Monday 28 September: Scrutiny of bad coronavirus laws now comes from Conservative MPs, not the Opposition

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/09/27/letters-scrutiny-bad-coronavirus-laws-now-comes-conservative/

814 thoughts on “Monday 28 September: Scrutiny of bad coronavirus laws now comes from Conservative MPs, not the Opposition”

        1. I used to think that PDQ was Latin for getting something done promptly. I only found out about 10 years ago that it means Pretty Damned Quick.

  3. 34958+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    “Scrutiny of bad coranvirus laws now comes from con. MPs and not the opposition”
    ” The opposition” ? it is a coalition acting out a farce that is running longer than the mousetrap.

  6. SIR – One must protest when organisations that exist to protect our heritage begin to tear it down.

    Britain’s history does not belong to the National Trust (Letters, September 26): it is a custodian, entrusted with preserving the past, and has no right to rewrite or destroy it.

    I call upon it to stop this pathetic virtue signalling – and instead to set an example, for all to follow, that through the knowledge of history we can learn how to live better in the future.

    Louis Pell-Walpole
    London SW1

    1. SIR – In its “curatorial narrative”, the National Trust has failed to strike a balance. It has overlooked properties connected to the fight to abolish slavery, while making tendentious connections to colonialism at others.

      Godolphin House, for example, was built on the proceeds of Godolphin Hill, the richest tin mine in Cornwall. It is ridiculous to imply that the house benefited from colonial wealth acquired by a brother of the Godolphin who actually owned it.

      At St Michael’s Mount, on the other hand, the portraits of two MPs, by Reynolds and Gainsborough, smile at each other across the Blue Drawing Room. They were both “Saints” – MPs who worked alongside Wilberforce and voted to end the slave trade.

      There must be others in the National Trust pantheon who played a far more significant role in abolishing slavery – brave naval officers, enlightened clergy and powerful judges. Their stories are also relevant.

      Nick St Aubyn
      Dunsfold, Surrey

      1. Relevant to what, Mr St Aubyn? You do know that the goal is to demonise the British Empire, so that Britons won’t say anything against the new Chinese Empire?

      2. Don’t forget the ships crews who also fought slavery, at a rather educed level of comfort over the high hied’yins. Yer average Matelot did a lot of dying for the cause.

        1. Around 17,000 sailors of the Preventive Squadron died during the 60 years our patrols blockaded the slave trade routes.

      3. More anti-NT letters, good. Now then, I wonder how that referral by the Culture Sec to the Charity Commission is going…silly me, probably just more empty words? Do hope I’m wrong.

  7. No 10 told Charles Moore appointment could put BBC’s independence at risk

    Corporation veterans issue their warnings after reports former Telegraph editor in line to be next chairman

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/sep/27/no-10-told-charles-moore-appointment-could-put-bbcs-independence-at-risk

    It would be deeply concerning if BBC veterans were not frothing at the mouth. The whole point of the exercise is to make the BBC independent of the tiny minded Graun readership in the metropolis.

  9. I’ll be watching my television carefully…to make sure it doesn’t turn itself on

    THE ONLY WAY IS SUSSEX Prince Harry and Meghan Markle agree to film Netflix reality series despite ‘media intrusion’ moan
    EXCLUSIVE
    Clemmie MoodieMatt Wilkinson
    27 Sep 2020, 22:30Updated: 27 Sep 2020, 22:31

    PRINCE Harry and Meghan have agreed to be filmed for a fly-on-the-wall reality series.

    It had been thought that a £112million Netflix deal would have them work only behind the camera — but a source said Meghan wants the world to see the “real her”.
    *
    *
    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12784896/prince-harry-meghan-markle-netflix-reality-series/

  10. ‘Morning All

    The home-working revolution will derail the middle-class gravy train

    Complacent office workers don’t realise that their jobs can now be done by anyone, anywhere in the world

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/22/home-working-revolution-will-derail-middle-class-gravy-train/
    Once again, finally the DT catches up with NoTTL
    Now tell me again about uni students only getting video lectures……………
    And as for younger schoolkids with Zoom,Youtube etc it looks like we can dispense with at least 80% of teachers………..
    Well done unions

    1. There are already virtual universities. The trend will increase. It means you can attend lectures by top lecturers in their field without the inconvenience of time or location. You just have to pay. What’s not to like?

