Monday 25 January: Impossible to watch a TV news barrage of close-up dying and grieving

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/2021/01/25/letters-impossible-watch-tv-news-barrage-close-up-dying-grieving/

914 thoughts on “Monday 25 January: Impossible to watch a TV news barrage of close-up dying and grieving”

  1. Late Night Phone Call To The Vet

    A dog lover, whose dog was a female and “in heat’, agreed to look after her neighbour’s male dog while the neighbours were on vacation.

    She had a large house and believed that she could keep the two dogs apart. However, as she was drifting off to sleep, she heard awful howling and moaning sounds, rushed downstairs and found the dogs locked together, in obvious pain and unable to disengage, as so frequently happens when dogs mate.

    Unable to separate them, and perplexed as to what to do next, although it was late, she called the vet, who answered in a very grumpy voice.

    Having explained the problem to him, the vet said,

    “Hang up the phone and place it down alongside the dogs. I will then call you back and the noise of the ringing will make the male lose his erection and he will be able to withdraw.”

    “Do you think that will work?” she asked.

    “Just worked on me,” he replied.

    1. Bet he thinks he’s very clever, depicting all those citizens merrily enjoying the pandemic, with the kind policemen aiding them!

    2. Note the policeman hovering on the edge of the pond. He’s hoping the ice will break and he can watch the children drown. “Elf’n’Safety, Mate.

  4. SIR – I profoundly disagree with Jane Moth, who disapproves of the moving BBC interviews with those we depend upon in this tragic pandemic, from exhausted ICU staff to gravediggers.

    The sad truth is that there are still people who refuse to accept the reality of this illness. Dedicated hospital staff are heckled as they come and go to work by deluded Covid deniers. Those supplying vaccine to our most vulnerable populations too often find they refuse it.

    The only way to convince them of the truth is for journalists to risk their health by ensuring that we hear from those in the front line. I am so grateful we have broadcasters who enable us to hear these voices, even though I too find it almost unbearably moving.

    Dame Esther Rantzen
    Bramshaw, Hampshire

    Of course you’ll defend Clyde Myrie because you relied on those same techniques to get attention as that lowlife, you sickening baitch.

    1. SIR – The result of the constant bombardment of negative news, particularly from the BBC, at the moment is a mental health epidemic in this country.

      At least during the war it was deemed important to improve morale, but the daytime news is now so traumatic that I have stopped watching. I advise any parents to do the same after hearing of a child coming home and asking: “Are we all going to die?”

      Joy Goddard
      Swanley, Kent

      1. Good morning, C1.

        Joy Goddard’s letter is spot on. Day after day the BBC ‘News’ features yet another hospital ICU, to the exclusion of pretty well everything else. Isn’t there anything else newsworthy going on both here and in the rest of the world? Given a free hand I wouldn’t turn it on in the first place, but Mrs HJ prefers it. I think she hankers after the time, several decades ago, when they could be relied upon to bring us news that reflected what was happening in this country and overseas. They are now fixated on all matters covid-related to the exclusion of everything else. Which is why I fundamentally disagree with Ester Rantzen’s view – that the news is there as a propaganda tool and to correct ‘wrong thinking’.

        Once again, an albeit serious situation is God’s gift to news programme editors, who can fill the hours with the same thing over and over again.

        Rant over.

    3. I wonder why the BBC and all the other visual media don’t have newsreel of the heckling of staff? Could it be that it doesn’t exist?

  5. SIR – You report Boris Johnson warning that the new variant of the coronavirus is “more deadly”, with a the mortality rate being “30 per cent” higher.

    However, from the information provided one could say that the survival rate appears to drop from 99 per cent to 98.7 per cent. That is just as true and not quite as alarming.

    Malcolm Whittle
    Newbury, Berkshire

    1. SIR – The new variant coronavirus is said to be perhaps 30 per cent deadlier, which sounds frightening. But, put another way (as Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s chief scientific adviser, said on Friday), of 1,000 people that catch the virus , 10 are likely to die with the existing virus and 13 or 14 with the mutant. That, doesn’t sound as alarming.

      C C Chanides
      Brackley, Northamptonshire

      1. Same as when the death figure reached 30’000. Working on an estimated 75 million population – 30’000 is 4% of 1% of the 75m population.

      2. Precisely, C C Chanides. The “30%” nonsense is designed to frighten, not inform, and will be right up Esther Rantzen’s street

        1. They rely on the fact that people do not understand percentages.

          When they raised VAT from 18% to 20% they said that the tax was only being raised by 2%.

          In fact a rise from 18 to 20 is a rise of over 11% (20/18 x100 = 111.1 – 100 = 11.11)

  6. Here’s a corker from Melanie…

    No, this is not “getting back to normal”

    The extinction of reason, justice and freedom on campus is now to be institutionalised as American government policy
    Melanie Phillips – 6 hr ago

    https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5fd744d1-a08a-490b-b51f-73ce13260f9b_1200x627.jpeg
    The Women’s March on Versailles 1789

    Has there ever been such a profound and jarring disconnect between a new American president’s words and actions on his very first day in office?

    In his inauguration speech, President Joe Biden hymned unity. America, he said, must “stop the shouting, and lower the temperature”. It must put behind it “anger, resentment, hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness and hopelessness” and reaffirm “history, faith and reason”.

    Yet within hours of that speech, Biden signed a slew of executive orders to set America on a path of anger, resentment, hatred, division, lawlessness and joblessness and which undermine history, faith and reason.

    And — excuse me — executive orders? When President Donald Trump used them, the Democrats howled that this showed he was a proto-fascist hell-bent on circumventing constitutional procedures and proper democratic scrutiny When Biden signs a whole bunch of them on his first afternoon in office, however, this is apparently “getting back to normal”.

    But to call these measures “normal” would surely have made Lenin blush. Biden’s immigration orders, giving citizenship to some 11 million illegal immigrants, halting construction of the Mexican border wall and imposing a moratorium on deportations for 100 days, trash the rule of law and spell administrative and policing chaos. More than that, they undermine the very concept of a nation, which depends for its continued existence upon its borders being secure; and they take a wrecking ball to the concept of citizenship: the bargain of duties and rights that exists only between a government and its country’s citizens.

    The implications are so dire that Texas instantly launched a lawsuit against the new administration. Its Attorney-General, Ken Paxton, said:

    “In one of its first of dozens of steps that harm Texas and the nation as a whole, the Biden administration directed DHS to violate federal immigration law and breach an agreement to consult and cooperate with Texas on that law. Our state defends the largest section of the southern border in the nation. Failure to properly enforce the law will directly and immediately endanger our citizens and law enforcement personnel.”

    In another order, Biden undermined American security by reversing the ban on travel from terrorist hotspots, including Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia in addition to North Korea, Chad and Venezuela. This ban was not, as was so falsely and slanderously characterised by the Democrats, a “ ban on Muslims”. It was introduced in 2017 against certain countries whose governments could not provide proper documentation, vetting or identification information for citizens travelling to the US. It was a ban on countries whose record of Islamist or other anti-western extremism and violence meant that prudence dictated its inhabitants should be presumed to be a potential danger to America. By ending it, Biden has made America unsafe. It is an unreasonable act, motivated entirely by the Democrats’ ideologically twisted misrepresentation of any action aimed to protect citizens against Islamic extremism as anti-Muslim bigotry.

    Next, Biden revoked the order limiting the ability of federal agencies, contractors and other institutions to hold diversity and inclusion training. This is part of what his transition team described as the new administration’s “whole-of-government initiative to advance racial equity”.

    But “racial equity” is emphatically not the same as treating every person as of equal value regardless of their ethnicity. It does not mean, in the words of Martin Luther King (who must surely be turning in his grave, not least by being given a shout-out in that Biden speech) judging someone by the content of their character rather than by the colour of their skin. It is the precise opposite. It is a doctrine which holds that white people are intrinsically racist; that the west is therefore intrinsically racist; and that therefore black people in the west should be privileged over white.

    So this so called “racial equity” actually institutionalises anti-white hatred and discrimination. And this deeply illiberal, racist doctrine is now to be enforced throughout American public life. Biden has appointed Susan Rice as his administration’s Robespierre, requiring all federal agencies to make “rooting out systemic racism” central to their work. In the Orwellian language of the left, this means imposing anti-white racism; and so “diversity and inclusion training” is a euphemism for subjecting employees to anti-white propaganda.

    As Heather MacDonald has written for City Journal, there is already a sickening proposal to discriminate against white people in Covid-19 vaccinations. She writes:

    The “systemic racism” conceit means that every American institution is illegitimate and needs to be reconstructed. Biden’s cabinet nominees, whether in health, finance, environmental policy, or education, have declared that eradicating systemic racism is their top priority. How this agenda will play out has already been adumbrated in the CDC’s initial priority list for Covid vaccinations: hold off on vaccinating the elderly, despite their higher risk levels, because the elderly are disproportionately white.

    Racial quotas will become even more the order of the day than now. The diversity obsessives in the federal science bureaucracies waited out Donald Trump’s presidency. They will now redouble their efforts to treat a researcher’s race and sex as scientific qualifications in the awarding of federal research grants. Expect to see any mention of merit or excellence denounced as a form of bigotry, a response that the University of California and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, as well as an army of corporate diversity trainers, have already perfected.

    The next four years will likely be one long anti-white-privilege struggle session. Any real effort to close racial achievement gaps, such as fighting the “acting white” ethic that prevents many inner-city children from trying hard in school, will be deferred and discredited.

    In similar vein, Biden signed an executive order to “remove discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation” — which, according to Abigail Shrier, places all girls’ sports and women’s safe spaces in its gender-bending crosshairs. In the Wall Street Journal, Shrier spells out the implications:

    Any school that receives federal funding—including nearly every public high school—must either allow biological boys who self-identify as girls onto girls’ sports teams or face administrative action from the Education Department. If this policy were to be broadly adopted in anticipation of the regulations that are no doubt on the way, what would this mean for girls’ and women’s sports?

    …“Finished. Done,” Olympic track-and-field coach Linda Blade told me. “The leadership skills, all the benefits society gets from letting girls have their protected category so that competition can be fair, all the advances of women’s rights—that’s going to be diminished.”

    Biden’s action will thus institutionalise injustice and discrimination against women in sport. For regardless of whatever procedures individuals may have undergone in order to assume a different gender, if they were born as men they retain a clear advantage over women in sport through their difference in strength and physique. So at a stroke, Biden has struck a grievous blow against women, thus undermining any feminist credentials his administration may want to claim — and indeed, any claim to reason or moderation.

    Gender is not the same as biological sex; but for telling this fundamental truth about what makes us all human, the Biden administration now clearly intends to punish anyone who dares do so. The people who will most find themselves in this particular firing line will be those with traditional religious beliefs. Thus the Biden administration has also signalled the end of religious freedom in pursuit of the project to remake nothing less than human identity itself.

    He also displayed an instant contempt for the niceties of constitutional proprieties, let alone human decency. Within minutes of being sworn in, Biden told Peter Robb, general counsel of the National Labour Relations Board, to resign by 5 pm or be fired. Robb refused to resign; so he was promptly fired. The implications of this have been spelled out in the Wall Street Journal by Kimberley Strassel. She writes:

    The general-counsel position is a Senate-confirmed four-year appointment at an independent agency; Mr. Robb had 10 months left in his term. No NLRB general counsel had ever been fired, and the Biden White House provided no cause for the action.

    … Democrats rely on unions to get elected, and unions are therefore first in line to get rewarded. The most effective vehicle for that is the NLRB, which has sweeping power to enforce labor practices on companies across America. Mr. Obama used the NLRB to rig the rules so that unions could dominate workforces.

    … It is also an early indicator of Mr. Biden’s governing philosophy, which is straight out of the Obama playbook. The last Democratic president was so intent on rewarding labor bosses, he proved willing to break almost anything (including the Constitution) to do it.

    …The new president is under massive pressure from the progressive left, including many service unions, to act aggressively on climate. Yet his first-day executive action canceling the Keystone XL pipeline prompted a furious rebuke from blue-collar unions that are set to lose jobs… Control of the NLRB will allow Mr. Biden to soothe labour divisions by handing out sweeping rule changes that will benefit unions across the spectrum. Mr. Robb’s firing will likely be only the first of many exercises of raw power, many of which will likely make the Obama NLRB look tame.

    When Biden speaks of unity, he means it in the same way that North Korea’s Kim Jong-un or China’s President Xi might mean it — unity on his terms, or else. Just as I wrote here, Biden will be a president for everyone who thinks like him. If you don’t, you’ll be purged. Biden’s “unity” excludes millions of white-skinned Americans — by implication, in fact, potentially every white-skinned American — whom he defamed in his speech by smearing them with “systemic racism”, “nativism” and rising “white supremacy”.

    In short, the chilling extinction of reason, justice and freedom that has been taking place in our universities is now to be institutionalised as American government policy.

    It is more than illiberal; it is totalitarian. It is based on coercion, intimidation and injustice; it will deprive untold numbers of people of the prospects of employment, throw many more out of their jobs and will forcibly disbar yet more; it will rewrite America’s history as a libel against itself, will aim to remake society and humanity, and will try to silence anyone who dares stand up for reason, justice and moral decency.

    One has to wonder: what price the American constitution in this cultural revolutionary Terror? Presumably, there will be lawsuits against sending America’s basic principles to the guillotine. But is the US constitution itself safe from Senator Chuck Schumer’s chilling victory boast to “change America”? After all, the Democrats have already threatened to pack the Supreme Court by installing additional patsy Democrat justices to remove its current conservative majority.

    Far from a return to normal, what the Biden administration calls irresistibly to mind is how the horrified 18th century philosopher Edmund Burke described the French Revolution — as “a monstrous tragicomic scene”.

    https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/no-this-is-not-getting-back-to-normal?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNDc4MjY4NiwicG9zdF9pZCI6MzE4MzA0NzAsIl8iOiJFMGVIMSIsImlhdCI6MTYxMTUxOTMyMywiZXhwIjoxNjExNTIyOTIzLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItNzc2NTUiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.p0UOshFC77gq7pBLpgtu_ZnzyZX6vdynXrE8gdFCgrQ

    1. And in four years time, the US will get the chance to vote in a toothless Republican candidate, who will assuage some of people’s anger by some conservative sounding rhetoric, but will carefully preserve Biden’s excesses.
      If any Republican candidate seriously intends to roll them back, he or she won’t be allowed to come near being elected.
      Sounds familiar?

    4. Many of those “women” marching on Versailles were said to be men dressed up as women. Plus ça change …

    2. That’s pretty nasty if true, as it impacts on people who are rather less able to bear a higher cost of living than Mr Buffet.

      1. Good morning, BB2.

        BNSF is a very large railway business,
        if you have time, a quick look at their
        Wiki page will give you an idea of their
        size and grasp.
        [I first came across them during our first lockdown; I started to watch youtube
        videos of USA train journeys….BSNF
        appear to be more aggresive towards their
        fee paying customers than other Providers.]

          1. ‘What a world we live in!’

            It increasingly seems to be:

            What a world we exist in;
            ‘They’ seem determined to stop
            us enjoying life!

          2. Yes. I think the period of having the same expectations that we had before lockdown must end now, otherwise one would suffer too much.
            In order to preserve one’s sanity, one must accept the new normal – either as a bad thing that must be fought against, or as inevitable.
            In either case, the psychological option of sitting on our hands and expecting that things will just return to normal is no longer tenable.

