age is a rarity !

      1. The NHS spends a fortune every year on horrendously expensive antiviral treatments for AIDS. Tens of thousands per patient.

      2. Morning, Maggie.
        Presumably because fewer people in SA reach the covid sensitive age as TB, AIDs and murder have already removed them. That is why the population is younger.
        Just as until roughly 200 years ago, few lived long enough in the west to develop cancer.

      3. Thing is, the memorials are to those who gave away, however reluctantly, their lives for the betterment of their fellows. Nobody deliberately put themselves in a position where catching & dying of AIDS would be to the better for their fellow man/woman. That’s the difference.
        Anyhow, why choose AIDS? What about the Spanish flu of 1918-20? Many more died then, including a number of my ancestors.

      4. I wonder how many have died of ‘flu in the same period?

        I suspect that as a cause of death AIDS and its related deaths don’t even rank in the top ten over the same period, probably not even close.

    1. Rogan Josh? Isn’t he that mouthy bame wendyball player who lectures the government?

  33. I’ve looked up the difference between vaccination and immunisation and this is the most succinct and I could fin

    Vaccination: The act of introducing a vaccine into the body to produce immunity to a specific disease. Immunization: A process by which a person becomes protected against a disease through vaccination.
    Immunization Basics | Vaccines and Immunizations | CDCwww.cdc.gov › vaccines › vac-gen

    It would appear that all that people are getting is an injection.

    1. Having had the injection they will then be entitled to a travel document that will allow them to leave their house, enter public buildings, travel on public transport, and perhaps even go abroad.

      1. That is wishful thinking, Horace.
        It is unlikely politicians will give up the ‘authority’ to tell people what to do as long as the public is compliant.

    2. Those seem to be the other in reverse.

      I’m not sure how one can be immunised through vaccination as vaccination is not guarantee of immunity.

      1. I think proper vaccination e.g. smallpox does provide immunity. The ‘scientists’ have told us this one won’t. Vaccines take 10/15 years to produce after rigorous testing.

    4. So when it is referred to as ‘the jab’ they have unknowingly got it correct. I found Boris’s reference to ‘shots’ (as in “come on, get your shots”) rather creepy.

    1. The problem is it’s not really in the normal mindset to behave as a violent, abusive mob. That’s the egocentric, Lefty/flat earther (through the validation of others my own views are valued) perspective.

  35. Short & Sweet – But Not Very PC – 1

    Got an e-mail today from a bored local housewife, 43, who was looking for some hot action!
    So, I sent her my ironing. That’ll keep the lazy bitch busy.

    I got invited to a party and was told to dress to kill.
    Apparently, a turban, beard and a backpack weren’t what they had in mind.

    After a night of drink, drugs and wild sex Bill woke up to find himself next to a really ugly woman.
    That’s when he realised, he had made it home safely.

    Paddy says to Mick, “Christmas is on Friday this year”.
    Mick said, “Let’s hope it’s not the 13th then.”

    My mate just hired an Eastern European cleaner, took her 5 hours to Hoover the house.
    Turns out she was a Slo vak.

    Since the snow came all the wife has done is look through the window.
    If it gets any worse, I’ll have to let her in.

    Came home today to find all my doors and windows smashed in and everything gone.
    What sort of sick person does that to someone’s Advent calendar…?

    I’ve been charged with murder for killing a man with sandpaper.
    To be honest I only intended to rough him up a bit.

    After years of research, scientists have discovered what makes women happy.
    Nothing.

    A lad comes home from school and excitedly tells his dad that he had a part in the school play and he was playing a man who had been married for 25 years.
    The dad says, “Never mind son, maybe next year you’ll get a speaking part.”

    Just had my water bill of £175 drop on my mat. That’s a lot.
    Oxfam can supply a whole African village for just £2 a month: time to change supplier, I think.

    I’ve just come out of the shop with a meat and potato pie, large chips, mushy peas & a jumbo sausage.
    A poor homeless man sat there and said ‘I’ve not eaten for two days’
    I told him ‘I wish I had your fucking will power’

      1. If you can get to The Times website – it is a video – and Vlad is definitely playing Vlad!

        2. I recall the Queen dancing on a table at Christmas….. her head and/or features had been ‘deepfaked’ on to another body.

    5. We have a set of mugs like the one Vlad is holding. One’s missing – has he nicked it, I wonder? 🙂

  37. Another pearly gates joke…

    Three men died in a car crash. They were named as Fred, John and Boris. They went to heaven and were met by St Peter.

    St Peter said he’d have to interview each in private before they could pass through the gates. He asked Fred if he was an honest man who replied that he never told lies. He was then asked his views on women. Fred told him that he married his childhood sweetheart and never looked at another woman. Asked if he liked a drink he replied that he was teetotal plus a non smoker and never took drugs.

    St Peter then interviewed John and got similar replies to the questions he’d ask Fred.

    Finally St Peter interviewed Boris. He asked if he was an honest man and Boris replied…”You must be joking, I spent my whole life lying to people”. Then came the question of how he felt about women. “Women to me are just sex objects. I marry them and divorce them. I screw them and produce a string of b@stards” Asked if he was a drinker Boris replied, “Love a drink. I have my first shot for breakfast and then at regular intervals during the day before getting rat assed at night. In between I snort hard drugs”

    Interviews over, St Peter called all three over and gave his verdict as to the trio’s suitability to remain in heaven.

    He told Fred and John to guard the Pearly Gates while he takes Boris back to earth for a night out in Soho.

  38. Yesterday in Parliament there was a heated debate condemning the actions of riot police against unarmed demonstrators. One after another MPs pointed out the brutal attacks on people in Venezuela, MyanMar, Syria, North Korea and Iran for no reason other than that they assembled on the streets to protest the wrongs being inflicted by their governments.
    The Leader of the Opposition read out Article 13 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
    1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.
    2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own,and to return to his country.
    and also Article 30:
    “Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.”
    It was resolved to summon the Ambassadors to the Foreign Office and make known the displeasure of HMG and to point out very clearly these aspects of the Universal Declaration.

    Today in Parliament the Prime Minister supported by the Home Secretary roundly condemned the behaviour of the protestors who broke government imposed lockdown laws and took to the parks and the streets. He praised the bravery and professionalism of the heavily armed British riot police.

    2. 330652+ up ticks,
      Morning HP,
      But many of us knew this all along and kept issuing
      warnings & ways to go ALL to no avail.
      ALL overruled by the power of the three monkeys within the ballot booth, again,again & again.

