Monday 25 October: Advocates of stricter measures have ignored the lessons of lockdown

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.

734 thoughts on “Monday 25 October: Advocates of stricter measures have ignored the lessons of lockdown”

        1. Seventeen months to go, here. But I traded my poor old feet for a disabled bus pass (or a Motability car, should DVLA ever return to work), so I’m ahead of you in one sense. Have a great day.

  7. Good morning all!
    Happy Birthday to Sue! Have a great day and enjoy it all! 🎂🍾🎉

  8. Family hubs will level up for every child. 25 October 2021.

    During their first 1,001 days, young children develop at a faster rate than at any other time, laying the building blocks of lifelong emotional and physical health. It is a unique period, which has a profound impact on future life chances. The child’s quality of attachment to their principal caregiver proves especially formative. Since babies tend to adapt fully to the environment in which they grow up, for many parents and carers, accessing quality “joined up” support services will be essential to give their children the best start.

    And – superbly – that is exactly what the Chancellor’s £500 million investment in families and early years will do. With the announcement set for this Wednesday at the Budget, this new funding will realise our “Best Start for Life” vision in 75 local authority areas across England. It will set up family hubs, a welcoming, one-stop shop for parents and carers to seek advice and wide-ranging support. From new parenting programmes to breastfeeding advice and specialist help for building positive relationships, these multidisciplinary hubs will support parents and carers at an especially important time in their lives – and that of their baby.

    We have looked for some way to spend your money other than just flushing it down the toilet and have come up with this. Worthy of the most benevolent socialist fantasies we are certain it will appeal to the Docile, Civil Servants and the Labour Party. Workers, Taxpayers and the self-employed not so much.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/10/25/family-hubs-will-level-every-child/

    1. Morning Minty. I suspect your acerbic view of this wonderful initiative is evidence that you didn’t benefit from a “Best Start in Life’……

      1. Morning Stephen. All these things are attended too by a multiplicity of organisations; the NHS being not the least of them. What we have here is another useless layer of bureacracy whose function will be nothing more than vague reassurance.

    2. All of this,“child’s quality of attachment to their principal caregiver proves especially formative. … for many parents and carers, accessing quality “joined up” support services.” (blah) used to be called having a family. The child’s mother was assisted by her mother and relatives would pitch in.
      The family has been largely destroyed by the changes in society that have been promoted by the State since the First World War. Now the State is taking further steps to encroach on the upbringing of children in a fashion that is reminiscent of Sparta but very much more corrupt.

  9. Why would people pump even more of this stuff into them when you can still give and catch Covid. It does not work.

    2. Everyone has to make the decision for themselves, but I think we should also stop and ask ourselves whether, if the first two jabs were not effective, it is a good idea to take a third and a fourth.
      There is not yet any data about how many times this spike protein can be introduced into the body before something goes wrong.

      I don’t want to criticise anyone’s decision if they are truly frightened of dying of covid.
      Ultimately, for the long term future of everyone, it’s more important not to accept any form of vaxx passport (including one where you’ve been tested), than to refuse the vaxx.

      1. The death rate for Covid is arounf 1% far too low to worry about. 75% of those in hospital with Covid have had the vax. so what is the point. The more this all goes on the more convinced I am not to have had the jab.

        1. For people of retirement age the jab makes sense; unlikely to have any consequences on reproduction. However, the AZ vaccine may possibly have resulted in causing some people to have a stroke.

      2. I suppose most of us here are nearer the day of our deaths than we are to the day of our birth and that many of us will be happy to go when the their time comes But not before.

        Remember old King Lear said he wished to leave conflicts behind:

        ” ’tis our fast intent
        To shake all cares and business from our age,
        Conferring them on younger strengths while we
        Unburdened crawl toward death.”

    3. Is the drive towards vaccinating everyone and bringing in the “Vaccine Passport” REALLY about controlling the Wuhan Virus? Or is there another reason?
      Could it be that they need as close to 100% for the WEF’s new Digital ID Population Control System to be effective and are panicking over the shortfall?

    1. Can someone please explain Dr Fauci and his significance to me? I have searched the Internet but am still baffled. All I know is that many Americans dislike him and others support him, but why is a mystery to me.

      1. The latest revelation is his experiments torturing Beagle puppies having them eaten alive by sandflies
        His organisations appear to be involved in funding “Gain of function” in Wuhan
        Flip flopping on mask mandates
        Published peer reviewed articles on HCQ as an effective anti-viral then denied its use
        Enough to be going on with………….

      2. As chief medic in the US he commissioned the gain of function research in China after it was made illegal in the US (allegedly), and then mendaciously denied all knowledge of the coronavirus, while frantically plotting the scamdemic response behind the scenes (leaked emails).

        He was also responsible for the ban on hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, I think, in order to promote the lie that there were no alternatives to the vaccines, which allowed the vaccines to get emergency licences. They would never have got the licences for the vaxxes if they had admitted that ivermectin is a very effective prophylaxis treatment for covid.

        He’s also financially involved with some of the main pharma / vaxx players, if I remember rightly.

  11. Morning all

    SIR – Those calling for the implementation of “Plan B” – the compulsory wearing of masks and a return to working from home – must have very short memories.

    Surely we have learnt the hard way that, whatever such action may do to reduce the spread of infections, these infections rise again once the measures are removed. In the interim plenty of damage is done to the economy, children’s education and many people’s mental health. If vaccinations are not enough, we are left with the only option that has ever really made sense: learning to live with the virus.

    Plan B will not, incidentally, prevent another lockdown. That will be achieved only by the Government not ordering one. It is to be hoped that it will maintain its resolve.

    John Murray

    Guildford, Surrey

    SIR – In my GP surgery I have dealt with barely any Covid cases in the past month but large numbers of patients, especially children and babies, with other respiratory infections, largely caused by low natural immunity due to prolonged lockdowns last winter. I have also been visited by suicidal and despairing teenagers who see no future, and patients whose conditions are deteriorating as they languish on interminable hospital waiting lists.

    The Government was warned of all these issues months ago but seems to have done nothing to prepare the NHS to cope. Instead we have thousands fewer hospital beds than last year, and one of the lowest number of beds per 100,000 people in Europe.

    More restrictions are not the answer. Nor is more money unless it goes on more beds and medical staff rather than overpaid managers.

    Dr Fiona Underhill

    Woodford Green, Essex

    SIR – It is clear from recent letters that there is huge variation in the efficacy of surgeries and other vaccination centres across the country. (My wife and I have benefited from cheerful cooperation between two general practices in Barnes and East Sheen.)

    The health authorities need to examine and strengthen whatever arrangements there are for learning lessons and spreading best practice; it would be interesting to be told what these are.

    Sir Harold Walker

    London SW14

    SIR – Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, says we can go on to the NHS website and book our booster jabs after we become eligible.

    Why not let us book in advance? This would help scheduling and ensure that jabs are received as soon as people qualify.

    Barrie Bain

    Wadhurst, East Sussex

    SIR – I recently overheard a gentleman who had driven to Taunton, 60 miles away, to receive his booster jab. I have decided to save the planet instead.

    Simon Cox

    Brixham, Devon

    1. I think the vaccine would have been far better received and the government would not have had to resort to blackmail

      IF:

      …….. the vaccine carried no side effects and did not impair natural immunity; IF one dose were enough without second doses followed by no one knows how many subsequent boosters; IF the vaccine prevented you from catching Covid 19; IF the vaccine prevented you from passing on Covid 19 and IF it were proven that there were no unforeseen consequence of having had the vaccine lying in ambush in the future.

      It would also have helped if the government had acquired the reputation for truthfulness rather than mendacity.

  12. Morning again

    Better meat

    SIR – As a sheep and beef farmer, I agree that we should eat less meat (Letters, October 23) but better meat.

    What does that mean? Meat, like energy, is inherently neither good nor bad – it depends on how it is produced. A steer bred, grazed and finished on the pastures of Exmoor is a different beast from the American feedlot animal finished on soya grown on land carved out of the Brazilian rainforest.

    The debate needs to be much deeper and more informed than it is.

    Hugh Warmington

    Taunton, Somerset

    SIR – Regarding Harry de Quetteville’s article, we would not be able to supplement a meat-free diet with dairy products because there would not be any. Farmers cannot keep producing calves, lambs and kids to perpetuate lactation if there is no market for those offspring as meat.

    Advertisement

    On top of which, the resulting lack of leather and wool production would necessitate major industrial expansion to provide synthetic replacements – not exactly environmentally sound. There would also have to be a huge expansion of arable farming, involving more mechanisation, cultivation and use of artificial fertilisers, all detrimental to the environment. Less meat, maybe. But no meat? No way.

    David Brown

    Sleaford, Lincolnshire

    SIR – If Britain goes meat free, we will lose the fertilisers provided by cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens.

    Man-made fertilisers are ammonia-based, so in the absence of animals we will need to make more ammonia. This is an energy-hungry process that requires hydrogen. We cannot make sufficient “green” hydrogen for our current ammonia production. So we will need more derived from natural gas – with CO2 as a by-product.

    Alan Richardson

    Seahouses, Northumberland

    1. I have found that when you buy more expensive meat, you use far less; anything from 2/3rds to a half.
      It is richer and doesn’t shrivel into a puddle.
      Morning, Epidermoid.