      1. As one of the young women interviewed on the radio this morning pointed out, her course is supposed to include a lot of laboratory work – real hands on stuff using equipment provided by the university which she cannot now access. It’s not all about lectures, or reading.

        1. Yes, I know – In the same way that we cannot all work at home, especially those with jobs such as Firstborn’s, a motor technician.
          But many can, especially those who have a lecture-and-essay type course.

        2. Additionally, courses can be held over the web except for, say, a week residential for the practical aspects, or, like Firstborn who took an OU degree in Design with Engineering, the practical parts of which were done by modelling (12″ scale, or whatever) at home, with photography or video to show the class and the tutor. Seemed to work well. Computer 3D modelling also included, with animations.

          1. I know several people who have done OU degrees with residential courses and they were excellent. For some subjects distance is no object.

            Since computers are used for a lot of design work then I can that learning on a computer can be a good practical alternative…

            But medics spend a whole year dissecting a cadaver and (as many senior medics have pointed out) there is no substitute for actually handling a body, although many things can be learned via text, screen etc.

            We worked with some very nasty reagents which we could never have accessed anywhere outside a supervised lab as well has having access to lots of expensive equipment and bits of cadavers of various sorts (as well as a lot of rather more easily accessible plant material). First two years we spent 8 to 10 hours a week in the lab…

            I think you may well be right that the trend for virtual learning will increase and that parts of even science courses may be able to be virtual – but I can’t see that it would be a good idea to remove things like dissection and hands on microscopy etc – and access for considerable periods of time to the facilities necessary for that work.

            The opthalmologists whom I saw this morning could never have become as skilled as they are without working on a lot of real eyes.

          2. During my training, we actually attended a post mortem.
            In that one session – out of three years – I learnt more anatomy and how things linked up than from any number of books and films.

          3. We were able to assist at post-mortems on several sheep (being Agri students) – cattle are rather too big to be moved around in the back of the anatomy lecturer’s estate car – and it really drives home the anatomy lectures.

            Later on if I was worried about a dead calf (reasons for) my vet would get out his big knife and open it up for me…

          4. I did too – my girlfriend at the time was a medical student getting some hands-on experience at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto in the late 70s. I was curious so she got me in.

            Once was enough.

  11. Create safe, legal routes for refugee families to reunite in UK, stars urge PM. 28 September 2020.

    Some of Britain’s biggest cultural stars, including Olivia Colman, Michaela Coel and Stephen Fry, are calling on the government to establish safe and legal routes for asylum seekers to reach the UK.

    Lineker told the Guardian: “There are children in the UK right now who have fled war and persecution and have no hope of seeing their parents or siblings again. We should be offering them support and compassion. A simple change to the rules could be transformational.”

    Ahhh! Isn’t that generous of the rich and there’s even caring compassionate Lineker. Does this mean that he is going to upgrade his offer to house a migrant Brain Surgeon to one with an extended family?

    All this of course is a form of madness. The coming Economic Storm will dwarf the Virus in its effects. The UK will be a land under siege from the forces of unemployment and social breakdown. Starvation is not an unreasonable outcome since most of the UK’s food comes from outside the country and must be purchased with hard cash!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/28/create-safe-legal-routes-for-refugee-families-to-reunite-in-uk-stars-urge-pm

    1. How do we know they are not those who actually caused war and persecution in their donor countries, aggressor families who send out ahead their young, fighting age sons to sound out future prospects, in order then to call over the extended families as soon as the family lawyers have cleared it with the authorities?

      Most of the BLM fascists are descendants of slave traders, who would happily start up business again where there are rich pickings.

    2. Good morning, Minty.

      Gary Lineker, compassionate?
      As he was when he left his first
      wife and children with one of his
      sons suffering a form of cancer.

        1. Their son was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia aged about 3 months. He had been given the all clear long before Mrs Lineker left her husband. She moved out, she petitioned for divorce, he didn’t “leave” anything.

    3. Any news on Lineker’s long-promised live-in migrant? Seems to have gone fairly quiet on that front – selection difficulties?