      1. I don’t necessarily believe in any of this. In the past on this forum I have made my views on “human rights” perfectly plain. That is, we have privileges and concomitant obligations, not “rights”. However our government acts as if it believes in “human rights”, and is committed to the UN and the Universal Declaration. We need to ask if any action taken by Parliament can be “ultra vires”. Can Parliament legitimately remove our freedoms?
        We now see that the EU is prepared to use laws, or pass laws to steal things (vaccine). This is not new. The Scottish Parliament passed a law allowing the theft of the Burrell Collection.

    4. Liberals (lower case L) are miraculously able to believe in two opposing points of view simultaneously. Rod Liddle and others have extensively covered this remarkable phenomenon.
      For example, states of the USA ban discrimination and also encourage ‘positive discrimination’.

      1. Holding two opposing views and believing in both of them is the very definition of ‘doublethink’, as described by George Orwell in his book, 1984.

  41. Been moving boxes about in the front room: found a bed: yipppeeeeeee.

    We are now a two bedroom Bungalow(roofon)

    1. Yo Tryers.
      Okey-dokey, thank you.
      How are you?
      :-)) … You have found a bed?
      In the front room?

  43. 330652+ up ticks,

    breitbart,

    ‘RACISM IS A FEATURE OF CAPITALISM’ CLAIMS LABOUR MP ZARAH SULTANA.

    May one ask two things,

    One,
    Is this the current view of all in the group?

    Two, After the odious rotherham long term cover-up,multi plus issue why do mass uncontrolled immigration, ( ongoing) / paedophile umbrella political groups still find mass support / votes ?

    1. I suspect the claim ‘Paedophilia, racism and slavery are features of Islam’ trumps that easily.

      1. 330652+ up ticks,
        Morning AA,
        I suspect that the course the lab/lib/con coalition are steering in the HP sauce factory we as a Nation have a very good chance of finding that out shortly, via the polling booth.

        Instruction oath taking manual in position & halal chop on the parliamentary canteen menu.

    2. “Sultana”? Is she related to “Begum”.
      Is this some strange and arrogant practice of BAMES to give themselves surnames that are in reality titles indicating higher caste, royalty etc.?

      1. 330652+up ticks,
        HP,
        We should really sit her in a decent peoples construct chair and up the current rating.

    3. So why is she living in such a awful country? And how did she become an MP in those appalling circumstances?

      1. 330652+ up ticks,
        Afternoon Anne,
        Could have something to do with 80K plus exes. & a silicone coat.

    4. It’s when people say things like that that you rather want to hit them of the head with a spade until the few brains in their head come out.

  45. Things don’t really change as far as protests are concerned. I see that police members were injured and cars were vandalised in Bristol yesterday.

    When I was a student in the 1960’s people were writing protest songs so I wrote a protest protest song!

    One of the verses:

    I say that what we want is tolerance and peace
    In proof of this I smash up cars and throw things at the police
    I refuse to hear a point of view that’s different from my own
    A really reasonable debate’s a thing I’ve never known.

    How I hate
    Apartheid
    But how I love to demonstrate.

  46. Can any technically adroit Nottler try to get the Times article article by Giles Corrin on to the page here he’s very funny.

    I watch a very sad film on Saturday evening Land of Mine Set after ww2 when the danish government used teams of teenage German captives to clear the 1.5 million land mines the German forces had buried this was set on the western coast of Denmark. This particular example was managed by Parachute regiment sergeant, played by Rolland Moller, who stood for no nonsense from what young were boys . But in case you watch it Only four of around twenty survived and he let them escape.
    Sorry the spoiler wont work ………….

    1. Had they forgotten where they had buried them? So much for the much-lauded German efficiency…

      1. You wouldn’t believe how these young lads were treated.
        Most days where spent lying in the sand with a prod finding the flat land mines and dismantling them by hand.
        But I think I understand what you mean, when every I see what the b*st*rd Nazis did in everybody else world, it still makes me angry.
        This film worked well as a nuanced drama.

        1. Unless you are in the situation, it’s difficult to know how you would react.
          Sitting comfortably at home, I think my natural instinct would be to treat them as traumatised teenage boys.
          But, 75 years later in a country which didn’t actually experience what Denmark went through, it is easy to be merciful.
          I was always impressed with my uncle and aunt who had German POWs billeted with them to do the farm work. Despite official rules, they treated the chaps as human beings and ignored the orders to house them outside and not allow them to eat with the family. Sometimes, they would take them on outings – but warn them not to speak.
          My cousins were upset when the POWs went home and my relatives always kept in contact. My aunt and uncle’s one trip abroad was to Germany for the wedding of a prisoner’s daughter.

          1. There used to be an old German living locally who was (or claimed to be) ex SS, and who had some pretty grisly tales.
            He escaped from his camp and spent the rest of the war as a railway porter in London, presumably with fake or purloined ID.

            Curiously, that does not show up on the WWII statistics…

          2. One of our late friends was a German ex-PoW. He’d been wounded at Stalingrad. At the end of the war, he decided to stay in England and married an Englishwoman – but he never lost his German accent. He eventually rose to quite a responsible position in the Post Office, although when he arrived he could barely speak a word of English.

          3. We have three sons Anne perhaps that’s why i felt sorry for them as eventually did the ‘brutal’ Sergeant.
            My own late father in law was captured in Belgium, he never fired a shot in anger and with his Army colleagues was made to to walk most of the way to Poland where he was held captive for 4 years. Most of their holidays in the mid 50s were driving to Germany Bavaria Austria and so forth. He spoke a little German but never once spoke badly of them.
            We have some photographs of him and his fellow captives all looking well and fairly happy. My wife had pages of his memories which her mother lent to a new neighbour to read but despite our many requests, we never got them back. She still has some of their personal letters.

          1. I wood of (sic) except that you live miles away…..and I only knew what I wanted when I actually saw it in my aged hands.

          2. To get to the root of the problem it Sounds as if you went to the wrong branch.
            I’l bet you’re barking mad now.

  47. Can any technically adroit Nottler try to get the Times article article by Giles Corrin on to the page here he’s very funny.

    I watch a very sad film on Saturday evening Land of Mine Set after ww2 when the danish government used teams of teenage German captives to clear the 1.5 million land mines the German forces had buried this was set on the western coast of Denmark. This particular example was managed by Parachute regiment sergeant, played by Rolland Moller, who stood for no nonsense from what young were boys . But in case you watch it Only four of around twenty survived and he let them escape.
    Sorry the spoiler wont work ………….

  48. Can any technically adroit Nottler try to get the Times article article by Giles Corrin on to the page here he’s very funny.

    I watch a very sad film on Saturday evening Land of Mine Set after ww2 when the danish government used teams of teenage German captives to clear the 1.5 million land mines the German forces had buried this was set on the western coast of Denmark. This particular example was managed by Parachute regiment sergeant, played by Rolland Moller, who stood for no nonsense from what young were boys . But in case you watch it Only four of around twenty survived and he let them escape.
    Sorry the spoiler wont work ………….