          3. It is hardly believable that in less
            than a year we have been reduced
            to a snivelling nation of ‘HMG knows
            best’; I hear it all the time from my
            relatives and friends, they all know
            my thoughts on the subject and look
            upon me as ‘a bit of a rebel!’

          4. Same here! I’m getting the feeling that “oh, blackbox is being irresponsible again, best believe the Government.”
            It’s like during the Blair era, I feel like the only sane one while everyone votes for more lunacy around me!
            Perhaps that should be our new slogan “If you voted three times for Blair, don’t tell me I’m wrong about the coronavirus.”

      1. Blaming Buffet is a bit unfair. Hed far more happily simply buy the Keystone pipeline as well. His motive isn’t to get rich. He already is.

  10. Joe Biden’s call for unity is a sham. 25 January 2021.

    Calling for unity while prioritising some identity groups and excluding others might seem discordant, but militant identity politics is now central to the beliefs of the modern Left. In his inauguration speech, Biden made no reference to equality, but instead promised to address “growing inequity”.

    The pursuit of equity is very different to the pursuit of equality. The equity now sought by the Left is between different identity groups, and in particular groups defined by race, sexuality and gender. The critical theories that lie behind this political fashion claim that privilege and power are determined by exploitative hierarchies kept in place by institutions and discourse that oppress disadvantaged groups.

    Morning everyone. This is of course the quintessence of Cultural Marxism; that all social outcomes are the result of bias within the system. When ordinary Americans; mostly whites, since they will be the ones most discriminated against, realise what they have elected the country will melt down.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/01/24/left-cannot-overcome-division-remains-obsessed-identity-politics/

      2. Grafitti spotted in a park in Bavaria:
        “FFP2 is the new swastika”
        This relates to the new requirement to wear FFP2 masks in supermarkets and on trains.

      3. Grafitti spotted in a park in Bavaria:
        “FFP2 is the new swastika”
        This relates to the new requirement to wear FFP2 masks in supermarkets and on trains.

  12. Good morning Folks

    A cold and frosty start here, snow still hanging about on the mostly moss lawn,

  13. So they are doing DAVOS on line this year, according to the BBC news this morning it is going to be all about fairness, believe it or not the the billionaire elites have gotten wealthier in the covid crises and the poor have gotten poorer, leaving a bigger gap in inequality.
    Cue economic expert – we have to think of new ways of taxing the wealthy, that meant people with a nett wealth of over one £ million, should be hit with wealth taxes, and he then said we have to build back fairer ( not better ) I noted.
    Not sure how any of that will effect the billionaire white supremacists that reside mostly in California, the people that backed Biden.

  14. Joe Biden’s war on women. Spiked. 25 January 2021.

    I love the can-do optimism of our American cousins. Last week it was hard not to get swept up by their enthusiasm in welcoming a senile hair-sniffer to the White House. But as a Brit, not only do I feel privileged to enjoy free healthcare and cynicism but also the right to name women as ‘adult human females.’ On 20 January, on his first day in office, one of President Biden’s first actions was to sign off an executive order entitled ‘Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation’, which effectively removed the rights of the four million women who work in the federal government, and more who rely on statutory services.

    Lol! Joe’s predilections have not then gone unnoticed in the wider world? The Americans have elected a Marxist pervert to the Highest Office in the country. You couldn’t make it up! It makes the Manchurian Candidate look like a nursery rhyme!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/01/25/joe-bidens-war-on-women/

    1. I have the feeling that phrases like “senile hair-sniffer” and “little girl fondler” are going to crop up on banners when old fraud visits the UK. Not that he will see them of course.

      1. Khant’s Keystone Cops will sweep them up for a good beating well before the SHS catches sight of them.

        1. Very good! Unfortunately his signing hand is still working to wreck America. Bet Blair’s jealous!

          1. I suspect he doesn’t understand what he is signing, he no longer has the intellectual capacity to comprehend the ramifications. The dems can do anything now, no doubt he likes to see them pleased and he feels important signing documents.

    3. …and, since in his opinion and now embodied in some Executive Order, all whites are racist, is he about to sack most of his female staff, all the white men , including himself, and turn the whole US Government over to BLM?

  15. Joe Biden’s war on women. Spiked. 25 January 2021.

    I love the can-do optimism of our American cousins. Last week it was hard not to get swept up by their enthusiasm in welcoming a senile hair-sniffer to the White House. But as a Brit, not only do I feel privileged to enjoy free healthcare and cynicism but also the right to name women as ‘adult human females.’ On 20 January, on his first day in office, one of President Biden’s first actions was to sign off an executive order entitled ‘Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation’, which effectively removed the rights of the four million women who work in the federal government, and more who rely on statutory services.

    Lol! Joe’s predilections have not then gone unnoticed in the wider world? The Americans have elected a Marxist pervert to the Highest Office in the country. You couldn’t make it up! It makes the Manchurian Candidate look like a nursery rhyme!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/01/25/joe-bidens-war-on-women/

  16. Good morning from a still dark, but icy Derbyshire. A tad below -3°C again when I brought the milk in.

    The Dearly Tolerant is bit sad at the moment as he mother died last night.
    Not unexpected, she’d been in hospital since before Christmas, and, given MiL’s dementia, something of a relief too, especially for Sister in Law who’d been caring for her.

    2. No matter the circumstances it’s a sad time, BoB. All the best to the DT, you and the family.

    3. Morning, BoB.
      Sorry to hear that, but I expect DT had lost her mother in any meaningful way several years earlier.

      1. Yes, a resigned sadness, but not hysterics.
        She went in for a typical old age complaint, picked up the Wuhan virus but we’re all agreed that it was old age assisted by the virus not of it.
        A bit like the way winter pneumonia used to act as the old persons friend.

        1. Precisely. When we were still plying our trade, this post Christmas and New Year hiatus always produced a spike in deaths in those for whom even the hope of spring just did not arrive in time.

      2. When you look back on it that is the case, you realise you had lost them years ago, but you simply don’t know when. It is the death that brings that realisation home, and the finality of it all.

    4. Oh dear, Bob.

      It is such a sadness to lose anyone
      but more so when it is a parent; my
      sympathy to the DT, you and her
      family.

    5. Oh that’s sad, Bob and hard enough to cope with even in better times. May she rest in peace.

      1. Thank you Sue. I think the over riding emotion is a huge relief tinged with sadness.
        Dr. Daughter is the most upset as she’d not seen her for over 18 months.

        1. D.D. needn’t feel too guilty.
          For the better part of year, she’d not be allowed to see Granny, and sadly, I doubt Granny would have recognised her.

      1. Thank you m’dear, but not unexpected and, given her vascular dementia, a lot of relief too.

        1. Same as elderly chum, who I’ve not been allowed to see since last July.
          I send her a pretty card every so often so at least she gets some post.

    7. Oh dear Bob, how sad and what makes it worse is no one can visit their relatives in hospital to say goodbye.
      It’s all very disturbing.
      I hope you have given your good lady a big hug.

    1. I have to smile at this, but it’s already bad enough without exaggerating!
      More accurate might be, four years down the line, the winner’s podium with first, second and third for women’s sports…..?

  18. Good Moaning.
    Start the Week – sorry it’s on such a down note.

    “No, this is not “getting back to normal”

    The extinction of reason, justice and freedom on campus is now to be institutionalised as American government policy

    Melanie Phillips

    Jan 24

    Has there ever been such a profound and jarring disconnect between a new American president’s words and actions on his very first day in office?

    In his inauguration speech, President Joe Biden hymned unity. America, he said, must “stop the shouting, and lower the temperature”. It must put behind it “anger, resentment, hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness and hopelessness” and reaffirm “history, faith and reason”.

    Yet within hours of that speech, Biden signed a slew of executive orders to set America on a path of anger, resentment, hatred, division, lawlessness and joblessness and which undermine history, faith and reason.

    And — excuse me — executive orders? When President Donald Trump used them, the Democrats howled that this showed he was a proto-fascist hell-bent on circumventing constitutional procedures and proper democratic scrutiny When Biden signs a whole bunch of them on his first afternoon in office, however, this is apparently “getting back to normal”.

    But to call these measures “normal” would surely have made Lenin blush. Biden’s immigration orders, giving citizenship to some 11 million illegal immigrants, halting construction of the Mexican border wall and imposing a moratorium on deportations for 100 days, trash the rule of law and spell administrative and policing chaos. More than that, they undermine the very concept of a nation, which depends for its continued existence upon its borders being secure; and they take a wrecking ball to the concept of citizenship: the bargain of duties and rights that exists only between a government and its country’s citizens.

    The implications are so dire that Texas instantly launched a lawsuit against the new administration. Its Attorney-General, Ken Paxton, said:

    “In one of its first of dozens of steps that harm Texas and the nation as a whole, the Biden administration directed DHS to violate federal immigration law and breach an agreement to consult and cooperate with Texas on that law. Our state defends the largest section of the southern border in the nation. Failure to properly enforce the law will directly and immediately endanger our citizens and law enforcement personnel.”

    In another order, Biden undermined American security by reversing the ban on travel from terrorist hotspots, including Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia in addition to North Korea, Chad and Venezuela. This ban was not, as was so falsely and slanderously characterised by the Democrats, a “ ban on Muslims”. It was introduced in 2017 against certain countries whose governments could not provide proper documentation, vetting or identification information for citizens travelling to the US. It was a ban on countries whose record of Islamist or other anti-western extremism and violence meant that prudence dictated its inhabitants should be presumed to be a potential danger to America. By ending it, Biden has made America unsafe. It is an unreasonable act, motivated entirely by the Democrats’ ideologically twisted misrepresentation of any action aimed to protect citizens against Islamic extremism ( as anti-Muslim bigotry.

    Next, Biden revoked the order limiting the ability of federal agencies, contractors and other institutions to hold diversity and inclusion training. This is part of what his transition team described as the new administration’s “whole-of-government initiative to advance racial equity”.

    But “racial equity” is emphatically not the same as treating every person as of equal value regardless of their ethnicity. It does not mean, in the words of Martin Luther King (who must surely be turning in his grave, not least by being given a shout-out in that Biden speech) judging someone by the content of their character rather than by the colour of their skin. It is the precise opposite. It is a doctrine which holds that white people are intrinsically racist; that the west is therefore intrinsically racist; and that therefore black people in the west should be privileged over white.

    So this so called “racial equity” actually institutionalises anti-white hatred and discrimination. And this deeply illiberal, racist doctrine is now to be enforced throughout American public life. Biden has appointed Susan Rice as his administration’s Robespierre, requiring all federal agencies to make “rooting out systemic racism” central to their work. In the Orwellian language of the left, this means imposing anti-white racism; and so “diversity and inclusion training” is a euphemism for subjecting employees to anti-white propaganda.

    As Heather MacDonald has written for City Journal, there is already a sickening proposal to discriminate against white people in Covid-19 vaccinations. She writes:

    The “systemic racism” conceit means that every American institution is illegitimate and needs to be reconstructed. Biden’s cabinet nominees, whether in health, finance, environmental policy, or education, have declared that eradicating systemic racism is their top priority. How this agenda will play out has already been adumbrated in the CDC’s initial priority list for Covid vaccinations: hold off on vaccinating the elderly, despite their higher risk levels, because the elderly are disproportionately white.

    Racial quotas will become even more the order of the day than now. The diversity obsessives in the federal science bureaucracies waited out Donald Trump’s presidency. They will now redouble their efforts to treat a researcher’s race and sex as scientific qualifications in the awarding of federal research grants. Expect to see any mention of merit or excellence denounced as a form of bigotry, a response that the University of California and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, as well as an army of corporate diversity trainers, have already perfected.

    The next four years will likely be one long anti-white-privilege struggle session. Any real effort to close racial achievement gaps, such as fighting the “acting white” ethic that prevents many inner-city children from trying hard in school, will be deferred and discredited.

    In similar vein, Biden signed an executive order to “remove discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation” — which, according to Abigail Shrier, places all girls’ sports and women’s safe spaces in its gender-bending crosshairs. In the Wall Street Journal, Shrier spells out the implications:

    Any school that receives federal funding—including nearly every public high school—must either allow biological boys who self-identify as girls onto girls’ sports teams or face administrative action from the Education Department. If this policy were to be broadly adopted in anticipation of the regulations that are no doubt on the way, what would this mean for girls’ and women’s sports?

    …“Finished. Done,” Olympic track-and-field coach Linda Blade told me. “The leadership skills, all the benefits society gets from letting girls have their protected category so that competition can be fair, all the advances of women’s rights—that’s going to be diminished.”

    Biden’s action will thus institutionalise injustice and discrimination against women in sport. For regardless of whatever procedures individuals may have undergone in order to assume a different gender, if they were born as men they retain a clear advantage over women in sport through their difference in strength and physique. So at a stroke, Biden has struck a grievous blow against women, thus undermining any feminist credentials his administration may want to claim — and indeed, any claim to reason or moderation.

    Gender is not the same as biological sex; but for telling this fundamental truth about what makes us all human, the Biden administration now clearly intends to punish anyone who dares do so. The people who will most find themselves in this particular firing line will be those with traditional religious beliefs. Thus the Biden administration has also signalled the end of religious freedom in pursuit of the project to remake nothing less than human identity itself.

    He also displayed an instant contempt for the niceties of constitutional proprieties, let alone human decency. Within minutes of being sworn in, Biden told Peter Robb, general counsel of the National Labour Relations Board, to resign by 5 pm or be fired. Robb refused to resign; so he was promptly fired. The implications of this have been spelled out in the Wall Street Journal by Kimberley Strassel. She writes:

    The general-counsel position is a Senate-confirmed four-year appointment at an independent agency; Mr. Robb had 10 months left in his term. No NLRB general counsel had ever been fired, and the Biden White House provided no cause for the action.

    … Democrats rely on unions to get elected, and unions are therefore first in line to get rewarded. The most effective vehicle for that is the NLRB, which has sweeping power to enforce labor practices on companies across America. Mr. Obama used the NLRB to rig the rules so that unions could dominate workforces.

    … It is also an early indicator of Mr. Biden’s governing philosophy, which is straight out of the Obama playbook. The last Democratic president was so intent on rewarding labor bosses, he proved willing to break almost anything (including the Constitution) to do it.

    …The new president is under massive pressure from the progressive left, including many service unions, to act aggressively on climate. Yet his first-day executive action canceling the Keystone XL pipeline prompted a furious rebuke from blue-collar unions that are set to lose jobs… Control of the NLRB will allow Mr. Biden to soothe labour divisions by handing out sweeping rule changes that will benefit unions across the spectrum. Mr. Robb’s firing will likely be only the first of many exercises of raw power, many of which will likely make the Obama NLRB look tame.

    When Biden speaks of unity, he means it in the same way that North Korea’s Kim Jong-un or China’s President Xi might mean it — unity on his terms, or else. Just as I wrote here, Biden will be a president for everyone who thinks like him. If you don’t, you’ll be purged. Biden’s “unity” excludes millions of white-skinned Americans — by implication, in fact, potentially every white-skinned American — whom he defamed in his speech by smearing them with “systemic racism”, “nativism” and rising “white supremacy”.

    In short, the chilling extinction of reason, justice and freedom that has been taking place in our universities is now to be institutionalised as American government policy.

    It is more than illiberal; it is totalitarian. It is based on coercion, intimidation and injustice; it will deprive untold numbers of people of the prospects of employment, throw many more out of their jobs and will forcibly disbar yet more; it will rewrite America’s history as a libel against itself, will aim to remake society and humanity, and will try to silence anyone who dares stand up for reason, justice and moral decency.