    5. 324058+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      So is it the lab/lib/con coalitions aim to have us
      beset by re-set, the common denominator being everybody is skint except of course the political fraternity.

      Double that with re-naming Downing Street
      kim philby road in honour of treachery and “their” agenda is as clear as day.

      One must surely ask will it alter the voting pattern in any way ?

    6. The likes of Stephen Fry should be made to watch videos of what they do to homosexuals. Then for us to hear him try and excuse their behaviour.

  12. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Let us hope that John Hampden had something to do with the slave trade!:

    SIR – The idea of renaming Downing Street (Leading Article, September 24) will find support among members of the John Hampden Society.

    No 10 stands on the site of the Hampdens’ London home, where John Hampden the patriot (an ancestor of both Sir Winston Churchill and the Duke of Cambridge) stayed when he was an active MP in the 1640s, and where his mother, Elizabeth, lived until her death in 1665.

    In 2000, our society launched a campaign to have Downing Street renamed Hampden Street, on the grounds that the official residence of Britain’s head of government should not bear the name of a despicable turncoat. However, this proposal was turned down at the time by both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Westminster City Council.

    Roy Bailey
    Chairman, The John Hampden Society
    Great Shefford, Berkshire

    1. “…. on the grounds that the official residence of Britain’s head of government should not bear the name of a despicable turncoat.”

      Don’t see why not. Since 1997, it’s been the official residence of so many despicable turncoats that its present name would seem highly appropriate.

      (‘Morning, BTW)

  13. ‘Morning again.

    SIR – I’ve used Uncle Ben’s excellent rice (Letters, September 25) for years.

    The other day I had to restock – but, due to the pathetic, virtue-signalling attitude of Mars Foods (the distributors of Uncle Ben’s), I bought Tilda rice instead. Cancelling works both ways.

    Steve Anderson
    Brentwood, Essex

    Good man. A case of ‘the empire strikes back’ perhaps?

      1. A good question from’ Uncle Roger’. How did she get the gig on BBC Food? With their Diversity agenda/cultural appropriation it should have been a Chinaman/woman.

        YouTube is brilliant for authentic recipes that haven’t been anglicized.

          1. To my mind Jamie Oliver is not a Chef. He doesn’t innovate he steals other peoples work and corrupts their inspiration to make it his own. He is a darling of the BBC, which explains a lot. They both have a similar mindset.

          2. He was a kitchen helper at the River Café when a film crew turned up. A gormless female producer was ‘charmed’ by his ‘cheeky chappy’ [i.e. gobby] persona so though he might be a good bet for his own programme. It was nothing to do with culinary expertise, just being in the right place at the right time.

            He has infuriated many Italians by mucking up their traditional recipes with his ‘take’ on them. He has never invented an original recipe of his own.

            He’s a twat.

          3. “He’s a twat.”

            So he may be, but the twat boasts the non-fiction sales award of all time!

          4. He fell on a manure heap, John, and came up smelling of roses. I’ve no problem with that but people are so dim and stupid to buy his books when much better recipes in far better books are produced by infinitely superior cooks than him.

            The halfwits buying his books are too gormless to know a recycled or messed abut recipe even if one jumped up and smacked them in the chops.

      2. When I boil rice it’s 1 to 1½ and I carefully let the water boil away so there is none of that straining the excess water off and WTF is this rinsing the rice after cooking crap???

        Fried rice is entirely my own style and bears no resemblance to the Chinese version.

        1. Rinse the rice in cold water a good number of times to remove excess starch, then drain.

          I also use around 1 part rice to to 1½ parts water. I bring the pan to a rolling boil and carefully watch it as the water evaporates and the rice swells. As soon as the little holes (that appear on the top surface of the rice) no longer have any bubbles emerging, removed the pan from the heat, place a secure lid on the pan and leave it undisturbed (no peeping) for a minimum of 15 minutes.

          During that 15 minutes the rice continues to steam to perfection and will reveal separate grains when fluffed with a fork. It is then ready for serving as boiled rice, or ready for the next stage if frying it. This is the way the Chinese cook their rice.