  13. Flight fantastic

    SIR – John Stephen’s letter (October 22) reminded me that, after 10 years of trying, I finally got an invitation into the cockpit on a flight over the Alps to Nice.

    Advertisement

    Two jets flew across in front of us before I could get my camera going, and two months later it was 9/11, so such an experience would never be possible again.

    James Ruddock-Broyd

    Witney, Oxfordshire

    SIR – I might well have been on the 1993 flight to which Mike Glegg refers (Letters, October 23).

    In the middle of the night the pilot suddenly announced that he was witnessing the greatest Northern Lights display he’d ever seen.

    I woke my wife up so she could enjoy with me this once-in-a-lifetime event, but the response was a disgruntled shrug and an immediate return to the land of nod.

    Geoffrey Betts

    Marlow, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – Forty years ago I was on a night flight with Iberia from Madrid to Miami.

    My wife and all the other passengers dropped off to sleep. I walked forward and opened the door into the cockpit, where there were seven crew, with all but one asleep. He was a boy of about 17, who had been told to wake the pilots if anything happened.

    I asked him how he knew we were on course. He said he was to make sure we were pointing at that “white thing”. The only white thing was the moon, so I withdrew and got a glass of something for my nerves.

    Peter Howard

    Kingsbridge, Devon

    Dying in peace

    SIR – Lord Field backed the Assisted Dying Bill debated in the Lords last Friday because he has a terminal illness and has, in the past, observed a close friend go through the hellish misery that is dying of cancer.

    If every peer and MP were to witness, at first hand, the grotesquely unfair treatment of the terminally ill, whereby they are denied a peaceful passing, I am convinced that the Bill would receive almost unanimous support.

    Mark S Davies FRCS

    Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

    SIR – More than the possible pain of terminal cancer, what people fear is a diagnosis of dementia, with its erosion of personality and of the physical structures of the brain.

    Yet this terrible disease is nowhere mentioned in the discussions about assisted dying. We need to consider an advance directive for when agency may be grossly impaired.

    In potential legislation, dementia should be treated in the same way as conditions that destroy the body while leaving the mind intact.

    Sandra Hancock

    Exeter, Devon

    2. With reference to dementia. I looked after for a little while a professor from UC Berkeley that had been reduced to a screaming mass of fear, due to dementia. Quite what part of his brain it was effecting I don’t know, but such was his condition he had to be sedated. Life was clearly a living nightmare for him. Euthanasia is not legal in California and besides he had said nothing about such things while he was in full possession of his faculties. But this man was kept alive, obviously in some sort of hell due to the disease. I thought the best thing for him was euthanasia but due to the “preciousness of human life” which is complete nonsense in such circumstances, he was kept alive. Physically he was very healthy and on that score would have lived for years.
      I’m curious, what would other people here had done under the circumstances?

      A friend, Judith was diagnosed with terminal cancer. But because her husband was one the head of one of the departments at UC Berkeley, she was able to get the drugs she needed to terminate her life. When things started to become more pain than pleasure, she threw a goodbye party. Went upstairs and died peacefully in her bed.

      It seems to me that her way was the right way. But that the professor with dementia and kept alive, is an example of how far we are willing to go in pretending that life is precious in the most dreadful circumstances for the victim.

    2. The only way that the Conservatives could have beaten Blair when he first came to power was to have ridiculed him. I wrote a song which I put on a cassette and sent to the party headquarters and offered to go and perform it at the Conservative Party conference but they lacked the testicular strength to ‘run with it’ and the consequence was over a decade of Blair in Downing Street and my attempt to change the curse of history never got off the ground!

      I’m a populist prime minister from a mnor public school,
      I love your adulation so I’ll make Britannia cool.
      I’ll toady to your prejudices – wreck the House of Lords
      And if you vote ‘New Labour’ you’ll have joined my mindless hordes.
      I’m the ‘Third Way’ politician and I know how good I look
      When I sand beside my grubby minions, Blunkett, Straw and Cook.
      Glib and oily Mandy’s lies and mortgage I could not excuse:
      Twice I sacked the sleazy bugger though his spittle shone my shoes.

      There were several verses of this sort of stuff in which I tried to capture the sheer moral shabbiness of this disgusting sub-human being.

  15. 340497+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Monday 25 October: Advocates of stricter measures have ignored the lessons of lockdown,

    Lets add some home truths,the electorate have ignored the lessons
    taught via the ballot booth over the last near four decades.

    The advocates of stricter measures ( The political overseers ) coalition
    have ignored nothing in sticking to their own odious agenda, the welfare of the peoples are no longer of any consequence having served their purpose via the General Election, once again.

    1. Interesting essay, especially point 3. which is not made often enough
      “Government can print enough money to buy unlimited enforcers of its rules…” is exactly what we are suffering from – a bloated sector of the economy that is paid by government, creates nothing and is purely dependent upon government’s ability to conjure money out of thin air. These, needless to say, are the people who make the lives of the rest of us difficult.

  17. Alec Baldwin risks being prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter over film set shooting. 25 October 2021,

    Alec Baldwin risks being prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter over the accidental shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, legal experts have warned.

    The Hollywood star could face the charges because of his role as the executive producer of the film, rather than for pulling the trigger, suggested US attorney Joseph Costa.

    He probably bears more responsibility than whoever actually loaded (assuming it wasn’t him) the gun. He should never have pointed it at the victim, let alone discharged it. That alone makes him culpable!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/10/24/alec-baldwin-risks-prosecuted-involuntary-manslaughter-film/

    1. Hi Minty. I read (somewhere, over the weekend) that the cameraman (person?) has the most dangerous job on some action films because it is not uncommon for the screenplay to require a scene of someone apparently shooting at you (ie the camera). I also read that this incident occurred during the filming of a scene inside the little church (that we have all seen pictures of). I think Baldwin may have discharged the firearm at the unfortunate camera lady during the normal making of the film.
      Why live ammunition was required on set in the first place is, of course, a matter for conjecture.

    1. Cloud clearing and brightening up here.
      Forecast suggests it may be a largely dry day which will allow me to do more bramble pulling behind the sheds.

  20. Today is St. Crispin’s Day and the 606th anniversary of The Battle of Agincourt.

    It has not been noticed in the news but old patriot that I am I hope you will allow me to post the speech from Henry V. That England that is represented here has been destroyed and will rise no more. Even it’s very memory will soon be expunged by the Greater Evil that now threatens us all! Nevertheless while ever men have souls the words will still echo down the centuries.

    What’s he that wishes so?
    My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin:
    If we are mark’d to die, we are enow
    To do our country loss; and if to live,
    The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
    God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
    By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
    Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
    It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
    Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
    But if it be a sin to covet honour,
    I am the most offending soul alive.
    No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
    God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
    As one man more, methinks, would share from me
    For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
    Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
    That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
    Let him depart; his passport shall be made
    And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
    We would not die in that man’s company
    That fears his fellowship to die with us.
    This day is called the feast of Crispian:
    He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
    Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
    And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
    He that shall live this day, and see old age,
    Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
    And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’
    Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
    And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’
    Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
    But he’ll remember with advantages
    What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
    Familiar in his mouth as household words
    Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
    Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
    Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.
    This story shall the good man teach his son;
    And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
    From this day to the ending of the world,
    But we in it shall be remember’d;
    We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
    For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
    Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
    This day shall gentle his condition:
    And gentlemen in England now a-bed
    Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
    And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
    That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

    Henry V. Act IV, Scene III

    1. Yo Minty

      I will celebrate St Crisp’s Day, as long as they are not Walkers

      Lineker has imprinted that brand on my No Go List

        2. Yo Sue
          Family comes from Rushden in Northamptonshire and most worked in the shoe trade (when we made them in UK)
          There was even a ‘snob’ who mended shoes in town

          (The word snob is first recorded in the late 18th century as a term for a shoemaker or his apprentice.)
          Northampton FC are still known as The Cobblers

    2. But he’ll remember with advantages
      What feats he did that day:

      Such perceptive lines! Don’t we all exaggerate how well we did in the past?

      I remember seeing the Lawrence Olivier film of Henry V when I was at prep school. We showed the Kenneth Branagh film to Christo and Henry when they were aged 9 and 7 respectively and they both loved it and have gone back to watch it again and again.

      It is a disgrace that so many educationalists seem to think that Shakespeare is too difficult for school children. It is far better to set the bar too high than too low for a child with a lively enquiring mind.

      1. Yesterday I was talking with a teacher who mentioned an Indian educationalist whose philosophy is that ‘school’ is complementary to what children learn at home.

        1. Don’t have children unless you can spend at least half an hour each and every night at bedtime reading to them and then give them a further five to ten minutes to look at these books unsupervised on their own before they go to sleep.

          Both our boys were fluent readers at the age of 4 so I find it a tragic indictment on both parents and schools that so many children arrive at secondary school incapable of reading and writing.

    1. Happy Birthday, Sue.
      Monday is a good day for a birthday; you have a choice of two (or both) weekends to celebrate it.

      1. Lovely, thank you! Have a ticket for the Wignore Hall tomorrow evening. My first time back there since the sh*t show began. A Monteverdi programme.

          1. La Nuova Musica. Some deliberate irony in the name perhaps, given that they do mostly Baroque and Classical? I don’t think I’ve heard them before. Will report back!