    One has to wonder: what price the American constitution in this cultural revolutionary Terror? Presumably, there will be lawsuits against sending America’s basic principles to the guillotine. But is the US constitution itself safe from Senator Chuck Schumer’s chilling victory boast to “change America”? After all, the Democrats have already threatened to pack the Supreme Court by installing additional patsy Democrat justices to remove its current conservative majority.

    Far from a return to normal, what the Biden administration calls irresistibly to mind is how the horrified 18th century philosopher Edmund Burke described the French Revolution — as “a monstrous tragicomic scene”.”

    1. Cheer up, Anne. I am even more of a misery-boots than you are ….I posted Melanie’s at 1:48am!

      1. You did! I have not forgiven either
        you or Rik for your early posts!
        Only Phiz’ and Nanners should be
        allowed to post at that time of night;
        at least they make us chuckle!

        Good morning, Citroen.

      2. It’s a good article. Recently she’s been banging on a bit too much on exclusively Jewish matters. I can understand why, but it does make for dull reading.

  19. Anti-curfew protesters clash with police, loot cities across the Netherlands. 25 January 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/87ef40b869ac029d850a8f089753ba4e65539dd40c8f5b0f07bebf365bb104f8.jpg

    At least 30 arrested after water cannons, tear gas and dogs are used to disperse crowds around the country.

    Police used water cannon and dogs in Amsterdam, public television NOS reported, after hundreds gathered to protest the curfew which is set to last until February 10 and is the country’s first since World War II.

    In the southern city of Eindhoven, police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of several hundred, regional television Omroep Brabant reported. At least 30 people were arrested there, according to police.

    No calls for sanctions then? Lol! No comments from Raab or Biden about “democracy”? Thought not!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/25/anti-curfew-protesters-clash-police-loot-cities-across-netherlands/

    1. Araminta, talking about no comments:-

      RT News states that vaccine manufacturers have warned that there will be delays in delivering vaccines to the EU.

      We can’t find any comments from the MSM in Britain about this.

      Anybody know why?

      1. From the Spekkie:

        https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-eu-s-vaccine-catastrophe-is-a-crisis-of-its-own-making

        “The EU’s vaccine catastrophe is a crisis of its own making | The Spectator

        Matthew Lynn

        As news emerges that both Pfizer and AstraZeneca are cutting supplies of their Covid-19 vaccines to the EU by up to 60 per cent, EU officials are turning on the drug companies, threatening fines and lawsuits if they don’t speed up deliveries. The Italian Prime Minister Guisseppe Conte has blasted the delays as unacceptable and threatened to take the companies to court. While the European Council President Charles Michel is threatening to use ‘all the legal means at our disposal’ to make the drugs companies ‘respect the contracts’ signed with the EU. But hold on, because on closer inspection it turns out that much of the unfolding vaccine catastrophe in the EU is of its own making.

        The daily rankings of vaccination campaigns are making increasingly uncomfortable reading for most European countries. While Israel has managed to issue a remarkable 40 doses per 100 of its population, and Britain and the United States 9.3 and 6.2 respectively – with President Biden ramping up the American program – the EU is stuck on a mere 1.9. Amid mounting and understandable criticism, it is promising to jab everyone by the summer. And yet, according to calculations by the website Politico, it will need a five-fold increase in its rate of vaccination to hit that target.

        The blame game is already underway – and EU officials and politicians have clearly decided it is wicked Big Pharma that is at fault. Although there is not much evidence for that. To start with, the European Medicines Agency doesn’t seem to be in any great hurry to approve vaccines. It still hasn’t passed the Oxford jab, even though it is one of those that the EU has ordered in quantity. AstraZeneca is now likely to find itself in the slightly surreal position of being sued across Europe for not delivering enough of a vaccine that hasn’t even been authorised for sale. Even worse, it has been bogged down by petty rules. According to the Wall Street Journal, there could be further delays once approval is finally secured, for labels to be printed in the EU’s multiple languages. Even Franz Kafka might have decided that piece of bureaucracy was too far-fetched.

        In truth, the EU’s vaccine procurement programme has turned into a mess. As Gutram Wolff, the director of the Bruegel Institute, usually fiercely loyal to Brussels, tweeted: ‘The EU spends less per vaccine shot than other industrial countries. This stingy approach cost lives. It’s incomprehensible.’

        Very true. Israel, for example, has reportedly spent far more per head than other countries. It is estimated to have paid about 30 dollars per dose of the Pfizer jab, around 50 per cent more than the EU is paying. But so what? Is a small amount of more money per shot really that big of a deal (it would cost roughly over an extra four billion euros for the EU to pay the Israeli rate)? From the start, the EU decided the main issue was getting value for money, and clamping down on ‘unfair competition’ between countries. But the real challenge was cracking the science, and then ramping up production at lightning speed. The money was largely irrelevant, and as with so many challenges, the more you spent, the more likely you were to get results – even if there was some waste along the way. The EU is trying to shift the blame to Pfizer and AstraZeneca. But in reality, this is a crisis of its own making. And as death rates start to fall dramatically in the vaccinated countries, the price will surely be a high one.”

        1. Thank you Anne for tracking this down.

          ….but then, we can all see that no one in the BBC newsroom ever reads the Spectator!

          1. The Spekkie was being delivered anything up to a week late.
            They changed from a clear plastic cover to a white A4 envelope and since then, apart from a New Year week’s hiccup, the magazine has returned to arriving on Friday or Saturday.
            It is not too much of a leap of imagination to recognise that PO sorting offices are hotbeds of union activists.

      2. ‘Unacceptable’ vaccine delays cause frustration across European Union. 25 January 2021.

        European countries are growing increasingly frustrated with delays in the delivery of COVID-19 vaccinations.

        Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca told European Union officials that production problems will result in a 60% cut in deliveries of its Oxford vaccine to the bloc during the first quarter of this year.

        This is the only one I could find Janet though I think it is mentioned in a Spectator Article this week!

        https://news.sky.com/story/unacceptable-vaccine-delays-cause-frustration-across-european-union-12197009

      3. Top of my head the delivery guy hasn’t had his cut yet, the factory hasn’t seen the backhander from the funding body as it hasnt taken a cut and the commissar’s driver hasn’t turned up as he wanted a day in bed on full pay so the trougher couldn’t get the fraudulent paperwork rubber stamped.

  20. The longer lockdowns go on the more Corvid mutations we will have. It should have been left to run its course like we used to do. The governtment actions have made mattters far worse in the longer term.

    People are just so risk averse they will do anything they are told.

    1. People are just so risk averse they will do anything they are told.

      Forty years of Socialism has turned them into cabbages!

    2. 328813+ up ticks,
      Morning JN.
      By the same token many are NOT so risk
      averse as to do what they are told, “by the party” may one add.

      Many using common sense / risk assessment try to carry on as normal.

      Many have sampled these
      party / governments before and learnt from history.

      1. ‘Morning, Datz, actually there are three genders, male, female and neuter, if you remember your English grammar.

        However, there are still just two sexes.

  22. ‘Morning, all.

    Going by Chinese Joe’s first EOs after stealing the Presidency, I think it’s safe to say that the éminence grise controlling this administration is none other than that renowned Nobel Prize-winning snake-oil salesman, Baroque O’Banana.

    There’s been some speculation that Chinese Joe may spend a couple of years in post and then resign on health grounds, clearing the way for Kameltoe Harris to take over, which would still allow her to run for two more four-year terms as President. I don’t believe this is a likely scenario – La Kameltoe is widely, disliked both in the country and in her own Party and she’d be seen by many as an electoral liability if she stood.

    I reckon they’ll keep Chinese Joe going for his full term, even if they have to put him on an intravenous drip of embalming fluid to achieve it. Then after four years of behind-the-scenes fancy-footwork to trash the US Constitution and ensure that free and fair elections become a thing of the past, I predict that the Dem’s presidential candidate for 2024 will be none other than O’Banana’s husband, that fine strapping lad, Michael.

    Remember folks, you read it here first!
    ;¬)

    1. There’s been some speculation that Chinese Joe may spend a couple of years in post and then resign on health grounds, clearing the way for Kameltoe Harris to take over, which would still allow her to run for two more four-year terms as President. I don’t believe this is a likely scenario – La Kameltoe is widely, disliked both in the country and in her own Party and she’d be seen by many as an electoral liability if she stood.

      Morning Duncan. No! I think they have come to an agreement! Two years apiece. This will give Joe time to create a “legacy” and for Harris to prepare for the next election!

    2. That’s a good theory! (apart from saying she’s a man – I don’t think it’s fair to attack someone’s identity like that.)
      I still prefer my theory though, which is that public anger will be so great after four years that they will allow a “Republican” to be elected, but only if they promise not to upset the Great Reset.
      Step forward, President Cameron!

  24. Scanning the news from the UK and abroad every morning, I am increasingly shocked and depressed. The news from the US with Biden signing his executive orders, without bothering to read them, is bad enough but the UK is going downhill just as rapidly.

    Yesterday it was reported that the “Labour Shadow Foreign Secretary and Biden fan Lisa Nandy MP backed calls for the British Army, Royal Air Force, and Royal Navy to be reforged as woke “human security services” which would be “gender balanced and ethnically diverse”.”

    “The Labour politician, who recently praised U.S. leader Joe Biden as “a woke guy” who “appointed an amazingly strong woman of colour who is also pro-[abortion] as his running mate… mentioned the trans community in his victory speech, [and] stood up for the Black Lives Matter protesters”, said the report containing the proposals was “really inspirational” and “based on the beliefs that I also share.””

    Just when we have Brexit and are supposed to stand on our own two feet, we have the Left trying to undermine our strength. Where is the outrage from the First Sea Lord, Chief of the General Staff and the Air Chief Marshall? Or are they frit of being called racists? Our enemies must be laughing their heads off – but it seems that our most dangerous enemies are in the UK, also laughing at the millions of non-woke brave men and women who died in two world wars for our freedom. And we end up with people like Nandy (and Biden).

    How to sum these people up? They hate us, along with our heritage, culture and traditions.

    Shame on Starmer for appointing this malevolent woman!

    1. 328813+ up ticks,
      Morning S,
      Maybe we should have considered opening the political close shop five decades ago,
      instead of working towards closing ALL shops as has successfully been achieved by those politico’s / party’s working to another covert agenda.

    2. A marine colonel I know told me quite clearly that women have no place in the military front line. They’re not strong enough, aggressive enough or tough enough to handle combat.

      He was clear: when a woman can carry herself, a 50kg pack, the team radio and her weapon and another soldier on their shoulder moving from position to position he’ll take one on. Until then, no.

      The role of the military is to kill the enemy. The Left don’t understand this. Hell, the Left dont understand what causes someone to stand up and fight for everything they hate.

      1. As a woman, I agree with this 100%. If there are any women who are just dying to prove themselves better than the men, they can do my job, and get back to me about equality when they’ve spent two decades at the coal face of the operating system.

      2. I read “An Officer and a Gentlewoman” and, reading between the lines, that was the conclusion that had to be drawn from the different approaches between men and women.

    1. Rastus and Caroline have a secret weapon…they speak English. Remember that Boris’s insane hotel quarantine laws will also be killing off English language schools in Britain.

  26. Time to remember Pavlik Morosov.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/24/tory-revolt-looms-state-plans-use-child-spies-against-parents/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    “Tory revolt looms over state plans to use child spies against their parents

    ‘Everyone I have spoken to has been horrified by it when it’s explained to them,’ said David Davis, former Brexit secretary

    24 January 2021 • 8:00pm

    British Prime Minister Boris Johnson attends a coronavirus news conference at 10 Downing Street, London, Britain January 22, 2021. The prime minister announced that the new variant of SARS-CoV-2, which was first discovered in the south of England, appears to be linked with an increase in the mortality rate.

    ‘We must make sure that we get the safeguards right, otherwise we risk making the capability unworkable which would put children at further risks,’ said a Government source Credit: Leon Neal/REUTERS

    Boris Johnson faces a major Tory revolt this week over plans to allow children to be used as spies by state agencies against their parents.

    Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, and David Davis, former Brexit secretary, are among Tory MPs backing rebel proposals to restrict the use of children as spies when the Covert Human Intelligence Source (CHIS) bill returns to the Commons.

    Mr Davis told The Telegraph the Government faces a major backlash if it pushed ahead with the plans. “Everyone I have spoken to has been horrified by it when it has been explained to them,” he said.

    “It will allow 16 and 17-year-olds to spy on their parents. It also authorises them to commit crimes as well, so it needs to be extremely tightly controlled and those controls need to be greater than what the Government is proposing.”

    Mr Duncan Smith said: “Once you start taking action like this to put spies in people’s homes whatever the purpose, this does have complications. It is very important for Government to recognise that this is not something that should be easily done in a democratic state.”

    The Government was defeated on its plans in the Lords by 339 to 254 votes earlier this month but now plans to try to overturn the peers’ amendment this week in the Commons when the CHIS bill returns to be considered by MPs.

    Even if the Government wins, it is likely to lead to a major Commons versus Lords ‘ping-pong’ battle because of the scale of opposition in the upper house which was led by Lord Young, a former Tory chief whip and cabinet minister.

    Opponents comprised 13 Tories, including former Cabinet ministers Lord Randall, Lord Garnier, a former solicitor general, and Baroness Warsi, as well as 79 crossbenchers, four bishops, the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats.

    Among the crossbenchers opposed was former Cabinet Secretary Lord Butler, former independent reviewer of terrorism laws Lord Anderson, former national security adviser Lord Ricketts, Lord Janvrin, the Queen’s former private secretary, former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, and ex-permanent secretaries and ambassadors.

    The Government’s CHIS bill allows children to be used as undercover spies by more than 20 state agencies.

    Covert child agents can break the law if it means they will be able to glean information that could prevent or detect crime, protect public health, safety, or national security or help collect taxes, says the guidance, quietly laid by the Government this month.

    Older children aged 16 and 17 could even be recruited to spy on their parents if they were suspected of being involved in crime or terrorism.

    However, the guidance said child spies should only be recruited or deployed in “exceptional circumstances,” with their handlers required to give “primary consideration” to the need to “safeguard and promote the best interests of the juvenile”.

    Critics said the Government’s safeguards did not go far enough and in the Lords passed the amendment which would prevent their deployment if there was a risk of “any foreseeable harm”.

    The Government plans to overturn the amendment this week, because it claims the restrictions it imposes could backfire by making it more difficult even to extricate children from county lines gangs.

    “We must make sure that we get the safeguards right, otherwise we risk making the capability unworkable which would put children at further risk,” said a Government source.

    Labour MP Stella Creasy, who has led the parliamentary campaign against the plan, said: “If your 16 or 17-year-old child was arrested for shoplifting, the police would have tell you and ensure an appropriate adult was there when you spoke to them.

    “But here they are creating a loophole to recruit child spies without any such protection. The Government faces strong opposition in the Lords and in the Commons too and must urgently rethink their plans.””

    1. 328813+ up ticks,
      Morning Anne,
      One wonders what the general feeling is among the party supporting peoples, would this cause a ripple regarding the voting pattern concerning this tory pretendee group ?
      The lab/lib speak for themselves top rankers in the political sh!te class.

      1. Despite her being eddicated at the grammar (!!!) school just round the corner from me, I’ve never had much time for Stella Creasey. This time, she is right (as in correct!).

        1. To my mind there should be no such proposal in the first place. Why is there not a general uprising from all MPs totally against “using” children in this way?

          1. And then you woke up.
            I have forwarded the article to our MP’s Westminster office plus local councillors and long term Conservatives, which means more people than just the one will see it.