          1. I was looking for a recipe for coconut rice. It uses coconut milk which makes a change from plain boiled.

            After following your process which is the correct way to cook rice i then at the stage where you take it off the heat also add dessicated coconut.

            You can also make coconut rice pudding !

            Quite rich but a change is good sometimes.

          2. I might be tempted to add the desiccated coconut at the commencement of the boiling, that way the flavours would be released into the rice from the start. Let me know how you get on; it sounds interesting.

            Alternatively you could use a can of coconut milk, as the Jamaican’s do when they make rice and peas.

          3. I use 250 ml cartons from Sainsbury’s. It is actually coconut cream not milk.

            The dessicated coconut added when i suggested gives it enough time to soften to the same consistency as the rice. So there is still a little bite to it.

            It was very nice but also very rich. Sometimes plain boiled acts better as a foil to the rest of the dish.

            I will try it as a rice pudding next time because that is a dish which is supposed to be rich. Unlike Indian peasant food.

  14. You utter utter wankers,just when you thought you couldn’t despise them more…………
    “Parliament’s bars are NOT subject to 10pm curfew and MPs don’t have to give their contact details to get a drink
    Bars inside Parliament are exempt from the Government’s new 10pm curfew
    Facilities serving inside Palace of Westminster are as a ‘workplace canteen’
    Comes after a curfew was imposed on on pubs, bars and restaurants in England”
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8779373/Parliaments-bars-NOT-subject-10pm-curfew.html

    “We’re all in it together”
    Aye Right…………………..

  15. Their journey

    spanned five countries and almost 3,000 miles but ended with the Border

    Force having to rescue them from a flimsy dinghy in the English

    Channel.

    Now, having been placed

    in one of Britain’s first migrant camps, the four Sudanese asylum

    seekers say: ‘We wish we had stayed in France.’

    They

    had been held at a taxpayer-funded hotel but were moved last week to a

    former Army barracks in Folkestone, Kent, now being used to house

    migrants as their asylum claims are processed.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8778949/Migrant-journey-Sudan-ended-converted-Army-barracks.html
    Happy to oblige,here’s your ferry ticket,don’t let the door hit you on the arse on your way out

    1. Interesting that these ‘poor and desperate’ people don’t find accommodation regarded as suitable for our Forces acceptable to them. How long before one of them discovers a box of matches?

    2. Would have been better if we followed isolation a la Australia. We have many unihabited islands where a bit of barbed wire and their innate inability to swim would keep them safe, until either asylum was approved or they were deported. St Kilda springs to mind.

      1. Norway did that a few years ago. Many paid their own tickets to go home, indicating that home wasn’t the oppressive place they had claimed.

    1. Actually, if she were doing her job, Ms Patel would asking for an investigation into police brutality at the two anti-lockdown demonstrations.

      2. 324058+ up ticks,
        Morning HP,
        Actually the way things are shaping she is doing the job she is employed to do, seen by decent peoples as a very sad state of affairs.

    2. Nice to see the police are “looking after” us. I feel the least we could do is to reciprocate and “look after” them in a similar fashion.

  19. “Sir — What has happened to the art of conversation? Instead of picking up the telephone and having a chat, most people now send even personal messages by email or use social media platforms such as Twitter.

    We are at risk of losing our ability to speak if this habit is not reversed.”

    Ron Kirby
    Dorchester, Dorset

    You must have taken your eye off the ball, Ronnie lad. No sooner was Rudyard Kipling in his grave than grunting started to replace conversation as the preferred medium of communication. In fact grunting became so popular that it has spread around the world and is now the gold standard.

          5. When working in Italy years ago my Italian colleagues found I came from Glasgow. Having left there when I was 14 I didn’t have a strong accent, but they asked me to demonstrate a Glasgow accent. I felt quite proud at getting several Italians to say while pointing to the sky “Er an airy oar er” which translates to “There is an aeroplane over there.”

          6. Ah’d be be”ah in hospitoo.

            Which is a prime example of standard dialogue in the street, films and television these days!

          7. Though in films and on telly, you might well not be able to hear the words because the actors hams mumble

          8. One of the reasons we rarely went to the cinema long before the Black Death struck.
            The sound is turned up so high, all conversation was distorted. Even worse for MB with his hearing aids.