    5. Happy Birthday, Sue! And have a great day. And it is a lovely day, a good way to start your birthday week!

      1. Happy Birthday m’Dear.
        Hope you’re bearing the years lightly and have a good day!

        1. Many thanks Bob! A few aches and pains here and there but no regular medication so I must be thankful!

          1. Happy Birthday Sue
            Time I ‘fessed up as well 28/10/53
            Us Scorpios must stick together!!

    1. Beautiful & sunny here.
      I’ve just finished a mug of tea, 3rd of the day, and am about to get back to the bramble & ivy pulling up the hill behind the sheds and lifting the black plastic sheeting I laid down a decade or two ago to help control the weeds.

    2. Damn, Blast & Buggeration! Just restart work and it begins chucking it down!

      Sod it! I’m going to have an early lunch.

  24. 340497+ up ticks,
    Reminiscent of 1914, blow the whistle and thousands go over the top
    2021 they whistle up 6 billion more for the NHS to cut the waiting numbers
    their handling of the issue had caused in the first place.

    Staff shortages due to sacking those with a valid objection to being jabbed, entry visas via brussels will of course multiply.

    starmer the snake, charmer is disgusted at parents objecting to children being jabbed he is saying the children are being subjected to misinformation.

    This concern for children is touching pity it was not around during the rotherham, oxford, rochdale ongoing ( via DOVER) years.

    1. 04 September 2030 in UK

      Johnny a happy 5 year old boy gets taken to his first day at school by his mum,
      She takes him in a dog carrier which is attached to the back of the family bicycle (private cars were banned in 2028)
      She drops him off and wishes him luck
      On entry to the school building, he passes his Right Wrist (where the Covid Identity chip is installed) over a Scanner
      Ir records he has not yet had Booster No 5
      He is sent to the holding cell, to get it
      He is also issued with a mask
      When the class is assembled, it was noted that there were not the required number of cross gender children
      Jonnny is selected to be made into a girl, Parents are not required to be told
      At the end of the school day, Mum comes back with the bike and finds that Johnny is now Joanna.
      Life in UK in the 2030s

      1. The year when all those who have disability badges for their cars are sent to Switzerland .

        Those unfortunates who have a farting problem are fined £s… farting being the result of course of eating a vegetarian diet , rich in sprouts and cabbage .

        Planners insist on building millions of homes on fluvial plains on stilts for the non English speaking African Asian Fecund breeders .

        African Asian breeders will be favoured , because they eat goat .. and of course goats eat everything so our green spaces will need to have the grass and shrubs that used to need pruning will be gobbled up by goats instead . Antique garden and farming machinery will rot away.

        High rise buildings will become precious assets for the rich , because one must assume the air is fresher the higher up one lives because the farters down below have created quite a stink , that includes the goats .

        Schools will teach white pupils how to carry the shopping in bowls on top of their heads .

        Import Africa and Asia , and well , we know what happens .. our rivers and lakes and shorelines will become full of half burnt corpses and will reek of spices and tumeric .

        The climate will vary so much , that many many trees will be burnt for warmth in the home , no gas , no electric , no nothing !

  26. Yo All

    Windows all condensated up………………on the outside and

    The Sun is out,

    The Sky is Blue

    1. Good morning OlT

      Alex Burghart, the Conservative MP for Brentwood and Ongar, expressed his horror at the incident.

      “This is a very dark day for our town,” he said.

      Many a true word spoken in jest!!

    2. Police looking for a white male 6 ft tall and bald for indecent exposure in a Scottish park. Funny how they can get the description right some times eh !

    3. Good morning OLT

      Did you see my post yesterday? We learn far more from what we are not told than from what we are told!

      2. Sure did mr t

        I ahve been saying it for ages

        Whitey is naughty = Full face picture, age, address, school he went to,
        Fave food, music, video games, inside leg measurement,

        Bame is naughty =

  29. I have a drinking friend who caught Covid 2 weeks ago and was having a bad time of it at home. He’s now in the Covid ward at Derriford hospital. He’s 71, a smoker and his wife is apparently immune. This is the first person I know well to have definitely had the coronavirus.

      1. Morning MM
        Is your friend diabetic , Type A bloodgroup , overweight , etc etc. I do hope his immune system kicks in hard , and he improves .

        1. Good morning all. I was under the impression that the immune system is part of the problem.

        2. Thanks, Belle. As I said, he’s a lifetime smoker. Not much overweight and not terribly unfit, sort of middle of the road. He’s my local’s ex-landlord.

        1. The third one is a charm, don’t you know. There will be a forth one too, for luck.

    2. I have known only three people reputedly with Covid and, oddly enough, only by hearsay. Really makes you wonder how real the “epidemic” ever was.

    3. I knew three people who had covid. One in his late 70s died, one was our youngest son 32 he had been jabbed twice and caught a mild version from a work colleague. And One (ex Iron Man Athlete) other who is self isolating now. Ironically he was the business partner of the person who died earlier this year, but caught it from a friend last week.
      But sadly I have also lost three life long friends, two from long term cancer one from Asbestosis.

    1. Hallo Rose! Obligatory miserable Monday weather here too in West Sussex. Card you sent to Sue was beautiful.

      1. Good morning J,
        When is your birthday, if that’s not too impertinent!?
        Am having a lovely time buying wallflowers & iris germanica for next year’s watercolours…

          1. Tomorrow no less.
            I was 70 this January, 23rd.
            My late sister was November 15th 1948 (a few hours after Prince Charles).

          2. So she would be my age and your older sister.

            You mentioned, by the way, wallflowers. Are you buying the ones advertised by, I think, Parks called “Pastel colours” or some such. I was looking at them the other day and trying to make up my mind whether to or not. The path to my door is lined by 7 large whiskey barrels, the ones you buy cut in half. I was thinking of hyacinths, I love them but I’m always open to suggestions. I tend to go over the top and obsess, as it were. on one thing. My central bed this year was various sizes of antirrhinums edged with pinks and nothing else.

          3. These are the wallflowers I am buying:
            https://www.sarahraven.com/search.php
            As you see some of them have 50% off at the moment..my ex-neighbour told me about this site (Baroness Carnock’s) for tulips.
            I love wallflowers as they flower early, last ages, are tolerant of various conditions, and smell so sweet & generous in the early spring…like to be picked, & flower again.
            Each colour has a slightly different scent, & they waft up as one walks by.
            I’ve bought 15 of the primrose ones & a few each of the richer colours.
            *
            I’ve found it’s best to put flowering plants in a group together of the same kind, same family – they seem to like it, and grow better – solidarity!
            I have a corner for pinks now & they’ve definitely thrived the more I’ve added.

          4. Ah yes, Sarah Raven, I brought some of the antirrhinums I told you about from her. Also some of her exotic Salvias. Good company!

          6. You know, believe it or not, I have never looked at the history of that year. Is it your birth year too? I did have the honour of being, so I was told, the first military baby born in occupied Germany. I was given a 21 gun salute which, of course is not proper. But apparently my birth gave everyone an excuse to get drunk and out came the guns. It ended up as 20 actually because one misfired. My father and stepfather were members of the RHA.

          12. I have been told I am a typical Scorpio. It’s true that I was not the sort of person to get on the wrong side of. I used to get quite nasty, even managed to totally freak someone out in New York when I was in California! I am good at psychologically browbeating people. Which is the way I would get revenge on people. I had quite a temper, not a good thing. Now a days I couldn’t care less about being offended, water off a ducks back. I have swung to the opposite pole now. I prefer to be peaceful and prefer to use psychology to help. But I do seem to have all the traits listed for a Scorpio.
            A matter of curiosity. How much of this do you think fits you?
            https://www.astrology.com/zodiac-signs/scorpio

          13. Probably quite a lot. I’m fairly passive – though in the past 18 months I’ve dug my heals in strongly with regards to what I will and will not do – but if pushed too far, I’ve tended to blow with a big fit of temper. As you say, that happens less and less as the years go by. Some of it used to be the feminine cycle I think and when mother nature began shutting that down, I stopped caring to a large extent!

          14. Amended a post to you about being a Scorpio. I also in the same post asked you when your birthday was!!! Which I have corrected. Sorry for that inattention but I’m starting to get rather tired and soon, will need my nap. But, unfortunately I have to go back to hospital again at 12:30. so no nap. But I am curious to see what you have to say about being a Scorpio. We don’t seem to be that common, do we?

    2. I have to confess I find this gloomy Swede’s downbeat delivery rather effective.

      1. Well, some card that Rose posted for you, very cool! And, of course, Happy Birthday to you too, Sue.

    1. I’ve been to A&E twice this year and I don’t particularly remember being tested for covid.

      1. Good morning, Eddy.

        I also have been to A&E twice this year
        and to the Bone Fracture Clinic five times;
        I was not tested but I did have my temperature
        taken … for the first three visits.

        Edited.

        I have just received today’s post, one of the letters
        was from the Consultant, confirming the results of my
        visit …. on 26th. June, 2021!!

        1. I went to see a consultant two weeks ago. I was asked to wear a mask. I declined – so they put one of those screen things on me!
          A nurse sprayed a blob of stuff on my right hand – which I wiped off with a hanky. They asked me to read a page of covid symptoms – none of which I had, of course. No temperature taken.

          All rather pointless – as – a the end of the meeting – the masked consultant (who had let it slip down so that his nose was exposed – shook me warmly by the hand.