    2. “We must make sure that we get the safeguards right…”. We have had successive governments making a shambles out of everything that they touch. This plan connects with policing, implementation of justice, prosecution service, probation service and social services. All of them have demonstrated that they are not capable of doing their jobs to the standards required in a modern democracy.
      One interesting factor is that this plan will greatly extend the range of people who will be given anonymity in court cases. We already have too many of these, corrupt police, young thugs and murderers are granted anonymity for reasons that baffle me.

    3. If this becomes Law, the way to go is for parents to “flip” their kids and turn them into double-agents, who could spread disinformation and report back to parents on the plans and activities of the Sicherheitsdienst Security Services.

      …. I’ll get me wraparound-sunglasses.

      1. I was thinking about the legality of parents being able to disown their children. After all, if the State is employing them, then they can look after them after they are kicked out of the house for ratting on their parents.

        1. Surely it is all a matter of degree and balance.

          There are regular appeals after horrendous crimes for family members to report suspicious circumstances which might lead to the discovery of the criminal. Where children are abused by family members (and far more children are abused by family members than by strangers) then the children can, at the very least, expect a hearing and the “responsible adult” present won’t be a parent. We already encourage the girls in certain communities to seek help in preventing FGM or forced marriage (that is nothing except “ratting on their parents” if one is to copy your language) and it frequently does mean that the state has to take responsibility for the child. I’m sure you would be equally happy for a child and/or sibling to report a bomb factory in a basement.

          I don’t think that children should be recruited as spies but there are plenty of comments here which suggest that 16 year olds are adults when they are the ones who are up in court… you can’t have it both ways.

    4. Ah. So that’s the real reason: theft.

      ” … national security or help collect taxes, …”

      All state control systems. This isn’t about criminality, terrorism or anything else. It’s just about the state stealing from people.

    2. As I’m sure we all know, you don’t necessarily need to be a “registered” voter in the US to be eligible to vote. There are well over 200 million “eligible” voters.

    5. What I found comical is that when the Left lose, it’s stolen from them and they demand an instant recount. When they win, even if it’s a narrow margin, they claim victory and refuse any recount or re-run at all.

      Just another bit of hypocrisy we all live with.

  28. Here’s a spoof program to cull populations…

    Create a virus…Done.

    Infect and erase 1,000’s of elderly in care homes…Done.

    Use different labs to create several vaccines…Done.

    Vaccinate the elderly with a life shortening dose.

    Vaccinate the middle aged with a mind altering dose.

    Vaccinate young males with a caponising dose to turn them queer.

    That way the unproductive elderly are removed and males won’t be capable of impregnating women thus reducing the world’s population.

    Take into consideration the woke and gender changing policies being put into place and then say the above could never happen????

    1. Spoof, maybe.

      However, I have been warning for years that if a natural disaster, global warfare, global famine and drought, or other widespread action did not take place … and very soon … to curb the out-of-control human population of this planet, then someone would think of a way to implement it.

      It was staring us all in the face, if only we could take our heads out of the sand for long enough!

      1. I’ve been predicting/expecting civil unrest to break out which is part of the NWO agenda…

        No matter how hard they try…the establishment can’t get people to react despite the politicians and media severely winding them up. Now we have the virus which gives them licence to do all sorts of things… forcing lockdowns…banning travel…issue vaccines nobody trusts and so on.

        They can’t use nuclear weapons or a more deadly virus as that would impinge on the elite themselves so while the people keep their heads in the sand they seem likely to simply put us all to sleep with a needle.

          1. Morning, Tom.

            The trouble with that tactic is that if sufficient members of the public also refuse, that is when the Stasi stormtroopers will move in and enforce the government’s strategy. It will make Kristallnacht seem like a hiccough in the annals of human history.

          2. …and that, I think will be the step too far that results in a ferocious backlash.

            ‘Morning, George, just.

    3. 328813+ up ticks,
      Morning B3,
      Does look to me like the majority in the UK
      voted it OUT the window and not once or twice either, but time & time again.

  30. Just put the recyclables out. It’s a beautiful, crisp morning, but perishingly cold. The lid of the wheelie-bin was frozen shut – had a struggle to open it.

  32. Morning all.
    Erm apart from minus 3 and lying snow, we all know that the ‘news’ channels have been and still are diabolical during this crisis. They have been delighting in stirring up trouble.
    And today Just when we think it can’t get any worse…….

      1. ‘Morning, Janet, which is why I advocate the return of capital punishment – a length of hempen rope is cheaper than 40 years of maintenance in jail.

        1. Or do as the Chinese do- firing squad, then bill the family for the cost of the ammunition.

          1. No, Janet, certainly not Common Purpose education. Now, free TV licences for the elderly so that we may legally piss and moan about the BBC.

        2. You have to wonder why keeping a prisoner costs that much. Then you look at what they get while in there.

    3. Yes – I doubt my comment on there will be published, but I don’t see the point in helping the sewage at all. Why waste money and time on him? Let the scum suffer.

  34. News from Galle (2nd Test)

    Johnny Bairstow has just hit a six which landed in a bucket of whitewash, every politician’s dream.

    (Eng 43-1 in pursuit of 164 to win)

  35. Good morning, all. Bright and sunny but quite cold.

    We noticed last evening that we are beginning to call the kittens, “You” and “The Other One”….as they are so tricky to tell apart unless one is very close!

    2. Collars. Different colours. The easy to snap apart ones so they don’t get caught on something.

  36. Both Britain and America are now led by far left socialist governments. God help us all.

    1. Morning Johnny and Nottlers.

      Seems to me we’re being turned into a Communist country. Have you heard of the CHIS Bill the government’s trying to pass? Where children can be recruited by 20 different agencies to spy on their parents?

      1. 328813+ up ticks,
        Morning VW,
        Seems to me the lab/lib/con supporter / voters have been steering that course for the last three decades willingly, we are witnessing the results of the continuing voting pattern.
        The peoples still support mass uncontrolled immigration party’s & I find a bit of spying cannot be compared to the mass rape / abuse
        covered up for 16 + years rife among kids of rotherham / countrywide.

      3. I had no idea about it until this reference here. Why are the BBC not promoting this?

        What worries me of course is that the state creates this problem then seeks draconian powers to control it. If they hadn’t kicked the doors off and invited the rest of the world here and promoted criminality, excused radicalism and all sorts of nonsense, this simply wouldn’t be necessary.

        https://jennyjones.org/2020/12/03/police-spies-covert-human-intelligence-sources-chis-bill/

        1. There are so many laws that have been passed that never should have been many of them in the name of ”social cohesion”. The race hate laws are more than unhelpful to say the least.

    2. 328813 + up ticks,
      JN,
      God also helps those who help themselves
      also and in regards to helping ourselves of late, have we ?

        1. 328813+ up ticks,
          Morning FA,

          His purposes will ripen fast
          Unfolding every hour
          The bud may have a bitter taste
          But sweet will be the flower.

          They only profit for a while……….

        2. “God Helps Those Who Help Themselves.”
          Motto of the National Union of Shoplifters.
          (Duncan Mac could translate it into Latin for us.)

          1. Subject to Duncan’s correction:

            Deus audaces iuvat se.

            …and I always thought English was a concise language!

      1. They did not have the courage to dismantle Blair’s globalist destruction, and they are fully paid up Great Resetters. If you read the WEF, the great reset sounds a lot like marxism. It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.

      2. That is just what I expected you to say. Why do you think I am on the far right. Please explain.

        1. Simple. If you think the main ‘to the right of centre’ party in GB is ‘far left’ you must be so far the right of the Conservative Party to be far right.

  37. Good morning, everyone. Walked the Springer for an hour and a quarter this morning. Poor beggar had icicles hanging from her fur. Clear blue sky and lovely sunshine.

    1. Ditto, but over here it’s mud. Normally I’d walk Mongo around the reserve but it’s a quagmire at the moment and without hot water due to boiler problem getting it out is a pain in the posterior.

    4. Given today’s headline about the government recruiting children to spy on their parents:

      The Sneakers.

          1. I missed the bottle and tin collection day.
            Our life is so sad that the box won’t be filled for at least another fortnight.

    2. Yup, yet again. On the upside, there’s no longer a panicked dash to get the bins out as the bin men have been turning up later and later.

    1. Given the Chinese takeover of Africa for its raw materials (colonialism? what colonialism?), I can see a good reason his personal visit. Let’s hope more than another handout of British taxpayers’ money for the Wabenzi party is the result.

      1. A bit of peace in Africa so that the Chinese could get on with their trading unhindered would be great.

        1. My Zimbabwean friend says they are taking out the contents of huge quarries, transporting it to the coast on lorries, and from there on ships to China. Literally disemboweling the country. The local industry, that survived all the way through the Mugabe years was the first casualty, as cheap as chips tat was imported from China.

          1. It is their choice. As long as they pay the consequences of their decisions, so be it.

            However, of course we all know the costs will be borne by the citizen, not the politico.

          2. The decision was taken by the politicos, and as you say, they are reaping the benefits. My friend is sick at what is happening to her country.

    3. Was wondering if he was OK myself. His symptoms – as he described them – were certainly cause for concern. I hope he heeded your advice, and that of other NoTTLers, to report sick PDQ.

        1. I’ve no idea, Anne, but he loves that little dog so he’s probably made provision for emergencies.

    1. I quaffed a pint or several of that estimable brew in Devon pubs, pulled straight from the tap.

      It is a truly glorious ale.

    1. If that’s all Adrie has to worry it [note, I’m not assuming “gender”] in these difficult times, it probably doesn’t know what’s going on!

        2. Matrimonially speaking I went Dutch nearly 33 years ago and it still suits me fine.

    3. They need someone to talk to them like a Dutch uncle to give them a bit of genever (Dutch gin) to give them the necessary Dutch courage to hold a Dutch auction. And if you want a Dutch treat make sure you have a Dutch cap handy to prevent further issues.

    4. Those things are sold all over Germany as well, and look like French toast. I think Mr/Ms “Stop funding hate” is getting his or her knickers in a twist about nothing.

    5. Cripes on a trouser press. The effort these fools go to be be offended.

      That lgb dolt needs a slap. A short, sharp slap. The crackers shouldnt have been renamed.

  45. Any vets reading NOTTL, particularly those missing fingers, may permit themselves a wry smile.
    In the past forty years, I have removed firmly wedged unsuitable objects from the mouths of collies, dachshunds and even Jack Russells. No problem; bish, bosh job done. Chihuahuas …. ummm …..
    This morning, Spartie dashed in from our enclosed garden with an ‘object’ that he would not let us have – or even get near to him to see what it was. It proved to be the remains of takeaway chicken – presumably scraped off a nearby pavement by a fox, magpie or jackdaw (the most common carnivores round Allan Towers) and dropped into our back garden.
    Eventually, we managed to retrieve most of the item and will be watching small dog very carefully for any sign of trouble. I have now ordered 2 pairs of rose pruning gauntlets – as seen on The Yorkshire Vet.

    1. Reading your comment made me think about a lovely walk near Arne that we enjoyed yesterday .. Younger spaniel dashed off probably 100yds into the heather , which is as high as he is , and we caught a glimpse of waggy tail , then legs in the air , and we knew he was rolling in something .. I tried to whistle him in , called him , his enjoyment was apparent!

      When he eventually returned , I sniffed and examined him , no sign of fox poo on his shoulders , but his coat seemed to be shinier than ever .. no smell , nothing whatsoever … I know this is a non story , so what on earth had he been rolling around on ?

      A few days ago I baked a piece of gammon , and when it had cooled , I took the fatty piece of skin off, wrapping a piece of twine around it and hung it from the front garden bird feeder near the hedge .. quite high up .. it has vanished , just the twine left .. don’t think it was a squirrel or a cat ..

    2. Hang on… your dog wouldn’t let you have it?

      The command. Bring, drop didn’t work? Yes, sometimes you get a staring contest with a particularly stubborn ‘but it’s my stick’ attitude but you have to win those. The last time he lost a tooth, stupid beast. Teach him to try to drag logs about.

      1. The operative word is ‘chihuahua’.
        I have had no problems with other dog breeds, even when pieces of stick etc… have become lodged across the between the teeth.

  46. Good morning, my friends

    I did not sleep too well last night and so I woke up feeling even more cynical than usual. My usual sweet and sunny outlook was not improved by seeing the DT headline story this morning:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/24/tory-revolt-looms-state-plans-use-child-spies-against-parents/

    Tory revolt looms over state plans to use child spies against their parents
    ‘Everyone I have spoken to has been horrified by it when it’s explained to them,’ said David Davis, former Brexit secretary

    O Brave New World that has such people in it.

    But as Prospero hinted in his reply to his teenage daughter it is only ‘new’ to the naïve and the world has always been run by sordid people.

    And if we lack the cynicism to see that we live in a pretty shitty political world we must remember that, as Antony told Cleopatra:

    Kingdoms are clay. Our dungy earth alike
    Feeds beast as man.

    1. “Tory revolt looms over state plans to use child spies against their parents.”

      I was tasked by HM Government last week and I’ve already briefed Christo and Henry on their “duty”.

    4. The bit that got me was amongst all the usual tripe such as security, terrorism and so on rested… tax payments.

      That’s the real intent of this nonsense.

  47. Just back from a walk to Cromford & back with freezing fingers despite wearing gloves!
    Annoying when I consider how warm my hands used to keep!

    An excellent BTL comment I see:-

    Timothy Watkins
    25 Jan 2021 8:34AM
    Two events of the last few days have moved me from being mildly frustrated by the government’s mishandling of the COVID problem to being absolutely furious about it.

    Firstly, a medical friend was interviewed by a TV journalist about her feelings with regard to COVID. She expressed great concern and went on to explain that once thing have settled down, her clinic would have a huge backlog to deal with because the government’s COVID response has put so many things on hold. The b@$£&:! journalist edited the clip so she came across as simply being gravely concerned about COVID; all her qualifying comments were cut out. All nicely in accordance with OFCOM directives and government project fear propaganda.

    The second event was hearing the tragic news that a friend of a friend had taken her own life, not able to cope with the fear, worry, lockdown restrictions and all the pressures that brings. She was a lovely, gentle person apparently, and leaves behind her husband and two young children.

    This project fear nonsense has got to stop. In the weak and easily swayed, it is producing fear, stress and even terror. In strong and knowledgable people it is producing frustration, anger and growing distrust in government. In some people it is provoking anger and rebellion and, worst of all, in the people it is supposedly targeted at, those who are ignoring everything the government says, it is achieving nothing. The entire approach is extremely damaging and there is no upside.

    As far as I am concerned, the SPI-B committee, and government ministers who follow their advice, can stuff their project fear up their jumpers. Their actions are a disgrace, worthy of a tinpot dictatorship or communist regime; not how things should ever be done in our country.

    To my mind, the conservatives have proven, once and for all, that they are rubbish at government. They have some excellent back-bench MPs but seem to put idiots in office, time and time again. I can’t wait until Reform UK have candidates on the ballot paper: they are almost certainly getting my votes from now on.

    Flag60Unlike
    Reply

    1. I’m the exact opposite, Bob. I suffered from cold hands (and feet) in winter for most of my life. These days I seldom wear gloves or thick socks.

      1. I’ve just tried to take my blood oxygen level and my gadget couldn’t get a pulse. I am still alive but it takes ages for my fihgers to warm up these days. Dipping them in warm water is extremely painful.