  49. “It is important that we remember the true meaning of Easter”, says the The Archbishop of Cadbury.

  50. Blimey, watching the adverts on Sky Sports at half-time of the West Ham v Arsenal game I noted that it featured about 9 effnics for every one white person. I notice that Gillette blades always shave some effnic footballer …. who’s definitely a good family man, because after his shave he goes and picks up his little daughter from her cot ….

    2. Hi . . . totally agree . .

      It’s the same with all the adverts . . . you would think that the UK population was at least 50/50 . . . indegenious [white] / incoming [and multiplying] other ethnics . . .

      Same with TV presenters/news readers etc . . slowly, slowly there are more & more other ethnics presenting the programme.
      Last night I watched the first episode of the new “Line of Duty” on BBC . . . I didn’t know we had so many coloured dectectives/police etc in the UK . . .??

      1. They’ve recruited most of them since I watched the first 5 series (got the boxed set)

      2. Midsommer Murders has gone the same way. Last night’s episode also had a mixed race gay couple. At least the main characters are still white effnics.

          1. I’m sure they’ve had a similar earlier episode or two about bees. Have they run out of original plot-lines?

          2. In the days when Jonathan Nettles – rather than the Cameron Lookalike, Neil Dudgeon – played Barnaby people used to write in saying how lovely it was to see indigenous English people in pretty English rural settings.

            “We shall compromise,” said the TV production team, “We shall keep the pretty rural settings but inject a vigorous and enriching amount of BAMEs.”

            The Jack Russel terriers and the very pretty new Mrs Barnaby (Fiona Dolman) are the only good new things in the programme. (That is not to say that I did not like Joyce (Jane Wymark) because I did.)

          4. Not a patch on Liza Goddard’s (swoon, sigh, slobber…) Phillipa Vale (sp?) in Bergerac. And the locations were better too.

      3. I mute the sound during the adverts, so occasionally I have to look up to make sure I don’t miss the beginning of the programme when it restarts. Every time I look up, there seems to be a black face on the screen! Sometimes I wonder if I’m watching African TV.

    3. Saving us a fortune. They don’t want our tainted white money and we don’t want to spend it where it’s not wanted. It would be rude to force it on them.

      1. That’s all they do and I expect that when they don’t have any protests organised – owing to Covid restrictions – they expect furlough payments!

  52. Anyway..just been down the village for some bits.Saw two people in face masks(out of about 30)
    We’ve never bothered about the CV 19 rubbish here in the village (pop 4500).It only seems to be the major cities.

    1. It is far worse in British cities that have large ethnic populations. Probably because they don’t wash.

      2. I doubt it! (I try not to be a prig, i.e. I do occasionally make jokes & remarks about ethnicity, especially with Bame friends, but preferably not on the internet.)

        Factors influencing degree of vulnerability to the Chinese Variant seem to include: age, obesity, diabetes, underlying health issues, hypertension, possibly belonging to blood group A, and low levels of vitamin D3.
        In the UK, urban ethnic minority people tend to spend a lot of the day well away from sunlight, or simply their melanin levels are optimised for sunny countries. Thus there have been significant numbers of Afro-Caribbean victims in UK, but relatively few African victims in Kenya. Obviously, every death is a tragedy.
        My hypothesis is simple: if you can walk 6 miles in about two hours, you are fit enough to survive the bug.

        1. Somewhat supports my point. How often do you see the burka clad exercising?

          I too have black friends.

        2. There are adherents to a certain ideology who have less than perfect hygiene habits when it comes to hand washing – just sayin’. That isn’t racist.

        1. I josh you not.

          I’m not keen on rice so i have my curry with mashed potato anyway.

          Vivek Singh says it is his best selling dish.

          2. I like rice in a stirfry. Plain boiled doesn’t do it for me. It has to have cardamon and lots of saffron. Then i’ll eat it.

            Masterchef the other night a person did rice pudding flavoured with Bay. They all seemed to like it.

          3. Most English people are clueless about boiling rice. They boil it to a sludge and then rinse it making it gluier! I follow Ken Hom’s (and Madhur Jaffrey’s) advice.

            Rinse the rice in eight changes of clean water then drain. Add to a pan then just cover with cold water (nothing else). Boil rapidly with no pan lid and watch until all the bubbles stop appearing out of the craters. As soon as that happens, remove the pan from the stove, fit a tight-fitting lid, then leave untouched for a minimum of 15 minutes so that it steams to perfection. Fluff it up with a fork afterwards.

            To fry it, add a tablespoonful of Chinese unrefined peanut oil to a hot wok or frying pan. Fry a beaten egg until set and then break it up and set aside. Fry some chopped up spring onions for a few minutes then add to the reserved egg. Fry some finely chopped chestnut mushrooms for a few minutes then add to the egg and spring onions. Heat the wok again with a touch more unrefined peanut oil and, when smoking, add the rice, egg, spring onions and mushrooms. Stir rapidly to mix. Add some light soy sauce and mix throughly.

            Serve.

    1. By coincidence a friend living in SE London, emailed a few minutes ago to say that she had seen a Brimstone this morning…

      2. This one’s hanging around and feeding on peiris flowers, along with bumblebees. 10°C and overcast.

    2. Had a small ‘brown’ in the garden this morning, but too far away (and too ephemeral) to identify.

        1. Mola mentioned he’d seen a Brimstone, which is a butterfly. I responded telling him that I had seen a brown variety (of butterfly).

      1. Well Trump(in the middle of a bitter trade war) said it did so it must be true.

          1. Wasn’t there some confusion in his security agencies.
            Some agreed with him,some didn’t.

          2. Depended on who was paying them, I suppose.
            There were a number of articles on various websites by virologists who had dissected the virus and concluded that it had been “spliced”, that is it was unnatural and therefore a laboratory product.

    4. OK, situation normal as it will be on 6th May.

      Crikey, I’m beginning to sound like Ogga.

  56. Douglas Adams’ note to self reveals author found writing torture. 22 March 2021

    He was one of the most wildly imaginative writers of any generation but even for Douglas Adams writing could be a torturous process, requiring a “general note to myself” that he would finally get pleasure from it.

    “Writing isn’t so bad really when you get through the worry. Forget about the worry, just press on. Don’t be embarrassed about the bad bits. Don’t strain at them,” The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author wrote to himself. “Writing can be good. You attack it, don’t let it attack you. You can get pleasure out of it. You can certainly do very well for yourself with it!”

    I’m not surprised at this at all. Writers block is not a fiction. That said it does vary; Isaac Asimov the Science Fiction author was supposedly able to write without pause, as if copying a piece of text. I myself construct my stories as if they were houses, designing them and then getting the foundations in as quickly as possible before building and occasionally pulling whole walls down and starting again. I have been known to demolish the whole structure in disgust after topping it out! It is a wearisome process!