          9. One of the last films I saw in the cinema was All the President’s Men. I had very little idea what was going on (until I read it up in the papers) because the dialogue was inaudible – muffled and mumbled.

          10. I hate that situation. Sometimes applies in theatres too. Is it to overcome the chatter on mobile phones?

          11. I heard of a chap who got Hearing AIDS from tuning in to the BBC too often, Anne. Seems you can get it from listening to arseholes.

          13. Mary had a little lamb,
            She couldnae stop it gruntin’
            She took it round behind the fold,
            And kicked its little heid in.

          14. Mary had a little lamb,
            She tied it to a pylon.
            Ten thousand volts shot up its ar5e
            And turned its wool to nylon.

          16. Mary had a little lamb
            She kept it in a bucket
            Every time the lamb jumped out
            the bulldog tried to put it back in again

          17. Mary had a little bike
            She rode it on the grass
            Every time the wheel went round
            the spokes went up her skirt

          18. Blimey. Have I time travelled back to my school days?
            Those dim and distant times when we were allowed to laugh and snitching on people was the eighth deadly sin?

          19. It’s gruntinG, Sue. Oo do you fink you is – Priti Patel? (Sorry, folks, spell-checker has changed what I typed from grunting WITHOUT the final g followed immediately by a bold capital G. Which kind of spoils the joke.)

  21. SIR – You report that students are seeking assurances that they will not be subject to draconian measures when they arrive on campus.

    In 1939, my late father was a 20-year-old fresher at Cambridge and in 1940 he volunteered for training with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. By 1941, he was a pilot with Bomber Command flying ops over Germany, but in August he crashed in Holland. He and his crew survived, were captured and became prisoners of war, living on subsistence-level rations, supplemented by Red Cross parcels .

    In February 1945, he was part of the enforced “Long March” during one of the coldest winters on record. Many of his colleagues succumbed, but he was lucky and, after being liberated by the Russians, returned safely to his family.

    He then resumed and completed his studies. He hardly ever spoke of his experiences, but he, and many like him, put in perspective the whingeing of the “snowflake” generation.

    Geoff Pringle
    Long Sutton, Somerset

    A crisp summary. {:^))

    1. Not a comparison at all. In a war you expect to fight, even die. You certainly accept discipline and hardship. You know this when you volunteer to serve. In a free country in peace time as a student you expect to live near a University, attend classes, study and spend a lot of free time with other students, go to bars and cafes, and dances. Trips to the seaside and visits home whenever desire. Students in Glasgow currently experience none of this. They are confined to their accommodation, no bars, no meeting others, and no lectures or tutoring. They are not allowed to go home. There are guards in place. For which barren confinement they are charged quite a lot of money.
      All by Government diktat. Moreover, we know it is unnecessary.

    2. The big difference between even the worst privations of WW2 and the coronavirus lockdown is that then, there was always your comrades and a common culture to see one through the worst times, to uphold morale. While folk are put in solitary confinement, or at best a sort of zombie apocalypse of masks and communal suspicion, far lesser trials prey on the mind.

    3. Well said, Geoff Pringle. Listening to the wailing and whining from our snowflake students anyone could be forgiven for thinking that they are being held in a Jap POW camp. It’s beyond pathetic.

  23. Late on parade and I’m not going to try & catch up with today’s comments, but I see that the MPs’ bar in Westminster is exempt from not only the 10pm shut down, but many of the other restrictions we have to put up with.
    Bloody arseholes!

    1. 324058+ up ticks,
      Morning Bob,
      Nine bars, ALL flying in the face of 19 restaurants / cafes which are firmly in the grip of the islamic ideology follows via the menu.
      ALL subsidised.

      1. Most of them are not there. There’s a limit of 50 persons in the debating chamber – including a couple of staff and they still have distant voting until that ends so most of them are working from their constituencies.

        On the other hand they have realised that a working canteen doesn’t need to serve booze and have now applied the 22:00 alcohol limit to the Palace of Westminster.

  24. Neighbours urged to call police on Covid self-isolation cheats. 28 September 2020.

    Neighbours are being encouraged by the Government to report Covid sufferers who are not self-isolating to the police, on the day it becomes an offence punishable with a fine of up to £10,000.