          2. He was clearly a rebel. European gestures like shaking hands are streng verboten nowadays! Only outlaws shake hands.

        2. I had a letter from the consultant confirming my appointment on the 30th September. It arrived on the 1st of October! Fortunately, I’d written the date down in my diary and wasn’t relying on them.

      2. I was tested the other night when I went into A & E. Was also tested once in Radiology when I appeared to have an elevated temperature. I think it probably depends on the hospital.

  33. The government are releasing 2 billion pounds to build new homes on Derelict and unused land, what ever that is comprised of ? Boris you are such an effing idiot, the carbon foot print of that land will go through the roof and that’s just the act of building and long before the new people move in and start to consume energy water etc and their new sewage is pumped into the nearest river. You are such a divot Boris.
    Oh I forgot……… Morning all.

    1. But golfers are told to replace divots but Boris is a divot who should not be put back in place.

      1. Funny you should make that connection Richard.
        Just out side of Luton town there is a popular Golf course and sports centre Stockwood Park which i have played quite often. And people have told me that over the recent years during games on the 18 hole course they have been not able to to finish certain holes because of families of a certain belief have been picnicking on the putting greens and their children playing in the sand bunkers. It’s been rumoured that it is now going to be closed and sold to developers. Perhaps the ‘picnics’ were prearranged to lessen the membership thus making it no longer viable.

    2. Morning Edddy! At 710 people per square mile we are the third most densely populated country in the world. Why is anyone let in? Why do we continue to build? Surely the answer is a moratorium on growth, not continuing it.

      1. Absolutely correct. And the people our useless governments are letting are mainly alien to our culture and many have never contributed to the coffers, nor bothered to work in any form. Our social structure is being deliberately wrecked buy our governments since the mid 90s. But the end results will not be pretty at all. As i have said many times before everything politicians come into contact with they eff up and big time. WHY ?

        1. They will not let go of the myth that a declining native population is a bad thing. They use that to import millions of useless foreigners who only ever have a deleterious effect on our society.

          1. I couldn’t agree more Horace.
            Every working tax payers has been reeled in and has to support all these useless people, they give back nothing to the economy except carbon emissions.

  34. Attracting Women

    There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women.
    Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL convertible. PJ O’Rourke
    *********************************************************************************

    Love matches are formed by people who pay for a month of honey with a lifetime of vinegar. Countess of Blessington
    *********************************************************************************

    What are a woman’s four favourite animals?
    A jaguar in the garage, a mink in the closet, a tiger in the bed, and a jackass to pay for it all.
    *********************************************************************************

    My wife went to the beauty parlour.
    She got a mud pack. She looked nice for a couple of days.
    Then the mud fell off.
    *********************************************************************************

    Teacher: ‘If you had one pound and you asked your father for another, how many pounds would you have?’
    Boy: ‘One.’
    Teacher: ‘You don’t know your arithmetic.’
    Boy: ‘You don’t know my father.
    *********************************************************************************

    With my first child I can recall screaming, ‘Get this thing out of me! Get this thing out of me! And that was just the conception’. Joan Rivers
    *********************************************************************************

    Steer well clear of the knight in shining armour. He’ll only want you to polish it. Anon.

  36. Letter in the Grimes – showing just how successfully Project Fear is going along:

    “Sir I have just returned from a four-day break in Positano, Italy. Things are pretty normal there. I wore a facemask indoors, except when seated while eating and in my hotel room. I wore a facemask outdoors in crowded narrow alleys. I showed proof of vaccination on arrival at my hotel and in all restaurants bar one. It was no imposition to follow these sensible, non-intrusive safety measures. In fact, knowing that like-minded humans took them seriously too was rather reassuring. If the population of the British Isles wants to avoid another lockdown and going on every other country’s red list, we shouldn’t wait for the government to wake up.
    David Lederman
    London NW11”

    “sensible, non-intrusive safety measures” – = Ausweis bitte”…..

    Given where Mr Lederman lives – I’d have thought he’d certainly be among the minority wanting NO such “non-intrusive” measures.

    1. He’s been conditioned to the New Normal and has forgotten what ‘non-intrusive’ means. Fascism was born in Italy.

      1. Dead right. My worry (well, one of many) is that children have now had two years of this and will grow up believing that government control is sensible and good for them..

        “Of course the little Jewish children next door are nice – it is just that we don’t play with them….”

        1. As I posted a day or 2 ago, Bill trusting the government is fine until you get a nazi nasty surprise.

    2. Have 77 Brigade moved on to letters? What he describes is certainly not what I would call “pretty normal there”.

      1. Morning Bleau. Yes I’ve noticed a few doubtful missives lately. It is of course easier for them to post propaganda on the threads than argue since most lack the nous to do so. They are still traitors though!

    3. Saturday’s Grimes Magazine had an article on an individual called Guy Hands, who came across as someone you might not want to have a drink with. He did however come up with an interesting description of Blobby as being like Blair, but without the intellect.

    4. Of course face masks and vaxx passports have as little to do with safety as anonymous Twitter acconts have to do with Moslem terror attacks. If I find peas give me wind, fish should be banned. Makes as much sense?

    5. Good God! Everything you say about Times readers must be true!

      “Things are pretty normal there” – and then he goes off on that monstrous list of unnecessary restrictions!

      1. On a Malta holiday my Landlord who is also a pilot took me up and flew around the islands. Quite magical. Only cost me 100euro.

        1. My business partner and I fitted a new kitchen for an ex RAF pilot and Ex Banker, he hated the latter. He was then flying the formula one team around Europe in the twin 12 seater when Damon Hill was driving. He met us at Leavesden and off we went for a 40 minute jaunt I was in the co pilot seat, Ian stayed where he was slightly uncomfortable. Wonderful experience. I have since been up in a hot air balloon.

  39. London’s Khan to Provide £25k Grants to Rename Streets in London

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10118799/Sadiq-Khan-offers-grants-Londoners-decolonise-street-names-BLM-inspired-protests.html
    Perhaps Khan will want to change some of the street names in Lahore, Pakistan?.

    Empress Road
    Fort Street
    Lawrence Road
    Lytton Road
    Macleod Road
    Etc

    General Macleod played a considerable part in the early history of the British in India. Why haven’t they felt the need to rename these and other streets?

    1. They understand the importance of retaining a truthful record and a sane view of the past?

      1. The are still enjoying the benefits of the Raj (railways, a common language, democracy, a legal system, etc)?

    5. It seems that his whole raison d’étra has been and is to be as awkward and as caustic towards this country as he possible can. He’s gone too far now, time to Sack him. Before he became an MP and then Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan was a solicitor specialising in human rights. Really and the people of the capital of England are having their rights removed.

        1. I friend of ours Ex police, has a family member who, was not sure if he still is, a protection officer to Kahn. We were in the pub when he told us. Three of us reached for our wallets saying how much ?

    2. From a male perspective, should you not plan, before you go, or is it going to be yours (and Victoria’s ) secret

      Yo Ms Plum

  42. Home Office refuses to reveal details of Afghans’ resettlement. 25 October 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cca0b5633c3737445706169d7ca3e81620fd856c88cc0aea9ec768e92eebadd0.jpg

    The Home Office will not say how many of the airlifted Afghans qualify to be rehoused in the UK and has refused to reveal how many families have already moved out of hotels and into homes.

    I wonder why?

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/24/home-office-refuses-to-reveal-details-of-afghans-resettlement

      1. The Sunday Times claims that there are 125,000 “asylum seekers” here that are housed and fed by the British raxpayers.

    2. The majority of Muslims in this country do not speak Arabic. It is a stupid suggestion. On the other hand, if he means so we can have the dubious pleasure of reading the Koran then that is also stupid because the Arabic of the Koran is archaic and just as unintelligible to the vast majority of Arabic speakers as is Old English to the modern English. Last but not least there is no good reason to learn Arabic unless you are going to deal with the Middle East. The Muslims in Britain are, for the most part, Pakistani and Bangladeshi, neither of which speak Arabic. It makes sense to learn Punjabi or Bengali because that is what the majority of the enemy speak in the UK.

      1. Yo JR

        How long, before English Language and English Literature are removed for London Schools curryculum and replaced with the
        teaching of the local languages…………………. and I doubt if it would be Cockney

        1. I would not be surprised to discover that in some schools in London English was not used at all.

      2. Yo JR

        How long, before English Language and English Literature are removed for London Schools curryculum and repaced with the
        teaching of the local languages…………………. and I doubt if it would be Cockney

        1. Yes, but apparently the majority speak Punjabi. Here’s the list, just looked it up. Punjabi (273,231), Urdu (268,680), Bengali (221,403) and Gujarati (213,094) But I know that Urdu is simply Hindi but pretends because of Islam, to be a different language. My best friend, an Indian from Manipur, frequently goes on anti-Pakistani/Bangladeshi rants until he’s fit to burst about their linguistic idiocy amongst other things! A mild individual he can get quite blood thirsty when the subject of Pakistan and its inhabitants come up. If he had his way Pakistan would be wiped off the map along with its Muslims. Anyway, linguistically Hindi/Urdu is the same sort of nonsense that goes on between Russian and Ukrainian. Both perfectly intelligible to each other but pretending to be different for political purposes.

          2. Yes, exactly, but pretend that the Americans used Cyrillic script just to be different. That would be analogous to the difference between Hindi and Urdu.

          3. Hindi & Urdu have completely different scripts, however. Urdu, which is read right to left, looks like Arabic, from which it is derived, via Persian. Hindi looks like a blockscript, which is read left to right.