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/22/douglas-adams-note-to-self-reveals-author-found-writing-torture

    1. I thought you was going to publish an extract on Nottl for our delectation and appreciation. In eager anticipation I’ve already donned my bib so I don’t drool over the computer keyboard……

      1. WARNING. This work contains outdated attitudes and erotic content!

        “That’s a good girl.” Keith said encouragingly. He then began to move his hips making the stroke longer so his captive had to accommodate him. “That’s a good girl.” As she worked unwillingly, tears in her eyes, back and forth. Eventually he reached in and grasped her ears. It was a little time coming and then he held her while he unloaded and made sure she swallowed. “Good girl.” Laughing. That’s what it’s like to be a woman Primrose.” He leaned back in the chair. If only he had a cigarette it would be absolutely perfect. He looked at his watch. If Dru came back he would hear her and then take care of her as well and if she didn’t he had this to compensate. It would at least leave her something to remember him by and he could always come back. He caught the maid’s attention by squeezing her between his knees. “Back to work Primrose.” There was just a hint of reluctance but she was broken in now and with some instruction soon had him ready again. He had seen this many times, once they had been bought to cock they were never the same again. This one would be no use to Dru from now on. An hour later fully satiated he tucked his flaccid member away. “Time to go Keith my old lad.” For the first time since he had been sent to prison he felt more like his old self. “Bye Primrose.” Mockingly. “Remember me to Dru.”

        The Ladies Callaway X Series Golf Fairway Wood passed an inch above the headrest of the chair and hit him just below the Occipital Bun at about eighty miles an hour. There was a soft crunching thwack and he relaxed into the chair, head on his chest as if asleep.

        Drusilla walked around the chair and regarded him malevolently.

        “Bastard!”

          1. Livia Drusilla (58 BCE – 29 CE) was the third wife of emperor Augustus of Rome, mother of emperor Tiberius, and grandmother of emperor Claudius

          8. …. and Drusilla MacPhee, the renowned Lochaber clairvoyant, who sadly died quite unexpectedly as a result of unforeseen circumstances in 1760, at just fifty years of age.

          10. The choice of name was deliberately exotic. You have to press as many levers as you can!

          11. I can see where you are having problems – buttons are pressed levers are pulled :-))

        2. Splendid – adds new meaning to the expression: “He’s got wood!”

          Do you have a publisher Minty?

          1. Only myself Stephen. I’ve published two books on Amazon. The truth is that I started too late! I had to go to work and my technique does really require a Word Processor!

          2. Mary Wesley, CBE was an English novelist. During her career, she was one of Britain’s most successful novelists, selling three million copies of her books, including ten bestsellers in the last twenty years of her life.

          3. The extract above is from a story I’ve written as part of an eight piece anthology of which I have written five. I shall never finish it now! I am too old!

    2. This I know, and agree with you, Minty.

      I managed my autobiography that runs up to my 70th Birthday but the sequel is proving to be a real bar steward.

      One just perseveres.

    3. Oddly enough, I need a title to start the whole thing off! I may change it once the story is growing itself, but I can’t get anywhere unless I know what I’m going to call it initially. How weird is that?

  58. Good afternoon, everyone. Son’s collie puppy chewed through my broadband cable. Laptop now hooked up to my phone.

    1. Kill puppy – disinherit son.

      Gus and Pickles had a damned good try at that when younger…

    2. Daughters and our Lab puppies chewed the leg of the dresser in the dining room! Fortunately they steered well clear of the long case clock which came from the governors office at Strangeways prison, and which struck the 8 o’clock execution!
      Edit: dreadful grammar!

  59. Another long ago recorded Film I watch over the week end was this ………Harry Brown, released in 2009. Starring Michael Caine.

    The story follows Harry Brown, a widowed Royal Marines’ veteran who had also served in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, living on a London housing estate that is rapidly descending into youth crime.
    Set in a very violent lawless south London council estate, weak leadership and blatant misogyny from the self obsessed Top Cop, bucket loads of swearing other filth and violence.
    Almost like the real thing but there was something very obvious missing. Other viewers might also find it easy to spot.

      1. Funny you should say that Conners 😉
        I hope you are keeping well and bearing up under the strain.

      1. When we returned from overseas, there were three constants to show was OK in UK

        !. Boobs (not the Daily Tellysubby ones) on Page 3 of the Sun

        2 A sale on at MFI

        3. One lane of the Severn Bridge closed

        None remain, well the Bridge has a Big Brother, that is far more Hardy

        1. Well the Grand Old Duke of York had ten times that number…and there was a lot of going up and down!

  61. Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that he plans to get vaccinated against coronavirus on Tuesday.

    “Vaccination is a voluntary choice made by each person – his or her personal decision. Incidentally, I plan to get vaccinated tomorrow,” Putin said, speaking at a meeting dedicated to increasing Russia’s vaccine production capabilities on Monday.

  63. To conclude the B&Q saga. I did -mail the CEO and some regional minion contacted me, took the details of what I wanted – the MR had very prudently photographed the barcode – and promised that they would be available today (Monday). All I needed to do was to ask for the manager (named).

    We went there this morning, and asked for the manager. She wasn’t available. She as interviewing and very busy. After standing around like lemons for 20 minutes, a woman arrived, said that she knew about it and would get the stuff for us. (I wanted 4 pieces of a particular profile moulding).

    The woman brought me the four pieces. ALL WRONG. Three one type of wrong profile; the other a different wrong moulding.

    After a lot of discussion, she took us to the mouldings section – and there were dozens of the profile. I chose the four best; the woman took us to a till (there was a huge queue), reduced the price by 25% – we paid and left. A mere 40 minutes in the branch….

    Never again, if I can avoid it.

          6. Not for a while – I suspect if and when the builders start/finish the renovations I’m likely to be escorted around by local management for curtain tracking etc etc. I just hope it will be a Saturday when some importantly huge sporting event is on and the place will be empty….

    3. Black as your hat. Not very bright. Ticks all the boxes – apart from the transgender one. Yet.

          1. Ah – but he was reading a script that some “humorist” had prepared for him.

            Remember, Spikey, Uncle Bill’s golden rule: Nothing you see on TV is true.

    6. The last zleb MM I watched, the now obligatory black ( I openly and generously admit, after his poor (4 points i think) show on S.S. I felt sorry for his very distinct lack of general knowledge) guy was seriously struggling and far behind the other contestants until senior presenter JH lobbed a couple of i think Rapp and another black music question at him last few seconds, for two easy points, not that I noticed JH shuffle the paper work to help him out and not that it made any difference to the final scores.
      Where on earth did he go to school ? And funnily enough i’m not taking the P eye ss either.