        1. Sounds silly, but start with cold water – not freezing obviously, but cool, gradually mix in warmer water.

          Sounds daft I know, but treat it ilke glass. As soon as you start to feel heat again, stop.

          5. Yes! According to doctor friends in northern Sweden, that’s how they defrost any poor souls who have fallen in the snow unnoticed for a while.

        1. I’ve thought about it a lot and still don’t know why. I thought it might have something to do with the fact that I was skin and bone until I was 33, but even though I filled out since, my arms and legs have remained thin.

    2. 328813+ up ticks,
      Morning Bob,
      “Growing mistrust in the government” should read as fully mature mistrust in the governance party’s after three decades of proof.

      Tim should tread wary in regards to re-form
      group, group no problem, leader leaves a great deal to be desired.

    3. Ditto on that front. The glacial response of social services is infuriating.

      A man tries to hang himself and it takes the social a week to respond – not to do anything, just to respond. You do rather despair.

      1. Social services just either ring me or email me to ask how I am and if I’m coping. Saying I’m depressed and no I’m not coping has got no response at all! Still, they’ve ticked their box and contacted me.

    4. …the tragic news that a friend of a friend had taken her own life…
      That’s terrible. Words fail me. Another one to add to those who lost their lives because treating cancer these days is so humdrum.
      Poor lass, and so utterly awful for her family and friends.

    1. We are all part and parcel of that farce since more and more stupid decisions are being made, by more and more stupid people in power, and all we do is comply.

        1. Excellent (never liked blocking). How do I know? Well there was a new president inaugurated the other day.

        1. I love Pollytics and I love to tease Polly, however she claims to have blocked me which isn’t nice.

          1. These girls always say “Blocked!!!!”, but they never do, it’s a promise they never keep.

      1. Doesn’t mean a thing.

        If an election can be stolen, which it was, anything can be stolen.

    1. I often worry, but only slightly. About the people in parts London who drink tap water that at it’s many sources, has traveled many miles before storage and probably been topped up on various parts of the routes with treated sewage.
      Perhaps this is part of the obvious problem at the BBC.

          1. They reckon it’s gone through fourteen sets of kidneys before they fish it out of the Thames

          2. I’ve always been interested to know if the oestrogen that must be present in some form has any effects on the development of male hormones.

          8. It may be so but it is also true that fish can change sex due to water temperature and possibly other factors.

  51. I wonder why they haven’t banned the teaching of ancient Greek and about all the great mathematicians and philosophers of that era.
    I thought they all kept slaves in those days.

      2. Unlike the then residents and indeed builders of the Alhambra palace in Grenada, rebuilt on roman ruins by Nasrid emir Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar. They preferred young blonde blue eyed northern European children as slaves.
        But don’t tell anyone eh !

  52. At last something to cheer us up.

    England have won the Test Match

    This time it was the spinners wot won it. 4 wickets to Bess, 4 wickets to Leach and 2 wickets to Root.

    1. Oh dear! Rastus.
      Should you have put that behind a spoiler?

      I fear one or two may be after you with a
      wet lettuce!! :-))

    2. Whoops………
      I use to play squash at Mill Hill, to put it in it’s preferred order Cricket, Hockey and Squash Club. In the early 80s i can remember an occasion when the Cricket club were playing Sri Lanka before one of their tours. But over ten years ago the club house and squash courts, were demolished and a school materialised on the large piece of ground as it was next to the Old Hendon Aerodrome. Which was built over in the early 70s and the local kids had no where to go to school.

        1. Yep of course that was it. It looks now that apart from a few playing areas every single square meter has been built over now M, I believe the police college grounds have also been used.
          I had a job in the early 70s working on the initial phase. Looking on Google earth huge blocks of flats have now been built along the road side opposite the railway line and I couldn’t find the houses i worked on. Perhaps they were demolished as they were only ground and first floor and considered as taking up too much valuable ground space.

    3. And they bowled out Root? Have these chaps no sense of what is right and fitting? Quite shocking!

  53. I’ve just had a telephone conversation with an old friend, he says that I am nuts going to a funeral Tomorrow. Mainly because I have not as he and his wife have, proudly announced, been vaccinated. As i pointed out it’s quite possible one might catch the Virus at the vaccination point or any where in between there and home. And as It doesn’t actually work for around two weeks, even as they have, had mine over the weekend, i would not be immune. And of course it was not available for our age group inside of the last two weeks.
    I’m absolutely sure I will not be in close contact with any one and of course I will be wearing a freshly sanitised mask.
    I just feel I have to pay my respects to a lovely lady I have known since our childhood.
    And pass a condolence card to her only survivor close relative, her daughter.

    1. The government has made a good job of one thing, at least – making people scared of their own shadows.

      1. Precisely.
        It can’t be any worse than shopping. Which i don’t do anyway.
        Max 30 people allowed in.

        1. Though several hundred can go in a supermarket at the same time.

          Just as wendyball can be played but not golf…

          1. It’s stark raving mad. Just what we have come to expect form our British governments.
            But the golfers are now playing in the middle east started the European tour last week end in Abu Dhabi.

    2. As long as you’re well distanced, and not hanging round in a small indoor space with other people, you should be OK from catching anything I’d have thought.

      I would definitely go if it were me – we need to mark the points of our loved ones’ lives, whether that’s birth, marriage or death!

        1. Thank you Anne – I couldn’t think of the exact words to describe what I wanted to say, but that’s it.

          1. I am so aware of it every time I take Spartie for a walk.
            People are happy to just chat and laugh. I have a horrible feeling that, for many of them, it is the only time out the 24 hours that they have anything approaching a normal life.
            One actually said to me “It’s lovely to see a familiar face”.

          2. If I didn’t meet and chat to people when I’m out with my dog, I’d never have any face-to-face conversation. MOH can’t string a coherent sentence together now.

    3. You should go. I continue to attend church on Sunday mornings, with usually no more than 30-40 people though even at 2 metres apart, 50 could be accommodated. It can be chilly because the west and north doors are left open but none of us have caught the dreaded lurgy.

    5. Live by your friends advice and you will never leave the house.

      Isn’t the time lag from vaccination to full effectiveness around six weeks? You should remind your friend of that.

      1. In fairness he’s an ex labourite 😉, and one of his daughters and her husband are teachers and have been landed with Covid twice. But came to no harm except for mild symptoms.
        No body seems to actually know the period between the jab and full effectiveness.
        We have at least two different new ‘experts’ on the media every day spouting their opinions.

        1. If I may

          We have at least two different new ‘experts’ on the media every day spouting their differing and contradictory opinions.

    6. You only have the one chance for the funeral, and the rest of your life to regret not going.
      The virus isn’t an inevitable death sentence.

    7. You can’t live your life in constant fear, Eddy. I’m sure you’ll be fine. Go and pay your last respects; you’d always regret not doing it if you didn’t.

      1. I’m fine about it Connors. I just wish I could have been able to have my haircut. 🤕

  54. Copy of a email i sent to Garlands.

    Just got back from the QA Hospital.

    First thing was to get the blood work done.

    I walked in and was asked if i had an appointment. I didn’t.

    Dracula’s daughter said this is not a walk in clinic.

    You will have to go to St Mary’s. (a hospital a few miles away).

    I said i had an appointment with the Vascular surgeon in 30 minutes

    and with bad grace she said okay we will do it but you should have made
    an appointment.

    I said i had been trying all weekend. She said we are on the wards at
    the weekend and don’t answer the phones. Duh !

    Cut to the chase. Doesn’t appear to be a clot.

    I have narrowed arteries. One in the groin and one just above the knee.

    He said the smaller veins are struggling to take the load. Hence the ice
    block feet.

    Doc gave me statins and a cholesterol buster and is going to arrange a
    full CT scan within the next week or so.

    I walked about five miles of corridors to get each stage done on three different floors ending
    with the Pharmacy. Then i got lost.

    Thanks for all your best wishes and concern.

    2. Thank you for the update! We were concerned for Dolly’s future. Glad to hear the medics have got you under their eyes!

    4. So – © Telly Totty – you are not a clot, after all.

      KBO (as it were…!) Hope Dolly was pleased to hear the good news.

    5. KBO, old chap. I’ll place bets you’re looking at a vascular by-pass. Don’t worry about it, I’ve had it and survived.

    7. Very good news Phizzee that there’s no clot. You may be one but that’s another matter! 🤣🤣🤣

    8. Great news Phizzee! Delighted you’re not clotted and that they’re going to sort you out! Well, someone has to! Love to you and Dolly! 😘

  55. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/81896352a4828cc83ac7b9587134b8aa701debcff5d9f26b1d5545f8e9cf9f28.png

    I have just discovered my age group. I am a Seenager (Senior Teenager).

    I have everything that I wanted as a teenager, only 55–60 years later. I don’t have to go to school or work and I get an allowance every month. I own my own place, which comes without a curfew; and I have a driving licence and my own car.

    My age is printed on my driving licence; this means I have no trouble in going into pubs or off-licences. My friends and colleagues are not worried about getting pregnant, in fact they are not worried about anything; they have been blessed to live this long so why be frightened? Also I don’t suffer from acne. Life is good.

    Not only that, if you are also a Seenager, you will feel a lot more intelligent after reading this. The brains of older people are slow because they know so much. People do not decline, mentally ,with age; it just takes them longer to recall facts because they have more information in their brains. Scientists believe this makes you hard-of-hearing because this wealth of knowledge puts pressure on your inner ear.

    Moreover, older people often go into another room to fetch something and, when they get there, they stand wondering what it was that they had come for. This is NOT a memory problem; it’s nature’s way of making older people take more exercise.

    So there.

    I have many more friends who I ought to send this to; unfortunately, right now I can’t remember all their names! With that in mind, please send this to all your friends. Who knows, they might be my friends too?

    3. Ah, but the drawback is that you no longer get to shag astonishingly cute girls, and if you did it would be a horrible disappointment.

      1. Aha …. you are progressing.
        You are using the “knicker picker”.
        Real progress is when you can do it yourself!

        1. My dear old man bought me some very expensive NVPL knickers for Christmas! Not what I would normally go for but, I’ve got to say, they glide on very smoothly…

          5. Shucks! That’s showing my age Seenageship! I’m well aware what a VPL (VKL in the UK) is so I should have seen it!

  56. We were going to go for a walk as it’s a nice sunny day – we got as far as the lane and changed our minds as it was like a skating rink – and at a steep angle! So we just pottered in the garden for an hour.

      1. Of course – but they were useless on a sloping ice rink. Lots of people with kids were sliding up and down on toboggans yesterday and they’d given it a good polish.

        1. It is always far worse than it needs to be in Britain because of the crazy laws that prevent people from clearing the pavement.

          1. We have no pavement here. We live on a steep hill, and it’s just a narrow lane. We have a grit bin but we couldn’t walk up to it today without the risk of falling and doing ourselves a mischief. The council deliver the grit but never clear it – that’s down to the residents. As everyone here is either retired or working from home it it hasn’t yet been done.

    2. Walking towards Cromford, there is a stretch of road just before the Ball Eye Quarry entrance where a spring comes out on the other side of the road and sweeps across the road to flow down beside the pavement.
      The water from the spring gets splashed over the pavement making it like an ice rink in this weather.

      1. There’s a place near us where the same happened, but it would be across the road. Then it would snow on top of it….deathtrap if you didn’t know it was there!
        They seem to have fixed it this year, thank goodness.

  57. It all seems to be a complete shambles, i had a message on my mobile phone late last week, to access booking a vaccine appointment. After the two appointments available late this after noon which are not convenient, I can’t get passed the next stage on the website. I rang my GP practice only to be told they have run out of vaccine, and also because it will be out of date after today, which means it’s Pfizer, i told her i would prefer the AstraZeneca. Apparently we do not have the option of which vaccine we are to receive. Friends of our both had sperate vaccines last week both had different batches. Which means different protection ratings !
    But then today i was told that the vaccine center would be closing as they have completely run out of the product. But if the next yet to be announced centre is miles away wouldn’t it be better if my wife and i were vaccinated at the same time, because the protection would kick in together. I am two years older but at the moment i was told she can’t ‘jump the queue’. But i can wait until she is called and we can go together. Obviously it’s ‘greener’ and more carbon friendly. But I suspect it might be a good idea if I had actually ‘taken the jab’ today MOH could drive me home. But the dilemma is if we both have it at the same time might we both have an immediate adverse reaction. What do we do than ???
    Yet another complete cockup by UK admin.
    If they had used the GP practice to administer the Virus Jab as they do for the flu vaccine, we could have walked there and back.
    So NO CHOICE of Vaccine and NO Vaccine available anyway. ??? !!!

    1. …because it will be out of date after today…

      Are the vials stamped with Best Before dates?

        1. The information leaflet I was given just over a week ago after I had my jab says after thawing the vaccine nust be diluted and then used within six hours – unused vaccine should be discarded.

          BTW I had no reactions to the jab apart from the predicted slightly sore muscle in my upper arm.

        2. The containers have to be lined up ready to go. And if people do not arrive they vaccines are ditched.

      2. Outside clearing snow just now, I’ve been talking to and taking medical advice from two of my neighbours Minty, one a retried nursing sister and another a working GP practice receptionist.
        Both basically concurring with what you have said here. But it seems there are more than one appointment channels operating, one through our local surgeries and one possibly an agency that appears to be working for the NHS but on it’s own merit.
        The doctors receptionist has also said that quite often they book people in for their vaccinations and the vaccine for reasons unknown, they often often told in advance that the vaccines will not arrive in time for the process. So they have to contact everyone they have booked in for the appointments. And cancel to re-book And the pubic are not very happy nor very polite for obvious reasons.

          3. I don’t know whether she is related to that A Allan chap who pontificates endlessly BTL on the Torygraph.

    2. …because it will be out of date after today…

      Are the vials stamped with Best Before dates?

    3. My OH had his a couple of weeks ago – he got the Pfizer one at a local hospital about 12 miles away. No reactions at all. I haven’t yet been contacted about mine.

      1. You have a jab andf still have to mask up and all the rest of it. Why bother. You will not be protected against mutations so it not the answer. the more we lock down the more murations there will be.We should do what we used to do. nothing and its all ove in a few months.This is all about control of the population.

        1. The only reason I will not refuse it is not that I don’t think it’s useless, but if it gets us out of house arrest so I can continue travelling. We don’t have the option to carry on living as we used to as more and more restrictions come in.

          As it is it’s getting clearer all the time that my planned trip to Kenya will have to be postponed. The thought of being locked up in a hotel isolation camp will see to that. I’m prepared to pay for negative tests for each way, but not if we we can’t even go home afterwards.

          2. We planned a travel and some sun for the significant round birthday celebrations for summer 2021 – 2 x 60, 1 x 30, 1 x 20, 2 x 80, 1 x 60, and so on… but looks like we’ll have to wait for another life. Bugger.

        2. We are reluctantly agreeing – it’s a box ticking exercise – to help our grandchildren gain more freedom and an education. Particularly the one who is in her second year at university and has had hardly any attention for her £9,000 pa + accommodation costs.

        1. Good afternoon, Peddy – still at it, I see:

          “Although there is good cause to argue against the use of invite as a noun—mainly that we already have invitation, a perfectly good word—the assumption that this is a recent development is simply wrong. The Oxford English Dictionaries cites examples of invite as a noun from as long ago as the 17th and 18th centuries, and additional examples from the early 19th century onward are easily found. The word might be marginally more common in the last few years because of the tendency toward brevity in social media and text messaging, but it is far from new.”