          4. Yes, I know. But the reality is that writing Hindi in Arabic script and calling it “Urdu” and pretending it is a different language from Hindi is typical of the pettiness of the Pakistanis and their stupid Islamic ideology.

        1. Yes, as atrocious poetry. The most perfect book in the world, straight from the mouth of Allah is supposed to be the pinnacle of the Arabic language. But even when it was new Arabic poets would deride its pretentions and make fun of it. Bravely and typically, the Muslims murdered at least one poet for her derision of the Korans language. They were so brave they crept up to her in her sleep and stabbed her to death.

    3. When the Sultana and myself received invitations to go for a ‘flu jag at the same place and at precisely the same time, excactly 10:12, I had a look at the bumf that came with it. The leaflet said that the information was available in 16 languages, as well as English and Gaelic.

    5. Did you see the video below this on Twitter? The Asda security guard decking a knife carrying young man? Worth a watch.

  44. Will you be charged to drive where you live? Up to 300k motorists face the £12.50 London ULEZ from today – here’s 14 areas where similar zones are imminent
    London’s ULEZ was the first introduced in 2019 – and has been extended to cover much of the city from today
    Birmingham was the first city outside the capital to introduce a Clean Air Zone charging car drivers
    There are FOUR vehicle emission charging zones due to be in place by 2021, though not all charging car users

    A total of 15 cities have plans for emission taxes on drivers by the end of 2022 – we explain them

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/cars/article-10127557/All-towns-cities-Britain-planned-clean-driving-zones.html

    1. I have a Clean Air Sticker to drive through the Zones in France, I wonder if it is any good here

      And of course are Furriners’ going to be charged

      2. Even if they are, they won’t pay – and the UK won’t enforce payment. Bit like the HNS.

  45. Stop Press

    I have been sorting the garage out this morning It is twice as big as wot I thought it was

    2. You should see ours! You can barely close the door since my daughter moved out of her flat and brought her furniture home for storage!

    3. I’ve had to empty the conservatory in preparation for its replacement – I had no idea it was so big!

      1. This inversion of law and order by the government makes me angry and sick to the bottom of my soul.

    3. If, I were there, I would commit a minor offence: Urinating in a public place.

      All you tintenters, go to your Tent’s Chemical Loos (aka The Cludge) and remove the cassettes’ find where the road is being
      blocked and empty the contents over these Criminals.

      If like me you never use Camp Site/Public loos at all, so much the better.

  47. The UN says that Afghanistan is facing a catastrophic humanitarian disaster… hunger !

    No one will want to drive aid vehicles into that Taliban held country .

    We knew exactly what would happen .. exactly … and money sent to Afghanistan will not solve any problems .

    The Barbaric Taliban are committing GENOCIDE.

    1. I assume you are also heartbroken about the hundreds of thousands of children killed by the US/UK/NATO atrocoties in Iraq,Syria and Libya.

      1. All of it disturbs me. However, I am more occupied with fighting evil at home right now.
        I went on “not in my name” demonstrations against Blair’s war in Iraq, which were ignored by the government. I realised then that we can’t influence what the bankers get up to.

        1. Suppose we removed our accounts and kept it under the mattress until the W⚓s at the banks find they have NO money.

          1. What and miss out on the .01% interest the banks are paying?

            I really don’t think that they care about individuals, they are more problem than they are worth.

        2. Before that I went on the anti-Hunting Bill marches. It was clear that the government and their accomplices in the media were hell-bent on ignoring what people who knew what was what wanted.

    2. I think between the Taliban and the IS-K killing each other, not to mention the warlords, the place must be a very dodgy place.

    4. The vast majority of Afghans supported the Taliban, or at least didn’t actively resist their takeover.

      That’s what they wanted. That’s what they got.

      Why is anyone in the West wringing their hands?

      1. But is the mass invasion of Britain by a murderous alien culture what the indigenous population of Britain wants? And why were they not asked?

      2. In much the same way, Janet, that most Brits seem to accept and support the Green Covid Monster – because they’re too afraid to be different.

        Unlike NoTTLers who happily say, “Fuck ’em.”

  48. Capital funding for the NHS should be used in conmmunities ..

    Keep our little local hospitals open , fund the NHS emergency cars , first responders .. forget about the wasteful IT rejuvenation .

    More mobile units like the breast scanners , and other diagnostic facilities like chest xrays

    Why do GPs have their own private clinics .. many earn extra income with private hospitals.

    Our local taxi gang have ferried very ill patients to hospital because of the strain on the ambulance service .

    We are also having several more defibrillators that can be accessed from different points in the village , all bought by the public and Parish Councils .

    1. When the NHS started that was the deal the GPs struck with the government who would not take the GPs on. Its not what the government wanted but they backed down. ( of course)

        1. The pigeons in Cardiff have shown their appreciation by shitting all over the head of his statue….

    1. Thanks Cori!

      Did you know that Rik Mayall made a film in 2014, “One by One”, about the depopulation agenda. It was his final work before dying “of a sudden heart attack” aged 56. Haven’t seen the full film. Too depressingly accurate from what I’ve read.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9QF-7VRsxA

    2. Scary stuff – watch out for those rice grain goodies that they (the PTB, the Great Reset Warriors, the WEF, The Bill Gates Foundation et al) want to inject into YOU and keep track of YOU.

      Resist it. Tell ’em to eff orf, be a real person, be a Brit. we fight this shit!

  50. Afternoon folks.

    Alf has just bought (click and collect) from Sainsburys 6 bottles of Heidsieck Dry Monopole Champagne for £90! Special offer obvs. And, also, we can pay using nectar points! So in effect free. We’ve resigned ourselves to not being allowed abroad again and have converted Avios points to nectar points. Not bad eh!

          2. You could be tempting fate there, Mr T

            I got down his chimney (being skilled with ladders…)

    4. Good choice. I’ve been around the Heidsieck plant & cellars in Epernay. Super lunch lasting 4 hours after the tour. That was in September ’74.

      1. I used to sell it, when I worked for Seagram, along with G H Mumm and Perrier Jouët. It’s the Pinot Meunier that gives HDM that delicious biscuity characteristic.

  51. Afternoon folks.

    Alf has just bought (click and collect) from Sainsburys 6 bottles of Heidsieck Dry Monopole Champagne for £90! Special offer obvs. And, also, we can pay using nectar points! So in effect free. We’ve resigned ourselves to not being allowed abroad again and have converted Avios points to nectar points. Not bad eh!

  52. With regard to COP26, If I were destructive, the threats of handfuls of ball bearing, bolts washers etc being scattered on the runways,
    of the Airports, the Lords of the Rings are using, could cause a few problems

    1. You’d have to drop the ball bearings from the sky. Impossible to get near the airport unless it’s an inside job.

        2. A Trebuchet set up a reasonable distance from the airport could work. Perhaps in line with the runway and catching the aircraft on their landing or take off runs.

    3. Don’t they regularly sweep runways for foreign objects (and foreign bodies of stowaways that have fallen out of undercarriage nacelles)?

  53. With regard to COP26, Iif I were destructive, the threats of handfuls of ball bearing, bolts washers etc being scattered on the runways,
    of the Airports, the Lords of the Rings are using, could cause a few problems

  54. World’s first transnational solar panel network set for launch in autumn 2022. 25 October 2021.

    The first transnational network of solar power grids, known as the One Sun, One World, One Grid (OSOWOG) initiative, will be up-and-running by Autumn 2022, according to the director general of the International Solar Alliance, Dr Ajay Mathur.

    In an interview with the Telegraph, Dr Mathur confirmed the blueprints for OSOWOG – which aims to connect 140 countries and will be spearheaded by India and the UK – will be unveiled at the forthcoming COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.

    Has Ohm’s Law been abolished?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/worlds-first-transnational-solar-panel-network-set-launch-autumn/

    5. They won’t be in the competition much longer. I don’t care about the cricket, but what a bunch of nancies.

  56. Anyone considering the “vaccine” at any of doses 1 to 3 inclusive should watch this first. To think that the government is pushing this, not only on to adults but on to 12 -15 year old children and want to go even lower in age. How did so many evil, uncaring and/or disinterested politicians come together, worldwide, all at one time?

    What the experts, especially Dr Fleming, reveal is mind blowing and sinister beyond belief.

    Vaccines – Experts Speaking Out

  57. OMFG

    If this isn’t fake news hanging is far too good for all involved……..

    https://gab.com/Robert55/posts/107160835265335353

    Not so fake then………….

    “UK firm tried HIV drug on orphans

    This article is more than 17 years old

    GlaxoSmithKline embroiled in scandal in which babies and children were allegedly used as ‘laboratory animals’”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/apr/04/usa.highereducation
    Fauci up to his neck in AIDS research

    1. I knew nothing about that. Apparently there was a BBC film made about it.
      The Nürnberg code has clearly already been broken in a routine way, many times.

      1. The Nürnberg code is being broken in the U.K. right now and has been for the last 18 months or so.

        1. Yes, and it’s quite disturbing that most people don’t seem to realise it. They seem to think that if the government and doctors give it the OK and concentration camps aren’t involved, then it can’t be breaking the Nürnberg code.

          1. My local rag hinted that the govt was “leaning” towards making Vaxx passes compulsory for NHS workers. I hope they vote with their feet.