      1. Lammy Lammy is the perfect example of why we should be worried at the insidious creep of the unintelligent

      1. Well done vvof! I couldn’t remember that last bit of wokery he was involved in and got slated for! The hushed, reverential tones he used were a massive turn-off!

      1. Time to exhume Magnus Magnusson and put him back on the job.

        Bamber Gascoigne (the uncle of the alcoholic footballer?) is 86 and still going strong – he could get back in harness if Paxperson missed his starter on University Challenge.

        But I do like Victoria Coren – the daughter of the Alan Coren who edited Punch when it was worth reading. I enjoy Only Connect – which took its title from the key phrase in EM Forster’s novel Howard’s End.. I remember my teacher when I was doing Eng. Lit. in the Sixth Form telling us that significant writers and poets presented ideas and images which remained apt and applicable throughout the ages. I took it to heart which is why, like the crew of the vessel which hunted the snark, I am fond of quotations.

        Of course now that my generation has reached the slippered pantaloon stage of our lives we can only connect by looking back at the previous stage, the justice, when we were full of wise saws and modern instances.

          2. She would indeed, Connors but, because I do not know her first (Christian?) name, I’m loth, in all good manners, to refer to her by her patronymic alone.

    11. We know who he is – and that’s Mastermind off the viewing list. I had doubts with Humphreys.

    12. I quite like Clive Myrie – I didn’t enjoy his scaremongering visits to undertakers and hospitals but I presume those reports were commisioned by the BBC.

      At least he speaks clearly and doesn’t mumble.

  65. Vesuvius wiped out all life in Pompeii in 15 minutes, study suggests. 22 March 2021.

    A giant cloud of ash and gases released by Vesuvius in 79 AD took about 15 minutes to kill the inhabitants of Pompeii, research suggests.
    Numerous studies have confirmed that the estimated 2,000 people who died in the Roman city were asphyxiated rather than killed by the lava.

    The study by researchers from the University of Bari, in collaboration with the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and the British Geological Survey of Edinburgh, says the pyroclastic flow – a dense, fast-moving current of solidified lava pieces, volcanic ash and hot gases – engulfed Pompeii just a few minutes after the volcano erupted.

    All life is of course over a timed period. Individuals must have perished very quickly as soon as the pyroclastic cloud reached them; perhaps two or three minutes of suffering before they expired. Vesuvius still sits there and if the documentary I watched last week is anything to go by the death toll next time will be enormous. Why anyone would build on the slopes of an active volcano is a truly baffling enigma.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/22/vesuvius-wiped-out-all-life-pompeii-15-minutes-study-pyroclastic-flow-cloud-gases-ash

    1. Yo Mi

      Why anyone would build on the slopes of an active volcano is a truly baffling enigma.

      an equally enigmatic conoundrum

      Why on earth does anyone believe Boros, in anything, that he does or says

      The reuults are the same as the lava flow, our lives are being slowly extinguished

      1. Wouldn’t a lot of greenies be tempted to build on a site where they can get free heat to power their home heat pumps?

        It must be terrible having to decide between woke green power and woke scaredy cat risk avoidance.

    5. Or on flood plains.

      Immigrants should keep their rubber dinghies and they should house themselves in buildings perched on stilts.

    6. The soil is very rich.
      There are so many monitoring devices that the inhabitants would have a fortnight’s warning – or, at least the vulcanologists would.
      Apparently, the Italian government does offer to buy the houses etc… on Vesuvius’ slopes, but the prices are so low that the owners decide to hunker down and take the risk.

      1. I was working in Indonesia very near mount Merapi, Java, when it erupted around 2009. A lot a dairy cows are kept on the slopes, its cooler and as you say the land is fertile. Some of the residents stayed put (and perished) as their fete was in the hands of Allah, but they have few places to go to and if the farm is destroyed so is their livelihood. Real problems for real people, which is why I get so angry with all the faux outrage in our society.

    7. Is there a volcano suitably close to Washington DC?

      Or Parliament Square?

      Or is there a Brussel’s Spout?

      Oh, how we wish.

    8. There were hundreds of sightseers at the volcano in Iceland. They went to within a few yards of the lava flow and some went to a few yards of where erupted lava was landing. Small planes and helicopters flew over. A helicopter landed around 20 yards from the edge of the moving lava flow and the occupants got out for a closer look. Even at night one could see the torch lights of those picking their way in the dark.

    9. The dog whose plaster cast is preserved in the museum certainly died in agony judging by the way it’s contorted.

    1. Petitions achieve nothing, withholding your vote at the ballot box may bring about a rethink.

      1. While I share your sentiments, VVOF, not voting simply lets some other bastard shower in

        1. If the buffoon knows his actions will result in his demise, perhaps that would bring about change.
          I live in hope the fright they received from the Euro elections will be repeated.

          1. 330652+ up ticks,
            VVOF,
            Voting in the regular voting manner has brought us as a nation down on our knees,
            Voting for one sh!te party to keep out another sh!te party is in fact taking a little less petrol to the fire.
            They are the LLC coalition & have been for years.

            There are alternatives as in FOX, WATERS, TILBROOK, etc,etc,etc,etc.

            One of the alternatives was tried before if I remember right resulting in a great success, the alternative was UKIP the result the referendum, the ongoing consequences post referendum triggering
            ongoing ersatz tory party treachery.

          1. I shall mark my ballot – in biro – NONE OF THE ABOVE – unless we have a Reclaim Candidate but I doubt that.

      4. 330652+ up ticks,
        VVOF,
        En masse boycott starting on the 6TH May of ALL lab/lib/con/ greens/ ersatz ukip candidates as an opening ball WILL bring about change.

      5. I know. But how else will they know. It’s no good writing to your MP and if you withhold your vote how will they know why you didn’t vote.
        It lets them know what we’re thinking. No other way to do it.

        1. I write on my ballot paper the reasons I’m withholding my vote. At least some people get to see it (the teller, the candidates and the supervisor).

    5. 8,668, agreed, seems a slow take-up.

      As I’ve given up on Ar5eBook and never twatted, could those who are still adherents, please publicise the petition or they’ll find them selves on Shanks’ Pony in 2030?

        1. I repeatedly remind myself how fortunate I am that I can ride and also harness up and drive a pony and trap.

    7. Now, you don’t think that Dear Leader is going to take any notice of the plebs who have to pay for their own transport. With the COP conference and the Davos devas landing on our shores, the green promises thrown around by Boris will be ramped to the full. Was it a million people who actually went to London and marched against the Iraq war? …and they were ignored!

      1. There were millions of people who went to London from all over the country to protest about the Hunting Bill. We got royally stuffed (and beaten up into the bargain later).