          1. That may be the case (please don’t call me by the name of that retard) but it is no less ear-grating for it.

          2. Chill, man. People want to grate their ears, that’s their problem. I can’t be arsed to care.

        2. noun
          INFORMAL
          /ˈɪnvʌɪt/
          an invitation.
          “no one turns down an invite to one of Mickey’s parties”

          1. Let me guess. You got that definition from Noah Webster’s retarded dictionary of Americanese?

            Its use as a noun may be a popular and widespread colloquialism (i.e slang), but that only makes it execrable and ear-grating English.

    5. Our local GP and staff did ours, no problems and very well organised. In their favour I suppose is that it’s not a densely populated area, they did 200 in the day and no wastage. I expect the same level of competency for the booster

      1. It seems that the government are trying to push it too hard in more populated areas.
        With the usual results.

    6. Nothing new, Churchill wanted to invade France in 1943, but he realised that it would be impossible without a lot of help from the Yanks, and they were not yet ready.

      Our local health centre manager told the PHE wallahs to FO, and then got the job done efficiently with hundreds vaccinated according to the original schedule.

  59. WHY MARRY?

    At a cocktail party, one woman said to another,
    ‘Aren’t you wearing your wedding ring on the wrong finger?’
    ‘Yes, I am. I married the wrong man.’

    __________

    A lady inserted an ad in the classifieds:
    ‘Husband Wanted’.
    Next day she received a hundred letters.
    They all said the same thing:
    ‘You can have mine.’
    __________

    When a woman steals your husband, there is no better
    Revenge than to let her keep him.
    __________

    A little boy asked his father,
    ‘Daddy, how much does it cost to get married?’
    Father replied, ‘I don’t know son, I’m still paying.’
    __________

    A young son asked,
    ‘Is it true Dad, that in some parts of Africa a man doesn’t know his wife until he marries her?’
    Dad replied, ‘That happens in every country, son.’
    __________

    Then there was a woman who said, ‘I never knew what real happiness was
    Until I got married, and by then, it was too late.’
    __________

    Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
    __________

    If you want your spouse to listen and pay strict attention to
    Every word you say — talk in your sleep.

    __________

    Just think, if it weren’t for marriage, men would go through life
    Thinking they had no faults at all.
    __________

    First guy says, ‘My wife’s an angel!’
    Second guy remarks, ‘You’re lucky, mine’s still alive.’
    __________

    ‘A Woman’s Prayer:
    Dear Lord, I pray for: Wisdom to understand a man, to Love and to forgive him, and for patience, for his moods. Because Lord, if I pray for
    Strength I’ll just beat him to death’.
    __________

    AND NOW FOR THE FAVORITE!!!

    Husband and wife are waiting at the bus stop with their nine children. A
    blind man joins them after a few minutes. When the bus arrives, they find it overloaded and only
    the wife and the nine kids are able to fit onto the bus.

    So the husband and the blind man decide to walk. After
    a while, the husband gets irritated by the ticking of the stick of the blind man as he taps it on the sidewalk, and says to him, ‘Why don’t you put a piece of rubber at the end of your stick? That
    ticking sound is driving me crazy.’

    The blind man replies, ‘If you had put a rubber at the end of YOUR stick, we’d
    be riding the bus, so shut up.’

    _________________

    1. Walking back to Farringdon station from church yesterday morning I paused to read one of the display boards at Smithfied Meat Market relating it’s history and learned that from the late 18th to early 19th century, Smithfield had Wife Market days. It was very difficult to get a divorce but apparently wives could literally be bought and sold at the meat market.

        2. I’d no sooner read your post than I was asked at work about clearing a film clip…of the The Mayor of Casterbridge. Spooky!

  60. A selection from the DT:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/01/25/boris-johnson-schools-reopen-vaccine-rollout-easter-lockdown

    PM ‘looking at potential of ‘relaxating of some measures before Easter’
    Immediately underneath it says:
    No. 10 forced to clarify Boris Johnson’s Comments
    You mustn’t assume schools will reopen before Easter
    PM warns of ‘premature relaxation and another surge of infection’

    It seems the left hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing let alone the right one!

      1. I remember a few years ago when about twenty cows were found by the farmer in a field almost frozen stiff after a sudden blizzard, the farmer brought in an elderly lady to help out,……………….Thora Hird ……………….i’ll get me sheep skin 🤩

      1. War, Famine, Pestilence and Death. What could the other two be? Corruption? Bankruptcy? Asymptomatic pestilence?

        3. Stroppy, Hungry, Sneezy, Super-Spready, Pilfry, Borrowy, and Doc Hancocky. You’re Snow Black, I presume.

  62. A bright sunny day, if a bit cold!
    The sun is noticeably higher in the sky and for the first time in a couple of months, I’ve been sawing & chopping logs in front of the house in full sunshine!
    When it began dropping down behind the hillside half an hour ago, it’s surprising how quickly it began to feel colder and once it was fully down, the temperature dropped even further. We could be in for a frosty night tonight.

      1. Don’t – just DON’T! Our Maureen has been off sick since just before Christmas – we have to wade through the dust…..

      1. Just emptied another section of the large wood stack so need to get it refilled.
        With a bit of luck the pantry stack should last until March which will leave me with the holly bush stack virtually untouched for next winter.

    3. There was even some warmth in the sun here today (if you could get out of the biting wind). Lovely, bright and sunny.

  63. 328813+ up ticks,
    Is D Trump playing the long game having his enemies
    within / without reveal themselves before he goes politically nuclear.
    I would like to think it was the same with the UK electorate
    concerning the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration party, there surely must be enough proof on record gathered over the last three decades alone to show these parties in their true colours.

    https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1353080620491165699

      1. 328813+up ticks.
        Evening M,
        I’ll send you a lock joe, me & the pillow whisperer are into locks of late, tell you what you get behind
        whathernames green machine and I’ll send you the whole blooming daughter.

    3. Honestly “Great to speak to hashtag Presiden Joe Biden this evening” sounds as though it was written by the work assistance student. What a prat!

    1. He’s just the controlled opposition, like Richard Littlejohn. How long has his party been in power? Oh yes, that’s right, since the Equality Act, and we had BLM and statue toppling only last year. Fat lot they’re doing to stop cancel culture and wokeism.

    1. More killing of small businesses for no reason other than that they can.
      I am beginning to hate the modern methods of policing with a passion.

      1. I made a very angry comment there, earlier on! My temper not helped one iota by the moron at my doctors reception telling me I couldn’t speak to anyone about my post-op pain meds until next Monday!! Well, that went down a storm, I can tell you!

          1. My scrip will be ready at 4pm. My glorious Norwegian GP has just phoned me! I can be quietly assertive, Bill..and then again, I can rant!

          7. I think he is just delighted to find a patient who doesn’t object to a GP who is as black as your hat. Apparently, quite a few local people do.

          9. Outside Narridge, there are very few bames. So many people have almost never come across them.

        2. I was at the eye clinic today; had an injection in the good eye, which has improved since Christmas Eve. We’ve given up on the other one, but such is life. As I was leaving, a group of nurses by the door were singing “Happy Birthday” to a departing colleague. I should prolly have joined in, but, to my shame, I asked how they were allowed to sing, when I wasn’t.

          Worship in church is permitted, but not singing. One of my choir (if it still exists) was ejected by a churchwarden* on Christmas morning, since she was heard humming along with a recorded carol. Mustn’t hum. You will kill people. Here’s a thought – just ban breathing out.

    2. just had to explain to a youngster that WTF stands for World Turtle Fund. Or World Tortoise Fund.

    1. Tulsi Gabbard

      Must be one of the Tehran or Afghanistan Gabbards

      She should realise, that if furriners, either residents or ‘refugees’ who come to UK for their own safety, did not wish us

      ethnic Brits harm, we would not not need the laws!

          1. We’re having haggis, neeps and tatties, Belle! I don’t even need to issue instructions as the old man is a great cook! Happy Burns night to you all!

          2. I had to read the word after “great” with some care…

            We decided the roads were too icy to go t get a haggis this morning. Rutlands – a local butchers – wins prizes IN SCOTLAND fr their haggi…..

          4. They win prizes for their price charging too.

            [I do miss, though, all the friendly smiling greetings from the bonny women who work there.]

          5. Indeed – as I said the other day, they are too costly for us. They trade on the Chelsea by the Sea mob.

          6. We miss a proper butcher – not the meat counter at the local supermarket. Sigh… again.

          7. Can you not find one on-line? We have lots to choose from including Donald Russel (Royal Warrant holder).

          9. Not located in Norway, unfortunately. And meat import is complex, slow and expensive.

          10. I’m a bit lucky, I suppose. Our local supermarket has sublet a corner of its store to a young (female) butcher who is very responsive to requests. For example, Swedes don’t buy or eat rib-of beef on the bone (entrecôte på benen) since all their meat is usually depleted of every scrap of bone and fat leaving it anodyne and flavour-free. Christine listens and provides exactly what I request. The result is that I can order any cut or joint of meat I wish and it is always prepared to my standards.

          12. Haggis for us as well.
            I always stock up this week and make sure we have enough for several haggis pig outs.

          13. Moh wrinkles up his nose , he is not appreciative of Haggis , YET .. he always enjoyed the Faggots his mother used to place in front of him ..

            I do really enjoy haggis.

            Fish for us tonight.

          14. I’m having mushroom omelette followed by nectarines baked with honey & brandy.

            What fish are you having?

          15. Hi Peddy,

            We are just eating something simple .

            We are having salmon fillets , grilled , mashed potato , purple sprouting broccoli, squeeze of lemon , followed by some fruit and yoghurt

          19. *******! We’re out of haggis, and I’m green with envy.
            Wonder if they deliver haggis pizza…?

          22. Back in those days, I used to eagerly await the new DT Letters page (and more importantly, the comments) at breakfast, but rarely posted myself. But the Haggis thread summed up the wonderful community that existed “below the line”. When the DT turned off Disqus comments, it was akin to a bereavement. Stig (David Wainwright) single-handedly saved us, by remembering the identities of most of the regular posters, and listing them elsewhere on Disqus. I was in one of the later tranches. And in the early hours of 1st April 2016, since no-one else had taken up the challenge, I thought “Why not?”

            Chances are, I was pissed. And I created a monster. But I have no regrets….

          24. You have done a buster, Geoff and it is far from being a monster. After my e-mails in the morning, and copying the funny, NoTTLers is always my next port of call.

          25. I still claim the credit for suggesting it to you!

            I hope Gavin’s OK. Be good to see him again. I note that I was still JohninKent back then.

            We owe you a lot, Geoff. I have saved the haggis file – wonderful!

          26. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3046c6531c09a9ec37436bdf97b9c86fdf08b52f34d7b42eb7be3c141d7f8037.jpg

            I envy you Sue,

            I have been very lucky to have been to several Burns celebrations , and have some lovely memories of the pomp and grandeur of the event .. The procession and the pipes and the ode is something to be held in the memory forever . Of course , the food was delicious , there is Haggis and then there is Haggis .. some very delicious recipes!

            Here’s to you Sue and your beloved . Have a grand evening x

          28. Looks good, much better than those repulsive dishes from Sweden, but I’d like a few good turns of black pepper on the veges.

          31. I notice that some clown (below) is being abusive regarding Swedish cuisine, which is much much better than ‘he’ dismisses it. Every English friend and relative I’ve brought over her has gone back home singing its praises.

            No wonder the exceptionally friendly Swedes couldn’t wait to be rid of the pompous fool!

          38. A hotel I stayed in a lot back in the 90s, on the Moray Firth, had tine wee gravy boats for the whisky to pour it on the haggis. Goes really well!

          40. We’re clean out of haggis. SWMBO delighted, me despondent – I like the stuff, neeps & tatties too. Sigh…

          41. Happy Burns Night to you both…

            ‘Address to a Haggis’ is traditionally recited on Burns Night after the haggis has been brought in and set on the table.

            Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,

            Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race!

            Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,

            Painch, tripe or thairm:

            Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace

            As lang’s my arm.

            The groaning trencher there ye fill,

            Your hurdies like a distant hill,

            Your pin wad help to mend a mill

            In time o’ need,

            While thro’ your pores the dews distil

            Like amber mead.

            His knife see Rustic-labour dight,

            An’ cut you up wi’ ready slight,

            Trenching your gushing entrails bright,

            Like onie ditch;

            And then, O what a glorious sight,

            Warm-reekin, rich!

            Then, horn for horn, they stretch an’ strive:

            Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,

            Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve

            Are bent like drums;

            Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,

            Bethankit hums.

            Is there that owere his French ragout,

            Or olio that wad staw a sow,

            Or fricassee wad mak her spew

            Wi’ perfect scunner,

            Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view

            On sic a dinner?

            Poor devil! see him owre his trash,

            As feckless as a wither’d rash,

            His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,

            His nieve a nit;

            Thro’ bluidy flood or field to dash,

            O how unfit!

            But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,

            The trembling earth resounds his tread,

            Clap in his walie nieve a blade,

            He’ll make it whissle;

            An’ legs, an’ arms, an’ heads will sned,

            Like taps o’ thrissle.

            Ye Pow’rs wha mak mankind your care,

            And dish them out their bill o’ fare,

            Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware

            That jaups in luggies;

            But, if ye wish her gratfu’ prayer,

            Gie her a Haggis!

          2. She wrote a letter supporting Clive Myeri’s (spelling?) mini-series on the doom & gloom in ICUs. It was spread over 3 nights on the 6pm News last week.

          3. I saw them on the news – he did a similar series in the spring lockdown. I thought it was sheer doom-mongering. We all know that people die and go to mortuaries, without needing it pushed on telly.

          5. I had the misfortune of working with her when she first began on TV – she was known, then, as a “jumped up typist”….

          6. She has always struck me as an unpleasant person; Right Little Madam is an expression made for her.

      2. Back again and yes, Mags, Corned Beef Hash to a recipe I’ve already published here, which includes red wine and marmite. Really tasty and Dotty loves to lick the plates clean.

        2. I was originally a Betamax man; before JVC used market forces (and Spanish practices) to foist an inferior technology (VHS) on a gullible world.

    2. Thanks for posting, Johnny. A friend used to sing tenor with Voces8; I’ve seen/heard them several times, and met a few of the singers (most of whom have moved on). It doesn’t come better than this…

    1. Signed, Anne, but just spoken to my daughter. It must be a very odd vet practice, as she has never heard of anyone not allowing family to be with their beloved pet at such a distressing time.

      1. Certainly the friend who had to go through that procedure held her dog while the vet did the deed – in the car park.
        (Apologies for the garbled posting, my smell chocker went beefsteak.)

    2. Well they lock humans away, I am sure many of those that have been alone in their last moments were desperate for a final family contact.
      Why would pets be given special treatment.

    3. ‘Evening, Anne, our Siamese cat, Cachou was diagnosed with cancer and the vet recommended putting her down. I couldn’t do it but my then wife stayed, and was allowed to stay, to the bitter end, stroking and comforting her.

      This was in Spain and probably 6 years ago but it wasn’t seen as a big deal – just the chance to say good-bye.

  71. Irascible has given my earlier posting an uptick, so approx 3 hours ago Mr Phizzee was still trucking! 🙂

      2. Confiscate Dolly’s voodoo doll and when you use the blood thinners, try to remember that it will flow more easily, which might make your ankle a tempting morsel.

  72. Just when the gloom needed to be lightened, the BBC is showing yet another of its increasingly tedious “updates”

    1. And these are merely the billionaires who make a song and dance about their wealth.
      An ex boss of mine years ago was worth several billion then but one hardly ever heard about him.