        1. It is heart-breaking. One of those things you wish you didn’t know. I’ve never been one for ethical investments, but if I had any big pharma shares, I wouldn’t be able to hold onto them.

    2. Early on in this lie fest i read the virus had microscopic parts of the Aids virus. Obviously looking at faster ways to kill us.

      1. Earlier I put up a video in which Dr Fleming mentions the AIDs segment and how that does not appear in any other coronavirus.

      1. The bridge is the Dundas Aqueduct designed by John Rennie. It carries the Kennet and Avon Canal across the River Avon.

        The water from the river was pumped to fill the canal with pumping stations at intervals along its course.

        As a boy I would cycle along the canal towpath from Widcombe to Limpley Stoke on my Palm Beach bicycle with its white-walled tyres.

          1. John Rennie was an exceptional Scottish engineer. He was influential in the design of lighthouses, advising the ‘Lighthouse Stephenson’s’ and designed bridges, warehouses and docks to boot.

            He also pioneered the use of iron in construction projects including bridges (London Bridge) and warehouse frames.

        2. I am always delighted that in the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, public structures were not only well built but very attractive to look it.

          Sadly, one can rarely say that today.

        3. It is named after Charles Dundas, the first chairman of the Kennet and Avon Canal Company. The aqueduct is 150 yards (137.2 m) long with three arches built of Bath Stone, with Doric pilasters, and balustrades at each end.
          …
          Dundas Aqueduct
          Designer John Rennie
          Construction start 1797
          Construction end 1801
          Opened 1805

          Rebuilt 1984 … but why was it rebuilt?

        4. A Triumph Palm Beach! I had one, given to me by my parents when I passed the Qualifying exams (11+). They obviously loved me very much*. It was maroon, with shiny chrome, a Dynohub and a “Comet” bell. I went for miles on that bike.

          *I didn’t think about it at the time.

          4. I took Common Entrance a couple of years after that.

            The exam papers then were about the same level as the “O” levels were fifteen years later.

          6. I only got a Raleigh for passing my 11+. I don’t think it was because my parents didn’t love me, I just think they were strapped for cash 🙂

          7. My parents were poor also, just not very, very poor. On the other hand, Raleigh bikes were promoted by the great Reg Harris, world professional sprint champion, so a good choice.

          8. The Palm Beach would be worth a few Bob today. It had straight handlebars in those days and predated the fixed wheel dropped handlebars which are now commonplace. Sturmer Archer 3 speed gears and dynamo lights.

            My wife inherited her mother’s 1952 Humber Ladies bicycle. We will probably restore it at some point. It has lockable forks and thankfully it came with the keys.

        5. I used to know that part of the world quite well. I was at prep school in Bath and I often stayed with friends at Limpley Stoke on exeat weekends. My father went to Monkton Combe School.

          Do you remember the film The Titchfield Thunderbolt which was filmed on the line from Bath to Limpley Stoke?

          1. Yup. I watched the film on Talking Pictures a year or so ago. Lots of fond memories.

            We would run cross country from the cinder track, now the site of Bath University, across to Beechen Cliffe.

      1. Thank you . It is a pity I had to use the zoom function on the iPhone. The magnification tends to distort the image giving it an ‘impressionist’ feel. I only used the zoom because I walked passed the Heron at a distance of 6 feet expecting it to fly away as they normally do and when it didn’t after a few more paces I tuned back and zoomed in to take the photo.

        1. Had that been me, the damned bird would have flown away just as I was about to click the shutter!

          1. A few weeks back I was watching a heron about to dive in for a fish as it did so and began to emerge I pressed the iPhone’s sodding off button rather than the photo button…Grrrrrr!

          2. A few weeks back I was watching a heron about to dive in for a fish as it did so and began to emerge I pressed the iPhone’s sodding off button rather than the photo button…Grrrrrr!

          3. Come to Trentham Gardens in Staffordshire. A heron has taken up more or less permanent residence on the dam from the lake down to the river. In passing you look up to check whether the heron is there. He usually is.

    4. Walking through the gardens at Wallington Hall several decades ago with the then girl friend, (now the DT,) a previously unnoticed heron suddenly took to the air from the reeds between the path and the stream about 6′ from where we were walking.
      You can imagine the effect on the DT!

    5. Love that old ‘hanser’ reminds me of my youth in Norfolk, Suffolk and working in Huntingdonshire (now defunct). I wrote this then:

      Morning Journey

      I think of many things before I go to sleep,
      I find that thoughts are better than counting silly sheep.
      Pale rain-washed sunshine over flat, reedy fenland
      Giving light and shade to the corn on every hand.

      The long, grey ribbon of the lonely fenland road,
      Weary now, from bearing all its years of load.
      A green, slime-capped post – a hanser perched atop
      Who sees me as I pass, though his fishing doesn’t stop.

      The road runs along by Vermuyden’s Dyke
      Twins in separation, at first glance much alike;
      Both wide and grey, the lifelines of the fen
      The surfaces disturbed by ripples now and then;

      Each has its traffic, both fast and slow
      Motor cars and tractors, pike swimming to and fro.

      Noted on the morning run to Peterborough from Wilburton in Autumn 1973

  59. If Biden scraps his corporation tax rise, so must we
    Soon the UK will be a high tax economy for business – think Sweden or Germany but with rubbish infra-structure

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/10/25/biden-scraps-corporation-tax-rise-must/

    The Bumbling Bonker will have produced no sort of Brexit at all if he sticks to the absurd N Ireland Protocol and we end up with as high a rate of Corporation tax as the EU. Wasn’t Brexit meant to allow us to become truly tax competitive? I cannot see how people think Johnson is intelligent – he seems to lack all practical common sense.

    BTL

    Why Johnson played the sycophantic buffoon to the His Preposterous Senility the POTUS is beyond my understanding because it has totally destroyed the little credibility he had with core Conservative voters.

    If, as they may well do, the EU insists that Ireland has to have a standard EU rate of Corporation Tax of 25% then the Emerald Isle’s deluded affection for the Satanic and Despotic EU will rapidly diminish when businesses pack their bags, leave Ireland and relocate in the UK.

    1. Silly! they only try to get credibility with Conservative voters before they become PM!
      See Rishi Sunak and his tough standing up to Marcus Rashford. Compare and contrast to his speech a couple of months ago advocating ditching the pound for a digital currency “because it would make it easier for the government to make direct payments to people.”

      1. But all bank transfers in whatever currency are digital already! As is the use of plastic cards, payment through the smartphone…

        1. I know you hate cash – notes and coins – Paul, but many of us do NOT wish digital money to be forced on us.

          1. Indeed, but my point is, nobody needs a NEW digital currency when the existing one is both physical as well as ethereal.

        2. They are not in a digital currency though.
          Sunak’s excuse is clearly specious, but it also unwittingly betrays an intention to implement the next step of the fully public WEF plan – universal basic income.

        3. Not the same as digital currency, Paul.

          The retail banks are planned to be phased out. Our individual accounts will be with the central bank(s), and access to our meagre resources will be governed by our social credit standing. Unless we resist, of course…

      2. Whereas he meant “because it would make it easier for the government to make direct payments to people control people’s access to their own money.”

    2. “think Sweden or Germany but with rubbish infra-structure” – and terrible productivity.

    5. IMHO I think that Johnson was a ‘sleeper’ within the Brexit camp. Popular through his act as, hail-fellow-well-met and the great untidy buffoon, he inveigled his way to the top of the Brexit cause. His ‘oven-ready’ plan certainly was a turkey and he stuffed the Brexit supporters. A fraud then, a greater fraud now as he acts out the role of PM in these very dangerous times.

  61. Funny thing, weather. Just went down to lock the church. 300 yards. Fine here- drizzling at the church…. Must be, er, global warming.

      2. We’ve had that here. Chucking it down up the garden and dry on the road on the other side of the house.

      3. I drove back from Shrewsbury one day and came across a line across the road where it was dry on one side and sheeting down on the other. The same thing happened with snow on the way back from Oswestry once. Clear demarcation of weather zones!

    2. It is the same in France. Village churches were never locked up – they used to be left open at all times for people to visit and in which to pray.

      Desecration, robbery and vandalism have put an end to that.

      1. Agreed. The church in Laure is unlocked in the mornings. And during daylight when the crèche is on display in Advent….

        1. Have you been back recently? I was near Conques for a day and a half before submitting to the flying cattle truck humiliation of Ryanair with the added penance of extortionate testing followed by house arrest.

          After the Auvergne, Conques and Fraisse-Cabardes seemed like another beautiful planet.
          Then I came back to Peckham – not allowed out bar testing.

          1. We shall never return to Laure. “Going back” is always a disappointment.

            We simply treasure 35 years of joy. And our chums there send us regular news and photographs.

          2. Never say never.
            Carcassonne and Trebes seem to have stopped expanding and the rest stays pretty much the same. Now there is no money left to build monstrosities I think they will return to self-reliance and ruralism as the unintended consequence of government set on persecuting its own people.
            Good might come of all this.
            And La Montagne Noire and Alaric will be there for a while.

          4. You’re absolutely right, Bill, I too have found that going back is always a bitter mistake.

          6. God help you in Peckham, these days, LIM, I used to stay there in the 60s while courting my first wife and then lived in Herne Hill and Streatham in the mid 70s but London is now another country and I won’t visit, unless it’s a life or death mission.