      2. No I don’t but I feel i must show my discontent rather than just sitting on my backside moaning.

    8. I was passed on my way back from the shops this afternoon by a car bearing a “Ban Fracking” sticker in its back window. It was a 68 plate with the EU logo on it, which speaks volumes. I bet its driver was all in favour of electric cars, greenery etc. When the wind don’t blow and the sun don’t shine, there’s no gas because we haven’t fracked and no coal because the greeniacs won’t let new pits be sunk. such people are going to be sunk.

  68. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/03/22/boris-johnson-eu-vaccine-block-talks-row-lockdown-roadmap/

    However brilliant the vaccine is it does not seem to give you any guarantee of being protected from Covid or spreading it to others.

    A BTL comment:

    In the words of our PM:

    “On the Continent right now see third wave under way and people in this country should be under no illusions that… when a wave hits our friends in Europe it washes up on our shores as well,”

    “Our friends in Europe….” Is this oaf seriously deluded or is he extracting the urine?

    1. Take any improvement going, it used to be “our friends and colleagues”
      Of course he means what he says, he is batting for them much more than for us.

      1. 330652+ up ticks,
        Afternoon VVOF,
        Has been for decades since the knife went into Thatcher’s back.
        The three monkey addicted electorate have a great deal to answer for.

    2. And it’s not the only thing washing up on our shores, courtesy of “our friends in Europe”.

    3. DM headline….

      Boris Johnson warns that a THIRD WAVE of Covid in Europe could ‘wash up on our shores’

      Of course he was referring to the Dover beaches…wasn’t he?

      1. 332652+ up ticks,
        Afternoon H,
        It is a covert message to those in despair that DOVER is not at its mass intake potential numbers regarding the reset / replacement campaign, he is assuring them that 51% foreign countrywide will be reached as he and priti intend.

  70. I got a call this afternoon inviting me for my 2nd jab tomorrow 8 weeks from the first due to a cancellation. I have taken up the offer.
    As I was driving up the High Street earlier I was confronted by the wonderful sight of a couple of white horses pulling an ornate and well kept white hearse. 2 undertakers in their regalia were on the driving seat but there was no coffin in the hearse. This was followed, but not accompanying it, by a well maintained Austin Ruby [or Baby Austin]which brought back memories. This model was the first car my brother and I drove on public roads before we were old enough to get a driving licence.
    The car was up on bricks while my dad was in the forces but I remember towards the end of the war my dad had me on his knee steering it in Abbeydore near Hereford where he was stationed.
    It all brightened up my day.

        2. Sorry, little g, I have to go for Kipling, Belloc and Masefield. Somewhat influenced by my parents.

      2. I used to belong, to a “gentleman’s club”

        One of the organisers for the night, said that if his phone rang, he would have to leave

        Followed by the Plus Comment, if you hear it, I will not be seeing you

        He was an Undertaker

    2. I drove my Father’s white Ford Zephyr 4 and my Mothers red Austin-Healey Sprite in Nigeris, by sitting on laps and operating what controls I could reach, from age about 6.
      Your post took me back to simpler times, Clydesider. Nice one! :-))

  71. The MSM have finally caught up with the next instalment of the “Horror of Holyrood”! This unbelievable mess happened on Saturday afternoon and was published in Wings over Scotland, an SNP publication! Nikeliar was present at the meeting, as was her husband, the one and only Mr. Murrell, who is the one refusing to hand over the accounts! Why is no one else investigating this?
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1413125/snp-news-scottish-independence-scottish-elections-nicola-sturgeon-holyrood-latest

      1. There is a theory that the term took on its present meaning from a group of ministers formed in 1668 – the “Cabal ministry” of King Charles II of England. Members included Sir Thomas Clifford, Lord Arlington, the Duke of Buckingham, Lord Ashley, and Lord Lauderdale, whose initial letters coincidentally.
        A Scot was involved before 1707.

    2. If the Irish are an ‘ethnic minority’, then logically so are the Scots.
      Next stop is that the Scots vote to become a BAME people.
      And Spring is in the air, whereas Miss Sturgeon reminds me of a cold winter’s evening in Motherwell.

    3. If the Irish are an ‘ethnic minority’, then logically so are the Scots.
      Next stop is that the Scots vote to become a BAME people.
      And Spring is in the air, whereas Miss Sturgeon reminds me of a cold winter’s evening in Motherwell.

  72. Hi folks

    Thank you all for your kind birfday wishes on 27/01/21

    I have not been well…please don’t ask. Spoke to the Nagsman this morning and I understand that she is being equally antisocial but is in robust good health. She is now, by default, Chairman of the Parish Council in Rowde, Wilts and, if you knew the rest of the self-aggrandising opinionated @rseholes sitting alongside her, you would all fall about laughing and spill your afternoon tincture.

    I haven’t read all the postings of the past couple of months but I understand that some have had ailments or worse. I wish you well.

    Rule bluddy Britannia!

    https://images.emlcdn.net/cdn/1001410/6dac0fe6-2766-4006-9efc-60b743aef31d/unseen123.png

    https://images.emlcdn.net/cdn/1001410/32b9e9e5-74fb-4fe0-91bf-69e78b4f24b5/Unseen193.png

    4. Glad to see you’re still in the land of the living, and fighting back! Good to hear about Nagsman, too. KBO Citroen!

      1. A boy I was at school with drove the “plumber’s nightmare” to school.

        His father was head of sales for the UK.
        Weird car, but very fast and very luxurious for its time.

  73. We must resist the siren calls of the mask fanatics

    The suggestion that we should wear masks for years to come sends shivers down my spine

    EMILY HILL

    According to the The Yale Book of Quotations, the phrases that defined 2020 were: “Wear a mask.” (Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.) “I can’t breathe.” (George Floyd, killed by Minneapolis police.) And, “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear” (President Trump on Covid-19.)

    But we continue to “follow the science”, masks aren’t going to disappear: in fact, leading experts are now saying that we may well be using them for years to come.

    Last year, when we emerged from state-mandated house arrest, we entered “the new normal” of mask-wearing and social distance to prevent the spread of Covid-19. We did all of that and it did not prevent the spread of Covid-19 – so we were all placed under house arrest again.

    On Saturday night, at Speaker’s Corner, I watched riot police tear up a protest so peaceful that it looked like a picnic. The police insisted they were doing this due to a public health emergency. The following day, 33 people died of Covid-19. So forgive me for asking whose side we should be on in this situation.

    Like anyone else capable of reading history books, compelled dress – in any form – scares me into an (I admit) hysterical state. But I find the idea of a world in which children never see a stranger’s face particularly unnerving. My only experience of existing in a society where the state makes certain elements of the population cover their bodies and hair was changing planes in Dubai once, where a little girl stared at me as if I were an alien (which is what I must have looked like to her, not swathed head to toe in black).