      1. A puzzled pensioner writes:

        Once you have enough money to buy the house of your dreams, fly private, stay at the best hotels etc etc etc – what on earth do you spend your money on?

        3. Some of them give a lot away, but as to your question… No idea. I think once one gets to a certain point it becomes like a nuclear chain reaction and money begets money.

        4. The reason I shall never be rich is that I have no desire to boss people about and have any power over them. I already have all I want.

          I am exceptionally lucky in that I have a beautiful wife, a lovely home, a very pretty sailing cruiser, many good friends, and sons who are independent and well set up in their careers and are not financially dependent on their parents any more.

          The big fly in the ointment is that the repulsive politicians are trying to destroy our business which we have built up over the last 30 years

          1. I always wanted to be rich, but anonymous. No prizes for guessing which of these has been achieved so far!

        5. Paying off the old bat and buying handbags and jewels for a young fit bimbo. And a few more kittens with what is left.

        6. Influence for whatever political bee you might have in your bonnet or bandwagon you might want to jump on.

    2. Gates isn’t doing to well. Only a twenty percent increase in his wealth last year.

      As for Buffett, he has really list his touch.

        1. He is beginning to earn that nickname. Apparently he has removed restrictions on Chinese companies being involved in infrastructure projects.

          3. Better than egg chasing where nothing ever happens except muscle blobs crashing into each other. Used to be a good game in the 70s but only a true afficionado can sit through it now.

    2. Lampard has had his emotional connection with Chelsea cauterised. He can go on and become a good manager now, elsewhere.

  76. I see the DT is berating the govt over Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe saying they ‘must bring her home. How?

    She took dual British Citizenship when she married, that is illegal in Iranian law. She ran training courses for BBC World for Iranian citizen bloggers and journalists. Journalism courses are illegal in Iran without govt. approval, and citizen bloggers have always been a particular target of the Iranian regime. They are seen as spies and troublemakers. It is known that at least one attendee on the course was an Iran security service stooge and they have full details of everything that happened in the course.

    Johnson was roundly criticized when, as Foreign Secretary, he tried to obtain her release. He committed the cardinal sin of telling the Iranians she gave a journalism course. As that fact was published on the BBC website and they already had full information on the course – I think they knew, and were laughing at previous British denials.

    She returned to Iran voluntarily as an Iranian citizen and was arrested at the airport. The Iranians think she is none of our business and have no intention of accommodating British requests for release, they have already made it clear that they are not interested in a deal. They see her as one of their own who is being punished under the law.

    What exactly is the govt expected to do? Politics is the art of the possible, as Mr. Churchill once said.

      1. “I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room of no. 10 Downing Street. Earlier today the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Govt. a note ….”. That sort of note?

        1. Either that or a prescription for Viagra which should convey a non too subtle diplomatic message….

        2. Posting that reminds me my eldest Aunt. Twice I was with her watching a film where they used the actual recording from 1939. Both times it got to “I have to tell you now” and she was suddenly in tears, weeping.

      2. “I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room of no. 10 Downing Street. Earlier today the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Govt. a note ….”. That sort of note?

    2. I don’t think she’s top priority at the moment. Wasn’t she released some time ago from prison, to live with her parents? Travel is difficult for all of us at the moment.

      1. They let her out so that she wouldn’t die in the epidemic. They said it was temporary.

          1. She will be, but they don’t want her to die so she stays out for the time being. They will let her stay there until the epidemic is over, then put her back in, and my guess is they will add on the time spent outside. They are an evil lot.

    3. There is a staement in my passport that says the British government cannot protect you from the other government’s actions if you have dual citizenship. Or something to that effect.

      1. Shouldn’t that read: “British government cannot protect you from the other government’s actions if you go abroad…..”?

        1. It probably should read “British government cannot protect you from its own actions if you stay here”.

          1. It should probably read “British government cannot protect you from the actions of hostile powers even when you’re in the UK, particularly Salisbury”.

      2. Shouldn’t that read: “British government cannot protect you from the other government’s actions if you go abroad…..”?

    4. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s troubles are knowingly self-inflicted; she is either a masochist or a headcase …

    6. When the ship that I was serving on (in the Shah’s time) was operating out of Banda Abbas.our Supply SNCO would go to the airport daily, to pick up much needed equipment, that arrived Air Freight:- he took Bribe Money with him

      Wives who flew out to join their husbands (who were training Iranian Navy personnel) but Bribe, on the expense claims form when they had to stay in Hotels

      A completely different way of life to us

  79. That’s me for today. Cut back the raspberries – fingers just thawing out. Another chilly night in view – then a chilly day.

    Will join you tomorrow – I hope. Giant kittens now have one armchair each!

    A demain.

      1. Sadly a huge number of elderly venture out when there is ice on the ground and they end up winning a free trip to A&E and sometimes a meeting with the orthopaedic surgical team….

        1. A few years ago classes were being held to try to teach elderly people how to fall in such a way that it minimised injury. Time well spent as long as the class itself doesn’t cause injury.

          I played a lot of Judo when I was young and it certainly came into its own when I was hit by a motor bike.
          Tossed into the air, I managed a textbook break-fall and much to the amazement of the passers by I promptly stood up. The bike was a write-off, the biker was sufficiently hurt for an ambulance to be called and I was all for carrying on until someone pointed out that they could see bone through the cut on my thigh!

    3. If this is all correct, some people deserve to be executed.
      It is little short of a war crime.

    2. Holy Smoke.
      I agree, it seems impossible to imagine.
      When Earls Court Exhibition Centre was being built, my father was a young constable in the Met.
      Apparently, when they were on night duty, they scaled up the scaffolding and watched the prostitutes at work in the nearby houses.

  83. I hope this doesn’t come across as pretentious, but this article from the Spekie made a pleasant change from THE subject.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/an-english-17th-century-double-portrait-holds-many-clues-to-its-meaning

    The Ghost of Galileo: In a Forgotten Painting from the English Civil War

    David Wootton

    An English 17th-century double portrait holds many clues to its meaning

    John Bankes and his tutor Dr Maurice Williams, by Francis Cleyn. Credit: Bridgeman Images

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5586dcbe6f4b0c2412492ac4d6303ad1de98a3588bc5251f5feb020a4a178b2c.jpg

    This is a big book about a minor painting — a double portrait of John Bankes, aged about 16 (the son of the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Sir John Bankes), and his tutor, Dr Maurice Williams. It was done in Oxford in 1643-4 by Francis Cleyn, a court painter. At the time, Oxford was the headquarters of the royalist army, and painters were busy recording for their loved ones Cavaliers who would soon be dead. In the left corner of the painting there is a copy of Galileo’s Dialogues Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, in its Latin translation, open at the frontispiece, along with a globe and a telescope. Young John holds out a drawing compass into the centre of the image, and looks out into empty space.

    J.L. Heilbron devotes 500 pages to trying to make sense of this painting, but makes surprisingly little progress. What does he get wrong? First, let’s ask who the painting is for. Heilbron thinks it was intended to hang in Gray’s Inn in London, but by 1643 London was a no-go area for royalists such as the Bankes family. Young Bankes’s home was Corfe Castle. His father was with the King, caught up in the war, and his mother, the redoubtable Lady Mary Bankes, was at home, preparing to defend her castle against the Parliamentary army, a task she performed with aplomb.

    The painting, then, was to hang on the walls of Corfe Castle, and its immediate audience was not Sir John but Lady Mary. Heilbron makes nothing of the compass young John holds out. He should have remembered John Donne’s ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’. There the compass stands for Donne’s promise to return safely home again, just as the compass pencil returns to the place where it began. And this tells us what the painting is really about: young John’s tutor is keeping him safe, locked up with his books, away from the court and the Cavaliers, and will bring him safely home.

    John Bankes is studying dangerous, new-fangled ideas, but his watchful tutor is keeping him safe from heresy

    Let’s turn to the books. In the frontispiece to Galileo’s Dialogues three old men, Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Copernicus/Galileo, stand arguing with each other. But in the Latin translation Copernicus appears as a very young, beardless man, detached from what is going on around him, staring into space, and holding his hand out into the centre of the image. Heilbron is a Galileo scholar, and is fascinated by the contents of the book, but much less interested in the frontispiece to the Latin edition. Young John, as he appears in the painting, he sees as pasty faced, and melancholy — obviously an unsatisfactory, unenthusiastic scholar.

    But that is not, I suspect, what the painting tells us. It shows John as another Copernicus, looking into empty space because he is contemplating mathematical truths. Cleyn knew how to flatter his sitters, and here he assures Lady Mary that her son is a young genius who is already overtaking his elders. The frontispiece is reproduced in the painting to tell us not only what John is reading, but also how to read the painting; and the painting reproduces the swagged curtain of the frontispiece as well as the hand gestures of Copernicus in order to stress that one can read across from the frontispiece to the painting.

    Sitting on top of the copy of Galileo’s Dialogues is a fat book. Heilbron thinks it might be a copy of Sarpi’s History of the Council of Trent. Sarpi was a friend of Galileo’s, and much admired in England for his attacks on the papacy. This cannot be: the Latin edition of the Dialogues is a quarto; Sarpi’s History was a large folio. The book sitting on the Dialogues is not a folio but a slightly bigger quarto. There is no title on the spine. What sort of book doesn’t carry its title on its spine? The answer is simple: a book you recognise at once because you handle it every day; a book which lives on your desk, not on the shelves of your library. Tell me a book that has no title on its spine, and I will tell you it is a prayer book, an almanac, or (as in this case) a Bible.

    So, as John studies what Galileo called the book of nature he does not forget God’s own book. Aubrey, an Oxford man, reported that it was only after the execution of the King in 1649 that Copernicanism came to be generally accepted, so young John will be well aware that many Protestants agree with the Catholic Church in thinking Copernicanism is contrary to Scripture. He is studying dangerous, new-fangled ideas, but his watchful tutor is keeping him safe from heresy.

    Heilbron admits that he cannot pin down the meaning of the painting, though it is not, I suggest, difficult to do so. He resorts to writing an imaginary dialogue in which painter and subject discuss the painting, and, at some length, the significance of Galileo. Are we to think of him as a rebel, who deserved punishment, or as a great philosopher, who should have been allowed to publish freely? I think historians should not make things up, particularly conversations, and if they do they should avoid anachronisms such as ‘unintended consequences’, a phrase virtually unknown before 1936.

    Heilbron’s book embodies ten years of research, and, like Clyne, he has worked con studio, diligenza, e amore. But he thinks that Paolo Sarpi was a monk. Monks retreat from the world to worship and contemplate. Sarpi was a Servite friar, and friars go out into the world to preach and teach. Hence the church called i Frari in Venice, designed for preaching to vast congregations. Sarpi’s career as a political propagandist, his mixing with Venetian politicians and academics and even with English Protestants, would have been totally inappropriate for a monk, but exactly what one would expect of a friar, for friars are supposed to be in the world, if not of it.

    What Cleyn portrays is not the world of a Sarpi, a state theologian, or even a Galileo, whose frontispiece claims his Dialogue has been written for the Grand Duke of Tuscany. It is the cloistered, monkish life of an Oxford college; he leaves us to imagine the hubbub in the streets outside, the soaring rhetoric of the preachers, the calls to arms. The painting is, surely, a polite fiction — John’s clothes and haircut are not those of a scholar; the soldiers were already within the college gates — but let’s hope it reassured Lady Mary as she took command of her troops at Corfe. In 1645, the year of the battle of Naseby, young John was packed off to travel in France and Italy. He survived the Civil War, surely to his mother’s relief, unscathed. So did his portrait, though Corfe Castle was reduced to a picturesque ruin.”

    2. Well my interpretation of the painting for what its worth is as follows:

      “So Tutor how much do you I think I’d get on ebay for the telescope if I throw in the compass?”

        1. Hasn’t he just! I bet Mummy found the marauding Roundheads a barrel of laughs compared to Sunny Jim.

    3. The Bankes family owned vast areas of the Purbecks and land around Wimborne .

      Ralph Bankes died in 1981 and the Kingston Lacy estate, including 12 working farms, and Corfe Castle were bequeathed to the National Trust. The gift was formally accepted on 19 August 1982, the largest bequest that it had ever accepted.[1][7].

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Lacy

      3. We’ve just watched a zillionth repeat of Portaloo’s train journeys. He visited Corfe and because of my reading that article about an hour earlier, I was sitting there feeling very smug. I knew all that stuff!

    4. If one looks at the rather ugly depiction of the boy’s left hand, one can see that he’s pushed it out to accept a bribe.

          1. It isn’t hidden, it’s just distorted. When viewed from the correct angle, it can be seen as a skull.

          4. To be honest, I look at all paintings as pictures and don’t try to go much beyond the obvious.
            I’m a total Philistine, much as I love galleries, museums and auction houses’ displays

            I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoy visiting the Picasso museum in Paris where there are lengthy explanations of how his “oeuvre” changed over the years.

            But I’m afraid that as far as art appreciation and for that matter many other cultural things, they have to be explained in words of one syllable.

          5. I think art historians don’t always get it right, because they think like art historians, and not like artists! A lot of what they present as truth is just their informed opinion really.

          6. One of life’s great pleasures is visiting that other university, and taking the tour of the Christ Church collection when the volunteer curators do the explanations of various pictures in their galleries, depending on what’s on display.
            It is fascinating how they can talk one through a picture.

            Opinion, fact or whatever; it doesn’t matter to me, it’s their sheer enthusiasm for the art that adds to the visit..

          8. A “Thomas”.

            As in: a pony, a monkey, and various other monetary abbreviations; until one hits a phizzee, a Citroen, a blackbox2 and eventually a Thomas.

        1. Just because she turned you down, you know there’s desperate, really desperate and completely blind.

  84. Evening, all. Can’t watch the Goebbels show on TV any more so it passes me by. Local rag has an article on new “more lethal, more contagious” strain. I’m Covided out. I no longer care.

    1. I tuned out in May last year. haven’t watched any TV news for well over a year now – just a waste of time.

      1. I gave up watching about a year ago, too. It was relentless and every time they started up, it set off my Tourette’s.

        1. I gave up after the 2016 referendum. Much better for blood pressure. And one is better informed, too!!

      2. When I see it in a hotel, in half an hour they manage to cover three stories, and they still give hardly any actual information. I know what they think, you can tell that from the smirks or gurning when they start the item but plebs should clearly not be given facts, it would confuse us.

    4. WE’re getting the same. The English virus. Lockdown for a week – yet nobody has explained how or why the virus might not resume it depredations after its week long vacation. So, there will be release at the weekend, followed by a blooming of more cases… how is this difficult to understand? Einstein all over. And, ‘cos he virus is mutating nicely, likely the vaccines won’t be much bloody use, either.
      About time the bozos in charge woke up and smelled the coffee.

      1. Lockdown #1 didn’t work, so lockdowns #2 and #3 (ad infinitum) are going to be different? The lunatics are in charge of the asylum. This is a virus that knows the time and location (virulent only after 10 pm in England, but lethal after 6 pm in Wales) and shies away if you’re eating a scotch egg with your pint but goes for the jugular if you’re just having a drink. Not only that, unlike every virus so far, it is getting more, not less, lethal as it mutates? I don’t think so. Trouble is, nobody thinks things through or looks at the logic any more.

    4. I get the impression that the cats haven’t yet realised that they’ve grown since they first met their chair.

      1. That is the basis lion taming. Get them as little cubs and when they are grown up they still haven’t spotted the change in the relationship.
        Of course, it’s difficult if you get a lion with higher IQ.