          7. I was brought up in Peckham when it was a hard area mainly poor white Irish, old London stock, and West Indians – so this was the 60s and 70s.
            I went to live in Paris for three years in the early 80s and when I came back it seemed to have transformed into an African area. They called it Little Lagos. I believe there were more Nigerians there than anywhere in the world outside Nigeria.
            It was still pretty tough, and that is the Peckham my kids grew up in. – strangely enough I quite like both eras. You need to keep your wits about you and be willing to fight, but if you are, you never have to as long as you do not deal drugs. Confidence keeps the robbers away.
            And TBH, the drug dealers policed the area more effectively than the police.

            Now it really has changed. The immigrants are cashing in on their right-to-buy and moving out, renting and selling to white families. Hipsters have moved in with their bicycles and top-knots and Montessouri schools. In some respects I preferred the Africans.
            Rye Lane is still full of Africans but Asian shopkeepers are cashing in on the new money, as are enterprising Afghans and Irakis. The Turks have always been there.
            So these people service the work-from-home start-up white population, and many more mixed families than before. There are great cafés, pubs and restaurants – some ridiculously overpriced – interesting second hand shops – also too expensive. Had you ever heard of vintage clothes?
            It is a strange area, but I rather like it. Still, as a 59 year-old copper and I rather long for more peace and quiet.
            I can’t afford the Counties so I would still rather be in Auvergne or Aude. The former is where I have bought a house and the latter where my mother’s family is from, and where I feel the strongest tie to the land.
            Personally I view the immigrant population as a sign that the West lost it’s self-confidence two generations ago, and has been capsising ever since.
            The real danger we face is from bankers, pharma and craven politicians.

          8. Good Tuesday Morning, LIM, happy to hear that you’ve survived Peckham and I 100% endorse your last line.

          3. Sex is contactless for the young these days, its all on line and virtual it seems. No fun at all. Not that I was there in the 60s either……

          4. I was – it was much the same! A lot of talk…. Though, come to think of it, my first son……{:¬))

          7. I bluddy was.

            Defending you, Plum, and others against the possibility of being nuked during the Cuba missile crisis and, even later in RAF Germany, servicing aircraft that were photographing and listening to the Russians and East German Stasi types.

            Don’t tell me I wasn’t there! I remember it well and it’s all in the book, Not A Bad Life.

          8. It is just a common saying, Tom, implying that living through the sixties was just one long LSD trip.

          9. I know that as well, Connors, I’m just railing against the glibness of what is, yes, a common saying.

          11. As reported in the January 14, 1909 edition of the Los Angeles Times, Mr. F. J. Humely was jailed for passing a forged check. While incarcerated and awaiting trial, he was sent two cakes—one with chocolate icing, one with white icing. Sheriff Hammel, who intercepted the package, thought the baked goods were unusually heavy and upon investigation found half of a 38-caliber revolver in each cake. Humely apparently planned to wait until only two guards were on duty and either threaten or kill one of them with the gun in order to get the set of keys. The cakes were sent by one of Humely’s friends, a Mr. R. E. Watson, and the pair had planned to sail to Mexico, where they hoped to make money in the opium trade. Humely was ultimately sentenced to seven years at Folsom prison.

          14. Should have put the gun in a fruit cake – the weight would have felt perfectly natural!

        1. Those broad pictures are taken with the “panorama” setting on my phone camera – this one is an Samsung A12 – which is not a particularly great phone and irritates me by its slowness but the camera seems ok.

  65. That’s me gone for the day. Have a nice evening, playing sensibly.

    A demain. Three hours in the morning on a webinar study day about Edward Seago.

          1. They are technically very difficult, however I still prefer the Victorian watercolourists. I grew up with them!

    3. Lucky you, Bill, I’ve got ‘n’ hours sitting in the car at Ipswich Horse Piddle, while Best Beloved goes for her booster Jab. Silly girl, won’t be told.

      I’m only there because the blue spastic badge is in my name.

      1. That was so lovely thank you, and recorded in a church not far from where I lived until 21, got married, and moved to Maidstone.

  68. Cop26: ‘Delusional’ SNP council leader blames Margaret Thatcher for Glasgow’s rats and bins crisis

    Susan Aitken criticised after she claimed challenges facing the cityahead of climate summit were a ‘legacy’ of the former prime minister

    She has been well trained by Jimmy Krankie

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/defence/

        1. The poor SNP – struggling heroically against the combined forces of Thatcher, Trump and Brexit!

        2. Olga Krankie is a tribalist and more stupidly and stubbornly fixated than is imaginable.

      3. I know you’re not serious, but these days it’s hard to tell the difference between a joke and what some people intend seriously! Satire is dead.

        1. ‘Evening, Connors. No satire is not dead, it’s the concept that isn’t understood by the dozy ‘woke’ brigade.

          1. Perhaps satire is alive and well and hiding in Nottl, but in the mainstream it seems to have had its day.

  69. Evening all. Is anyone else fed up with children in adverts about climate change”? Just waiting for Only Connect to start and up comes an Smazon co funded I think it said advert. It really pees me off.

    1. I am also fed up with blimmin climate change and “carbon footprint” being mentioned in conjunction with EVERYTHING!

    2. The kid who says, “I’m only six, what are you going to do…”etc? Yep, only six means you know nowt!

      2. But, Sue, he is well versed in the Green Covid Monster that is currently scaring the sh*ts out of him.

    3. It’s the Greta Effect. At least, that’s what The Blob hopes it is. Unfortunately for them, most sensible people are totally turned off by it.

  71. Evening, all. Those who advocate stricter measures have not so much ignored the lessons of lockdown as wilfully turned their back on them. Incidentally, I am somewhat later appearing than I intended; after happily browsing for about half an hour, I suddenly got locked out of the Internet and couldn’t get any pages at all. I tried restarting the router, but it was telling me I had Internet access anyway, and I checked that Firefox had access – still nothing. In the end, I had to restart the computer and lo! Here I am. There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio …

    1. Hello Conway, a question for you, do you have any experience using Rose Madder in paintings of the garden or landscapes?

      I haven’t used it before, thought it might be a good idea for the colour of michaelmas daisies, but as far as I can see, it has just made my painting look flat.

        1. There must be a trick to it, but I haven’t got it. Maybe some flecks of yellow in the leaves and either blue or red shadows in the flowers.

          1. May I suggest a more earthy red for use in shadows, such as perhaps Indian red (bluish) or Venetian red (warm terracotta)…?

          2. I will try something along those lines. I wonder if even burnt sienna in small amounts might work.

      2. ”
        While Titian was mixing Rose Madder
        His model reclined on a ladder.
        The position to Titian
        Suggested coition,
        So he ran up the ladder an’ ‘ad ‘er.

        2. Sorry, King Stephen

          I posted this before seeing your post. But at least I hid it behind a spoiler

        3. My rugby playing BIL recited that to me when I was about 14. i didn’t get it as I didn’t know what Rose Madder was…

      3. I did some painting on Sunday . Got through 10 litres of Supermatt white. I calculate I need another 45 litres and that’s just the ceilings. Now I know how Michelangelo must have felt!

        1. I did some floor painting on Sunday morning, four coats on a floor that is about 160 feet by 60 feet in a very plain matt white. At least we had the equivalent of a six foot brush.

          Yes it is that time of year again, away with the golf clubs and out with the curling broom.

      4. I did some painting on Sunday . Got through 10 litres of Supermatt white. I calculate I need another 45 litres and that’s just the ceilings. Now I know how Michelangelo must have felt!

      5. Rose madder is very translucent. (Some suppliers grade the transparency index).
        Hence it is very delicate to use & easily obliterated by a colour with greater opacity.
        I find I use it on its own for very special areas that need to be light& transparent.
        I sometimes mix it with just a little brown madder or a transparent yellow (eg gamboge, old one)…but nothing much else.
        White ruins its glow.
        It goes well with cobalt green adjacent, which is also high in transparency.

        1. Thank you Rose, that is very interesting. Mine is Rowney Georgian, and I think it is a fake one.
          “White ruins its glow” – yes, that’s my problem exactly. It looks flat and dull.
          I’ll be a lot more wary next time I use it.

          1. Quite likely, as true rose madder falls in the most expensive series!
            I remember they used to grade the series 1-5, with 5 the most expensive…ie rose madder.
            I saved up to buy a half pan at school, & used it sparingly!
            I still have the nearly empty half pan….

          2. Do you know if all whites have the same effect? I was using zinc white. Would titanium white be more translucent?

          3. I think the zinc has more transparency.
            It doesn’t like white, period. (Forgive the Americanism!).
            A more opaque blue-red pigment would work with white.

          5. Goodnight (I’m in my bath!).
            I have a painting of a rose using rose madder…I’ll see if I can get it on here, tomorrow.

          6. Oh yes, I would love to see it. I used some of the fake rose madder to try and get a pink rose in another painting, with more success – probably because I used less white, and did actually use the white canvas below.

          7. Quinacridone is a cool pink that is robust enough for mixing…& gives vibrant clear colours, (although also can be blended in, with white or others…)

      6. If I may, what colour Michaelmas daisies? Rose Madder does not strike me as a colour I would use for either the pink or purplish Daisies. And, as Rose agrees with me, Rose Madder is a fugitive colour, which means it fades. However you can arrest that by putting your painting behind UV glass.