    There are now two types of people in Britain: those of us who want to communicate normally again – and those who are happy to live like this forever. The second camp is now advocating wearing two masks (as per CDC guidance), at least partly, it seems, as a way of signalling to those of us who question the prevailing narrative that public health is purely about suppressing Covid 19 that we must keep our mouths shut.

    If we want our freedom back from Covid-19, we must refuse to wear masks ever again. ‘Every joke is a tiny revolution,’ George Orwell once wrote – the reclamation of liberty begins with the bare, naked smile.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/22/must-resist-siren-calls-mask-fanatics/

    1. Its another world to me (thank goodness)
      I live in a Finnish village where mask -wearing is virtually unknown.

      1. They say a man is not complete until he is married.
        And then he is completely finished.

    2. Perhaps this time, after emerging from house-arrest, folk might celebrate by holding unmasked balls?

      …. I’ll get me dancing pumps.

      2. Do you wear a kilt or trews with a dinner jacket when you go to a black tie do?

  74. Sky News reporting that investigation has reported that Nicola Sturgeon did not breach the ministerial code. Why am I not surprised!

          1. James Hamilton’s Wikipedia page has been edited to remove the bit that says he was an adviser to the SNP, appointed in 2013 and reappointed in 2015.

      3. I don’t suppose anyone with the necessary authority will dare to look at Hamilton’s bank accounts…

        1. Perhaps the members of the Finance Committee, who resigned on Saturday when Sturgeons husband refused to hand over the accounts? One of them is the Lord Provost of Edinburgh!

    2. Perhaps she should be renamed Li’l Limpette for her tenacious grip on power…?

    1. It’s being suggested that the motto of the US is being changed to:

      “E Pluribus Taxem (Out of many, taxes).”

    2. I attended her concert:

      Adelphi Theatre, Dublin. Nov. 28th-29th 1966.

      She was a shimmering sensation in a silver gown with a husky voice …

      The encores went on and on – way after departure of the last buses; no one left the audience until her finalé …

  77. My thanks to the person who posted the amusing clip of a woman suffering from age-related attention deficit a couple of days ago. I realised that that was the reason that the pile of washing in the clothes basket had not been making contact with the washing machine over the last four days. I finally managed to get it there this morning by concentrating very hard and not getting side tracked….. although I did do some impulse hand-washing en route to the clothes basket and I stifled a sudden desire to clean the loo…..

    1. Perhaps that was the reason I forgot to take a small package to the Post office today……..

    3. Brilliant pm! My old man and I have walked past a sweeping brush in the middle of the hall for about 3 days, as we’re always on the way to do “something else”. I finally moved it today when daughter came with the twins! Now if only I could find my house keys, which I think are in her car!

      1. Sounds just like me…… car keys and glasses….. I did hear of a couple who were renovating a house and they lived with a wheelbarrow of rubble in their living room for a couple of years because they were always in the middle of doing something else whenever they thought about it and “oh well, I’ll do it tomorrow….”.

      2. Ah, a “sweeping brush” – apart from the wife of a friend of mine, that’s the first time I’ve heard a broom referred to as that.

        1. It is what we would call it in Yorkshire as well, a sweeping brush…. perhaps it is a northern, east-of-the-pennines term (me being from Yorkshire, you see, and Sue is from Newcastle(?) ).

      1. Thank you for posting it, it made me laugh as I recognised myself in it too – it also made me realise I have to be more single minded if I want to achieve anything during the day except bumbling about. I do have problems getting the washing done, out of sight, out of mind! I remember….. and then do something else.

  78. That’s me for the day. Quite nice and sunny – but still chilly. G & P beginning to suss out the cat-flap.

    I was soooo relieved that Mrs Murrell’s SNP “independent” adviser and member cleared her. I had been that worried that she might have to resign. Phew!

    A demain.

          1. And she appointed him!! I’ve just emailed Talkradio as they’re reiterating the “independent

  79. Off topic

    Why does any machine break down at the worst possible time?
    The drive belt for the tractor mower has shredded itself.
    It’s stretched and chopped so it will be a matter of guesswork what size is needed.
    It’s an old machine and the “plates” telling make and model vanished before we got it. I suspect I’ll have to get a near match rather than the real things.

    Getting a new one will probably take quite a while.
    Grrrr.

    1. Piece of string round the pulleys to get a reasonable approximation to length.

      2. Thank you.
        Tried that vs the website.
        One problem is that the company has been taken over a few times and all sorts of consolidation has happened. They’re imperial, France is metric!

        I’ve got the ~ length but there are at least three different belt sizes that fit that, and to make matters worse there are also widths and depths to consider.

        As I say Grrrr.

      1. Yes, HG and me.

        The belts are at least 88 inches. Perhaps you could spare a pair?

        Runs away and hides…

    3. Try Ebay…

      Lots of spares for historic things. I can readily get spares for my 1972 Seagull outboard.

      1. The mower is so decrepit that it’s impossible to tell what I’m looking for with any certainty. I’m hoping my handyman has seen the problem before and knows where to get the bits.

        I’m to mechanical things what Joe Biden is to stairs.

        1. Do you have a farmers collective shop locally? They usually have any kind of belt you can think of, plus at least three you’d never imagine.

          1. My French isn’t up to explaining it all.
            My handyman will almost certainly sort things out.

            The collectives are mainly new and produce. I’m really needing the agricultural equivalent of a brocante

  81. Defence revue , well what do you think.. reduced from 80,000 to less than 70,000.. Less than than the rugby ground at Twickenham holds .

    We live in a tankie area , and are used to seeing and hearing armoured vehicles clattering around on our roads here , and firing exercises on the ranges .

    We are a blinking Island and very isolated now. The NHS has more manpower than our armed services , more than 1.1 million full-time equivalents…

    Who cares about our British interests .. no one it seems.

      1. Military chiefs warn the ‘huge mistake’ of slashing 10,000 troops from the Army will leave Britain ‘very close to not being able to contribute’ on the world stage and unable to fight two wars at the same time
        Defence Secretary Ben Wallace will today announce a major Government shake-up of Britain’s Armed Forces
        Ministry of Defence’s Command Paper is expected to include a 10,000 troop cut to the size of the UK’s Army
        Ex-US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen said the cut is a ‘huge concern’ and will leave Army ‘pretty small’
        Ex-head of Army Lord Dannatt said cut will mean UK can no longer fight two major operations at same time
        Former British colonel Richard Kemp said cut a ‘huge mistake’ and could ‘endanger defence of this country’
        Publication of Command Paper comes amid political row over decision to increase size of UK nuclear arsenal

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9388589/Ex-military-chief-issues-warning-UK-Army-cut-plan.html

          4. They should have that branded on their hands (or more delicate parts of their anatomy) so that when they are pleasuring themselves they are reminded of their duties.