  86. A Lexus mechanic was removing a cylinder head from the motor of a LS460 when he spotted a well-known cardiac surgeon in his shop. The surgeon was there waiting for the service manager to come and take a look at his car when the mechanic shouted across the garage, “Hey Doc, want to take a look at this?”
    The cardiac surgeon, a bit surprised, walked over to where the mechanic was working

    The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and asked, “So Doc, look at this engine. I opened its heart, took the valves out, repaired or replaced anything damaged, and then put everything back in, and when I finished, it worked just like new. So how is it that I make $48,000 a year and you make $1.7M when you and I are doing basically the same work.

    The cardiac surgeon paused, leaned over and whispered to the mechanic…..

    “Try doing it with the engine running.”

        1. Literalists, bastards who think that because they know who their mother is are certain that they know who their father is?

          1. That’s the origin of Judaism being passed down the maternal line. In ancient times, paternity was impossible to prove.

    2. A gynaecologist had become fed up with malpractice insurance and HMO paperwork,

      and was burned out. Hoping to try another career where skilful hands would be

      beneficial, he decided to become a mechanic. He went to the local technical

      college, signed up for evening classes, attended diligently, and learned all he

      could.

      When the time of the practical exam approached, the gynaecologist prepared

      carefully for weeks, and completed the exam with tremendous skill. When the

      results came back, he was surprised to find that he had obtained a score of

      150%. Fearing an error, he called the Instructor, saying, “I don’t want to

      appear ungrateful for such an outstanding result, but I wonder if there is an

      error in the grade?”

      “The instructor said, “During the exam, you took the engine apart perfectly,

      which was worth 50% of the total mark. You put the engine back together again

      perfectly, which is also worth 50% of the mark.”

      After a pause, the instructor added, “I gave you an extra 50% because you did it

      all through the exhaust pipe, which I’ve never seen done in my entire career”.

    1. It would be very amusing if that lawsuit became the basis for Biden’s election being overturned

        1. Indeed so, but just say, for sake of argument, that Dominion are not as clever as they think they are and they had been hacked and the lawsuit allows that to be demonstrated.

          1. So, you mean the Court case could expose something the 60 odd failed Court cases didn’t expose! Right…

          3. There was a reluctance by all courts, including the Supreme Court, to hear cases during a contested election. Now that Biden has been declared the winner it is open for others to contest the results in the courts.

            Much had been spoken in the biased MSM and corrupt High Tech platforms about ‘unsubstantiated allegations with no proof’ but the proof will only come in the courts when the full evidence of fraud is disclosed and taken into consideration by the courts.

            I reckon the whole world knows that the presidential election was fixed, after all we all witnessed the wild reversals overnight and the inexplainable hikes in the votes for Biden in key states.

            Interesting times ahead for sure.

            Edit: Yet again the downvoter is targeting my comments. What is the point of this bitch?

          4. On that we agree. I don’t know what the result would have been but the courts ducked their responsibilities.

          6. Total garbage !

            They were ruled inadmissable because they were conclusive in favor of President Trump !

          9. Hence my comment that the lawsuit might backfire, if it turns out that hacking actually is possible.

    2. It would also be interesting to see if they sue all the people who have posted statistical analyses on the internet, with millions of views.

  88. Manipulative broadcasters’ intrusive reports from hospitals are simply feeding despair

    The excessive use of distressing films from the frontline is terrifying already frightened people

    JANET DALEY • 25 January 2021 • 6:00pm

    I had to turn off the television news half a dozen times last week which, for a journalist who is obliged to stay on top of events, is quite something. I took this uncharacteristic step because I could not bear to watch, over and over again, the same film reports of appalling distress from hospital intensive care wards, some of them featuring interviews with patients who died after being filmed.

    Presumably, the managers of broadcast news believe that this intrusive, emotionally manipulative programming is serving the national interest. By displaying the reality of the Covid epidemic and its consequences for the NHS, they are convincing those who doubt the seriousness of the situation – or who treat lockdown restrictions with contempt – that they are being criminally irresponsible.

    I am sorry to have to tell all of you who are doing this in good conscience – the producers and the film crews, touring hospitals to make sensational film packages from the front line, perhaps with the encouragement of Government ministers – that the delinquents who organise illegal raves and the indifferent who host big parties ARE NOT WATCHING. They detached themselves long ago from this phenomenon which, for various reasons, they feel has nothing to do with them.

    The people who are watching, sometimes obsessively, are the isolated, the lonely, and the already-frightened who are being driven further into the depths of terror and despair. In fact, I have spoken to a great many decent, rational, rule-following people who have switched off the television news coverage altogether because they find it too demoralising or voyeuristic.

    Of course, it is right to report the genuine state of crisis in the hospitals and to include some testimony from their exhausted staff. But by the end of last week, the main news bulletins were being led, not by information and badly needed factual evidence, but by these highly personal stories which, in journalistic terms, should be considered feature “colour” pieces rather than news. And the 24-hour news channels were repeating the most upsetting of them, even if they were several days old, every hour of the day and night.

    I can’t recall any national phenomenon – not even a wave of terror attacks – which has been treated with such relentless, repeated exposure of private suffering. The broadcasters will, of course, say that this is all being done with the consent of patients’ families. But bereaved or terrified relatives are not necessarily in a fit state to make judgments about what should be exposed, constantly, to the public gaze. That is a matter of principle for those who are responsible for these decisions.

    They must ask themselves, what is the likely effect of this on those who are not switching off? It can only be a sense of utter helplessness and vicarious grief. Eventually this must result either in resignation – a state of clinical depression – or in anger. (Because people eventually resent being frightened.) Neither of these things are helpful in the present situation. Both, in fact, are destructive of public morale which might, in the end, produce less compliance, and can, in themselves, result in further collateral damage to mental health and to family relationships.

    If the Government, or the NHS, is facilitating this campaign, it would seem to be yet another consequence of their failure to read the effect on the national consciousness of their own bizarre changes of tone. What happens to the public mood when they switch the optimism tap on and off with what seems, to an exasperated populace, like arbitrary whimsy? One day, there is a triumphal announcement of the (genuinely) stupendous, world-beating vaccination programme motoring along according to plan. And the next, there is Matt Hancock telling a television interviewer that we are a “long, long, long” (he actually did repeat the word three times) way from being able to lift restrictions.

    How is anybody supposed to know what to make of this? If your personal physician were to tell you at one visit that your treatment was going very successfully and that you were recovering well. And then at the next, a day later, that it would be a “long, long, long” time before you could expect to lead anything like a normal life, you would probably conclude that he was incompetent – or a sadist.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/25/manipulative-broadcasters-intrusive-reports-hospitals-simply/

    1. Good article. Those reports are voyeuristic. Snuff movies presented under the guise of caring for ‘our’ NHS.

      1. That’s rather a horrible image, Anne, but sounds true. I don’t watch the news, but the description fits the “snuff”.

      2. I agree. You could make these films any day of any year if you choose which NHS ward you go into. Goebbels would be proud of this propaganda.

    2. Spot on.

      Will these voyeurs be doing similarly for all those who missed cancer appointments and suffer indescribable agonies?

      1. Son has a cough, he has had it for about 6 months or more , there maybe all sorts of reasons for it , but one thing for sure is he doesn’t want to risk going to have an Xray..

        1. I’ve had a cough for years. Micro-reflux, where the stomach acid irritates the lungs and makes you cough, but not bad enough reflux to wake you up. Xrays and all sike of tests showed nothing, just at a Company medical, the doc asked about it and gave advice – diagnoss by treatment. The pills made it stop within about 5 days. Yaay!

          1. Ob,

            I think you are spot on, I would have described it as a belly cough .. reflux .. He sometimes coughs at night , but not all that often , and he does like a pint or two or three. !

            What sort of pills are you on?

          3. It’s only a question of time before a Pharmaceutical Giant trademarks that brand: “Angonamo”

            Probably for a STD treatment….

          5. It’s only a question of time before a Pharmaceutical Giant trademarks that brand: “Angonamo”

            Probably for a STD treatment….

          6. I prolly have this. Each morning as I wake, I have a cough. By the time I’ve had my porridge, toast and two large mugs of tea, it’s gone. What are the pills, out of interest?

        2. Without wishing to add to your concerns, not necessarily a wise decision, given that a youngster will probably survive Covid where they won’t survive late diagnosed cancer.

          1. I have thought about that.

            He says it is an industrial cough , he will be 52 next month. I think it is probably as OB says , Micro-reflux, but I am not a doctor , and this Covid fear thing re going to have an Xray must be overcome.

          2. The doc said it was diagnosis-by-treatment, and he was right – IN MY CASE! Be worth suggesting this to your lad’s doc in a non-aggressive and unchallenging way…

          7. Yes I have , what a shame the hospital couldnt have been saved .

            We were the biggest and the best , all those wonderful grounds and buildings have so much history .

            Used to catch the Haslar ferry from the other side of the harbour .. our own water taxi service!

            Really lucky to be able to use the sailing facilities , little boats like bosuns and whalers , we had to have a proper sailor in charge , nurses weren’t allowed to take a boat out alone !! so we would sail out from near HMS Dolphin into the harbour and sometimes beyond, it always seemed so choppy and very busy!!!

            Long gone memories , but how precious .

            Then of course a year in Malta , RNH Bighi.. another room with a view over Grand Harbour .. so very very lucky.

          8. I once went to a funeral of a matelot mate

            He died in Haslar, the Service, with Full Naval Honours was held in the Haslar Chapel. The Bugler with Sunset always gets to me

            After the service, the hearse etc went off to Porchester Crem.

            We all piled in an old RN bus and followed on

            The internment took place, we wers stuck in traffic and missed it

            He would have really enjoyed that

          9. Yes OLT , the call of the Bugler rang out frequently .

            We were present at many services , ‘we’ meaning the nurses . St Lukes church ?

            It was the sounds from the harbour .. warships calling .. and the toot toots from the ferries , and the sound of ships generators, and the hovercraft that crossed the Solent .

          12. Had three days at Haslar on a work experience course from school. I had no intention of following a naval career, but it was a small school. Really interesting visit. At least one of our number (3) signed up to the RN.

          13. Our elder son visited The Haslar to have his eczema assessed before enlisting with the RAF back in 2002. (Eczema, hay fever, asthma and migraine are a no-no for the armed forces.) Very sad that a piece of our history is being turned into apartments.

            I love the fact that the promotion shows people enjoying themselves in restaurants, indoor pools and the gym! If only….

          14. My second and worst heart attack occurred when I lived in Gosport in 2002 and, apparently, I was on my way to Haslar in the ambulance when they encountered heavy traffic so they diverted to QARANC Cosham.

            That, Mags, is probably the closest I came to one of you Alma Maters. I’m very sure that you would have cossetted me back to health. Suffice to say that, despite another minor and a major, I’m still here

          16. #WeToo, both 21 in 1965 when we married – and that reminds me, it is my eldest daughter’s 55th birthday on Sunday!

            Don’t time fly when you’re having fun…

            Hmm

          17. When I was diagnosed with cancer in 2005ish, as a lowly NHS patient, I was under the knife in just two weeks. It must have been pretty serious

            Stoma bag fitted and removed after a year, again lucky

            If it were ‘occurring’ now, I would be dead. in months

          19. Yup

            I must be One of the Few on here, infact anywhere, who is not under any form of medication at all!

          20. Moi aussi, though I am ashamed to say that I bolted down a quantity of co-codamol to cope with sciatica in December & early January.

      1. Having voted for Mr Biden, the good dems of Tacoma are now experiencing ANTIFA riots. One American has coined the term ‘Schardenboner’. I expect there will be a lot more Schardenboner to come…..

    4. “How is anybody supposed to know what to make of this?”

      IMO it has been psychological warfare from the start. Or gaslighting if you prefer. It is all intentional, leading to the Great Reset and the green agenda. There is of course big money behind it all.

      2. Thanks, Maggie. Gaslighting sums it up. None of the crap in the MSM adds up, or makes sense. Yet we’re constantly told to believe the opposite of what we can see with our own eyes.

        The DT has gone down this route, but Gate’s £3.2m contribution will have had an effect. More disappointingly, the Speccie no longer publishes a wide spectrum of views. Someone is pulling strings, and I’m becoming unwilling to subscribe to the endless propaganda.

        1. Precisely. It is disinformation on a global scale. The global elites have been working on it for decades.

          The globalists make Goebbels and Mengele look amateur and incompetent by comparison.

  90. Rossini’s Stabat Mater currently being broadcast on Radio 3. Had the pleasure of singing this with the choir a couple of years ago.

          3. I think yo may be confusing him with Bizet, Puccini and Verdi they left bodies all over the stage….

    2. Just been listening to an excellent rendition of the Messiah someone put a link to earlier on.
      Thank you who ever it was.

  91. Bolt on Sky News interviews one of an endless number of professors who admits that science doesn’t explain how
    COVID-19 is affecting the world population. But then neither does it explain the lack of correlation emerging between cases and deaths as variants evolve.

    Could it be that the world population already had immunity through exposure to the common cold coronavirus which is now being reinforced by exposure to emerging strains of COVID-19?

    Some realistic assessment of the statistics may lie in the second wave data.

    https://youtu.be/EJmni3LVK3k

      1. Yo are de King, Boss

        Without you we would be lost

        You have given us somewhere safe to air our views, quibble, learn, remember,
        share, laugh, joke, be serious, let off steam, mock (in a friendly way) unite, and most of all relax

        So, you do not know much?

      1. If the COVID variant is 30% more virulent and the NHS has not improved treatment of cases by more than 30% then any increase in the rate of deaths is likely to be due to the treatment deficiences rather than the disease.

        The most effective treatment is highly dependenent on the degree of progression of the disease. Failure of proper treatment does not necessarily mean that the population is not gaining extra immunity after exposure to the virus.

        Discussion of treatment methods still undee development for COVID infection particularly by the use of anticoagulants is discussed here:

        https://youtu.be/fw3OYf0W7x4

  94. Is Mr Biden trying to MAGA?:

    “President Biden signed his much-previewed ‘Buy American’ executive order on Monday, which will boost federal agencies’ purchases of US products. The order will direct agencies to acquire more goods and services from US manufacturers and workers, using nearly $600 billion at their disposal for such contracts.”

    “I don’t buy for one second that the vitality of American manufacturing is a thing of the past,” Biden said before signing the order. “We are going to use taxpayers money to rebuild America.”

      2. If you buy a man, you own him until he doesn’t need you any more, then you don’t. And you don’t get your money back.

    2. Biden is certifiable. Unless stopped he will return America to the Obama era of no growth and grafting by the political elite.

      Edit: The narcissist Obama and Big Mike are quite obviously pulling Biden’s strings.

      Edit: Biden, you rebuild America by encouraging inward investment by solid well financed companies not by taking money from taxpayers to finance your chumocracy you stupid goat.

      Edit: I note that the twat downvoter is still active. Give us a break twat!

      1. I don know why this was pending so I approved it.

        You are wrong of course but that doesn’t stop free speech

  96. I’m off Foyle’s war on.
    Brilliant programme.
    Crashed German bombers and running crew.

    1. I have all the series on my computer and must get around to watching them again. Although they were being bombed, at least the government was on their side!

        1. And we tried to turn them back, rather than picking them up in mid-Channel and bringing them to Dover.

          1. Now we have the real dads army, captain Boros. Sgt Willsgone and Godfrey Hancock, but don’t tell them.

    1. Yo and Fanx Boss

      Cummon Nottlers Upvote the Boss, please.

      He is our saviour in the dark days of Borosamania

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