        1. Funnily enough, when I entered “rose madder” in DuckDuckGo, the first image that came up was exactly the michaelmas daisies I was painting! They are the bright coloured ones. It’s not an exact match, but it’s brighter than anything one can mix oneself. They were just a small part of the garden that I was painting, so it’s more important that they blend into the painting rather than are an exact colour match to the flowers.

          1. Curiously I purchased 2,1/2 litres of paint “Heritage Rose” for one wall in the Dining Room which appears to be very similar to ‘Rose Madder’

            PS I admire your’s, Rose’s and Jonathan’s knowledge when it comes to painting.

          2. We’re all still learning, and I am sure all the artists on here would say the same thing!
            I was at art school thirty years ago, and every painting I have done since was a learning experience. It’s only this year that I feel I’ve reached a level of competence where I can start to market my work. But nobody is interested in older artists – many exhibitions and awards specifically exclude them. The world belongs to people with the confidence to go out and conquer it when they are twenty-one.
            Ironically, I’m more productive now than I have ever been in my life. Late developer!

          3. Then I would use it but bear in mind that it is a fugitive colour and will fade. My tendency is to mix colours and add white to modulate the hue and use more or less water until I get it right. I tend to avoid fugitive colours for the reason Rose and I already discussed.

          4. It is actually a fake rose madder, so won’t fade. As Rose said, the real thing is far too expensive!
            I am going to try and rescue the painting (it is oil) by adding a small amount of the pigment and a burnt sienna shadow on top of the parts where I mixed it with white.
            I used to think that painting involved
            Look
            Sketch
            Paint

            but now I realise that it is
            Look
            Sketch
            Paint
            Rescue painting.
            (the last step being most of the effort!)

          1. Noted. They are the most wretchedly bright and unnatural colour! I only bought them because I thought they were the traditional pale coloured ones, and they are now well established in my garden.

      7. Apologies to King Stephen. This is certainly not for Bill T but please don’t open the spoiler if you are easily shocked:

        While Titian was mixing Rose Madder
        His model was posed on a ladder
        “Your position,” said Titian,
        “Inspires coition.”
        So he nipped up the ladder and ‘ad ‘er.

    2. That, Conway, is something that I learnt a long time ago. Always turn off and start again. It is something I have to do quite often with this computer I’m using at the moment. It’s the first and last Lenovo I will ever buy. My other computer is a Dell and I never have trouble with that one.

          2. Mine is only 2 years old which is why I’m disenchanted with Lenovo. It seems to have had problems from the start.

          3. My son bought it – he removed Windows and installed Linux. It’s getting a bit out of date now, but there’s a lot on it.

      4. The correct IT terminology is:

        Select the onoff switch to off, count to ten, then select the switch to on

  72. For those who may have some loose change down the back of the sofa you can buy one Bitcoin today for a mere £46,614 – absolute bargain…

  74. I’ve a run through to the former RAF/USAAF base at North Witham to pick up some jerry cans and a small generator tomorrow, so I’m off to bed now.
    The church at neighbouring Colsterworth has some interesting gargoyles, the first one is pointing his arse towards the vicarage after a dispute between the mason and the vicar!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5d1e33435faae9ad6574417e86eab6e2f47b410aa65f514cc4b83a627e35d91f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2fb5c7efaf084b34dd84c403a7888e526d8f60e14efdb68982b9c7d1d2c2ee96.jpg

    1. France’s flagrant refusal to obey the law should get them kicked out of the EU. It seems that it is impossible now for any country to make any deals about anything with France because their politicians are mendacious, dishonourable and mendacious.

    2. Given that French and Dutch mega trawlers are gifted free rein by Fataturk to emptying our waters of fish at an alarming rate whilst destroying sea bed life at the same time I remain totally confused by the French complaints.

      I suppose the greedy bastards want to raid our inland fisheries as well. Macron is of course an evil globalist Freemasonic banker. Put in position by the elites for a purpose, having suddenly appeared from nowhere.

    3. Given that French and Dutch mega trawlers are gifted free rein by Fataturk to emptying our waters of fish at an alarming rate whilst destroying sea bed life at the same time I remain totally confused by the French complaints.

      I suppose the greedy bastards want to raid our inland fisheries as well. Macron is of course an evil globalist Freemasonic banker. Put in position by the elites for a purpose, having suddenly appeared from nowhere.

      1. Hi Sue. Yes there was an appointment that turned into a phone call instead. Which was a bit annoying because it was urology who were supposed to deal with this catheter I have with which I’m having difficulties. As if, in some sort of revenge, it became blocked in the evening yet again, this is now the third time. Finally, a district nurse came out and dealt with it. So not as bad as last time when I had to go to the Royal Surrey and stay there overnight. But basically I have been up since 3 this morning so not a terribly happy camper with Urology which I was looking forward to seeing yesterday and getting some sort of resolution. Instead they are mailing me an appointment which will be within 6 weeks. Uuuurgghhhh!!!

    1. I read that as “Good night, my NoTTLing friends and Goddesses”
      It is too early, I need coffee to start the day – but I prefer my version 🙂

  78. European judges could have role in resolving Northern Ireland disputes
    Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, does not completely rule out possibility of European Court of Justice involvement in province.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/10/25/european-judges-could-have-role-resolving-northern-ireland-disputes/

    Yet another betrayal, yet another surrender on the way?

    I cannot understand why any Briton with any self-respect has not become an anarchist who refuses to pay any taxes or obey any rules.

    Maybe the insulating idiots have the right idea. Ignore the laws and ignore the anarchic chaos that will follow?

  80. Talking with my American Christian friends and families. I have to report that they and I are more concerned about the potential effects of volcanic eruptions on the climate than any of the simplistic posturing of Fataturk and the stuffed shirts from Schwab’s Davos, The Gates Foundation, Rockerfeller and their Masonic brotherhood.

    The wrath of God might yet be visited on these globalist clowns. Probably a good idea to vacate California and head for higher ground.

    1. Yes, the reports from La Palma the last 2 days are of some concern.

      I have long thought the Earth herself will correct her core temperature as she needs to & sees fit. She always has done.
      It is interesting that at the height of the dinasaurs domination of the earth, there were substantial volcanoes that devastated the atmosphere, and annihilated or helped to annihilate many of them : a second phase of their habitation of the planet ensued afterwards, with diminished numbers and some different species.

      1. The Bible predicts such events. I lapsed for forty years but reconciled myself with my Christian teaching and upbringing a year or so ago.

        I re-read a copy of C S Lewis‘ ‘Mere Christianity’ and other vital texts (during lockdowns) and rediscovered my faith. I believe the faux pandemic caused me to reassess and reaffirm my life and beliefs.

        Out of every horror inflicted upon us there is always a route to freedom.

        1. Try “Surprised by Joy”. The title alludes to a Wordsworth poem.

          Surprised by joy-impatient as the wind
          I turned to share the transport- oh with whom
          But thee, deep buried in a silent tomb,
          The spot which no vicissitude can find?
          Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind-
          But how could I forget thee…..& etc

        2. I also re-read C.S.Lewis during the first lockdown.
          I was brought up by an agnostic/atheist mother, who had rejected her Christian upbringing….however I discovered my heritage and my faith for myself, living alone in Oxford.
          I was voluntarily Christened in a church outside Oxford in my early 20s.
          It has been a deep well for me, and now more important than ever.

          1. Same here – agnostic / atheist parents. My parents made mistakes that they would have avoided had they had a sound Christian faith. This convinced me of the need to find out more about Christianity. Of course, I just made different mistakes!

          2. I’ve always had a slightly difficult relationship with the modern Church though…the Christian faith that I discovered was through the old prayer books & writings…the church where I was baptised was very traditional – Prince Charlie (later King) had been hidden there during the civil war!
            I would say my mother made those sort of mistakes you describe, really got into a tangle emotionally because of it.
            My father however, was a gentle quiet feeling man, an engineer, but brought up as a devout Methodist in Yorkshire.
            I honestly think he retained his faith, in how he lived, if not in overt words.
            He used to whistle & sing some of the beautiful Methodist hymns, all his life, when he was working at home.
            He practised Christian principles, especially forgiveness & compassion.
            So it taught me that this is what matters, – not what people say or how often they go to Church.

          3. I also have Yorkshire Methodists on my mother’s side. Family tree is full of names like Briggs, Hardaker and Croft, plus a couple of Flemish ones thrown in, which I assume were weavers.
            With that and being arty – we must be distantly related!

    2. End of the World?

      As far as the MSM is concerned there is a race to headline the worst news to gain market readership.
      The rise in social media on the internet and the evolution of the shorter human attention span means that we are easily attracted into believing the imminent arrival of a doomsday event.

      Volcano monitoring reflects on how data can be presented in such a fashion as to grip the popluation with fear of a forthcoming apocalypse that is entirely beyond control of human kind.

      The fact that these events are completely beyond the control of humans is forgotten when we are engaged in activities that we do have control over like major population reduction arising from world wars:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/47779a10e363c9e04a46215dac29598394bfeee1cc347d433e35fdc4123dced2.jpg

      https://volcano.si.edu/faq/index.cfm?question=historicalactivity

  81. Body Clock bent out of shape…………….Check
    Drinking Bloody Marys at 3AM……………Check
    Wiping eye with Cayenne on finger……..ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

    1. Rik, that sounds most alarming. Hope you are sleeping the sleep of the innocent now at any rate.

Comments are closed.