        3. It’ll be OK, Mags as the next will be a cyber-war and the Ar5ebookers and Twatters will swamp them with woky-lefty-memes..

          That’ll soon sort ’em out, especially after they are ‘no-platformed’.

          Ha, does anyone remember ‘Nuclear-free’ zones that no Russian would dare to bomb?

      2. 330652+ up ticks,
        Evening B3,
        Under these overseers very much so, we could even find ourselves fighting on behalf of brussels against our own domestic trawlermen.

        We have neighbour requested to report on neighbour,undermining a decent way of life.

      1. There are probably more Chinese woking in Takeaways etc in UK that we have Servicefolk now

      2. 330652+ up ticks,
        Evening P,
        I maybe an ex real UKIP party member but submission / surrender is still not an option.

        One should be asking if one is to continue the regular voting pattern is “What will the immans think of the chinese” ?

    5. 330652+up ticks,
      Evening TB,

      Followers of the regular voting pattern are responsible for our present condition as a Country, there can be laid much of the blame as in, party before Country every time for decades.

      Trouble has been building yearly behind the facade of the keep in / keep out voting brigade this very same brigade
      refuse to acknowledge the truth and until the controlling immans tell it how it is going to be the electorate will continue to refuse to acknowledge.

    6. Give each nurse, doctor, consultant and fat administrator, a rifle and now you have an army big enough to have Putin quaking in his boots…

      …and dying, laughing!

    2. As I saw yesterday when I researched travel to Bro-in-Law’s funeral. No reasonable guarantee of exit., and endless quarantine anyway.

        1. To go to the UK, yes, but “Going home after a funeral”, or anything even slightly resembling that, is not listed as an approved reason for leaving.
          Also, max 10 including officials allowed. 10 days quarantine on arrival, another 10 days when you get to Norway…

          3. Aha!
            One was misinformed: “Funeral ceremonies must have no more than 30 people attending, whether indoors or outdoors. This number does not include anyone working at the event. The actual number of people able to attend will depend on how many people can be safely accommodated within the venue with social distancing, and where the funeral venue manager has carried out a risk assessment and taken all reasonable measures to limit the risk of transmission of COVID-19. In some cases, this may be fewer than 30 people.”
            https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-managing-a-funeral-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/covid-19-guidance-for-managing-a-funeral-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic

          4. It is very confusing, Oberst.
            The only reason I know is because last week
            I was involved [administrative] in one
            at the Church I attend.
            Everything here is subject to misinterpretation …
            done deliberately I suspect.

          5. Drum up another 50 as the ‘Guard of Honour’ i.e., the 30 does not include anyone working at the event.

    3. There’s an endless list of excuses for them to restrict our movements and liberty. It’ll turn nasty sooner or later.

      1. They will let us out after they have scrapped all the passenger planes which is the plan anyway.

        We’ll have to buy sea going kayaks.

        2. The monks on Caldey Island have ww2 duck.Maybe they will flog it.It’s ancient now,but I’m sure it could be renovated.

          3. If the virus is THAT bad and they don’t want anyone returning with it…

            Then the next illegal arriving at our shores must be turned back before making landfall or else.

            Ha ha ha

          4. The Fataturk, his useless cabinet and even more corrupt ‘scientific’ advisors care diddly squat for the health of the nation.

            They are all in the business of profiting from a less than deadly laboratory manufactured virus. Their money source is from ownership of shares and other interests in and backhanders from evil Pharmaceutical Companies.

            The alliance of governments with the WHO, UN, Bezos, Gates and the Fauci and Whitty aberrations pretending to expertise on vaccines is a diabolical crime against humanity.

            Many will die as a result of the injections affecting their innate immune response and others will be rendered incapacitated by the outcomes which are now utterly predictable.

            People talk of an enquiry into the government response to the supposed Covid pandemic. I believe the present evidence of multiple malfeasance in public office is sufficient to halt mass vaccinations and prosecute the likes of Johnson, Hancock, Ferguson, Whitty, Vallance and Van Tam.

        3. Surely, we now have a multitude of rubber dinghies on this side of the channel – strap a few together, add an ex-trolley-dolly and away we go.

    4. This had better include the Pollytishuns

      No fact finding jaunts for them in the Carribean

      1. I expect the regulations will be lifted in the summer when the politicians want to go on their hols, and reimposed directly they return.

        1. Your cynicism, BB2, almost earns you
          COTW [Cynic Of The Week] award but it
          is still early days! :-))
          s! They really are a bunch of cretins.
          No, I did not vote for them!

    5. This had better include the Pollytishuns

      No fact finding jaunts for them in the Carribean

  83. Evening, all. My local rag claims that Bojo is warning that the new “European” Covid variants will arrive on our shores – well, hello! They’ll come in thanks to those rubber boats your government is studiously ignoring, when not actively helping on their way.

    1. Boris Johnson and his ignorant cohorts believe in the vaccines and so are not bothered about immigrants and their potential infections.

      Regrettably, Johnson and his scientifically uneducated and stupid cohorts cannot be bothered to investigate the dud advice they, themselves, sought from the Chinese backed ignoramuses at Imperial College London and the associated Chinese funded oafs at UCL and at Oxford.

      The variants will certainly also come from abroad but those variants are presently being incubated, promoted and released by the misguided folk and scared fools taking the jabs.

      God help us all trying to exist under this medical tyranny. When will folk finally wake up? I presently despair.

      Hopefully a third of the population will refuse the jabs. That will give some hope for our survival as a species.

    2. The infection rate in Nord-Pas de Calais is over 400 per 100 000 of inhabitants. So our government is encouraging them to come unchecked in dinghies, while forbidding Britons from travelling abroad.

      Makes perfect sense if you’re a traitor who wants to destroy Britain.

      1. No. Not possible. The virus only travels with middle-class families who return from holidays. That’s why they have to be kept here..

        1. But avoids the “elite” when they travel, of course. Such a clever virus; it knows the time (10pm in England and 6pm in Wales) and location, of course. It swerves away if you have a scotch egg with your pint and goes for the jugular if you’re just supping a jar with a packet of crisps.

        2. The dinghies should start going in the opposite direction, for claiming asylum in a country that doesn’t force its citizens to apply for exit permits!

      2. No. Not possible. The virus only travels with middle-class families who return from holidays. That’s why they have to be kept here..

  84. I am reminded of Ken Livingston’s response, that after Thatcher was deposed people would make love in the streets.

    When this virus crap is finally put to bed we might do the same.

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