    Morning everyone. This speaks of desperation. A government without a clue! The next move will be to criminalise those who do not report any suspicious case. All this will leave us with a National Security State reliant on informers and repression.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/09/27/neighbours-urged-call-police-covid-self-isolation-cheats1/

  26. Good Moaning.
    Bizzy, bizzy, bizzy – that’s why I’m late on parade.
    You have no idea how time consuming it is to check out the neighbours; what with lurking behind net curtains, trying to fire up the government snitch line (well, we all know about governments and IT, don’t we?). And I haven’t even started on family and friends yet.
    Here are some helpful contact details:
    http://www.neighbourhoodnark.gov
    For friends and family, there is specially dedicated website:
    http://www.snitch/f&f.gov

  28. Breibart

    “London Police forcibly shut down an anti-lockdown

    protest in Trafalgar Square on Saturday, using their batons to beat

    protesters as they tried to disperse the demonstration, which the police

    claimed violated the UK’s coronavirus regulations.

    After two hours of peaceable assembly in which the protesters

    listened to speeches against the lockdown and chanted for freedom,

    police stormed into the crowds, pushing people to the ground and

    ultimately hitting some protesters over the head with batons.

    In a Breitbart London exclusive video, women and small children were

    seen fleeing from the violent clashes that ensued. Women were heard

    screaming, and men were seen with blood pouring from their heads.”

    Protesters were heard shouting, “Stop hitting people,” and telling the officers that they have blood on their hands.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/09/27/covid-police-state-cops-shut-down-peaceful-anti-lockdown-protest-london/
    Good video clips too
    I understand baton strikes to the head are completely illegal unless an officer feels his life is in imminent danger
    I await the prosecutions…………….(sarc)

    1. 324058+ up ticks,
      Morning Rik,
      Which brings into question the Dover potential troop influx campaign fleeing from a safe country to the UK is purely for housing & monetary rewards.

      In return a feeling of gratitude towards their benefactors and could very well be repaid with a bit of truncheon wielding & such, ( kapo’s).

  31. Daily Betrayal,a meaty extract,much more via link

    “Here’s another little scandal

    that has only made it into the ‘official’ MSM because the BC will

    broadcast a Panorama programme on this shambles. First see this:

    “Multiple public and

    private sector organisations are involved in NHS Test and Trace and most

    call handlers for non-complex cases have been recruited by Serco. The

    government has faced criticism for handing out to private companies

    multimillion-pound contracts to run parts of the scheme.” (link, paywalled)

    Yes, that is pretty bad – but this next bland statement doesn’t even raise an eyebrow – one wonders why!

    “Details of positive

    tests are now passed on to local authorities when the test-and-trace

    system has been unable to contact them.” (link, paywalled)

    We plainly cannot continue giving government

    and the Lockdown fanatics the benefit of doubt. It must be clear by now

    that this is about one thing only: controlling us, the peasants, which

    they so despise.”

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-betrayal-monday-28th-september-2020-day-43-of-post-covid-madness/

    2. Afternoon all. I received a text message yesterday urging me to sign up to the NHS test and track app and I thought, what about the GDPR that was supposed to protect my privacy? Where have they got the number from? Must have been my surgery.

      1. When I use my local dry cleaners, instead of asking for my name, they ask for my mobile number. The receipt they print off has my name on it and no, they don’t know me.

        3. So, at some point, you will have given them your name and your mobile number and their database is more easily searched by the latter than by the former.

          If I ring up to query an invoice for a client then it is more often than not the customer/vendor number that is requested… the name and farm name are the checking factors.

          It would be a little too easy to say that here in mid-Wales one farmer in two is called Jones (it’s not quite that many) but the local telephone directory has no fewer than 14 pages of Jones’s and many farm names are also repeated (I have worked at 4 different “Red House Farm” addresses within a 25 mile radius in the last 25 years) and I know from discussing mis-directed invoices that there is a “Red House” in almost all the parishes in Montgomeryshire. An individual number is much easier to find.

      2. I was surprised after being an in-patient at a private hospital to have calls, texts and emails from ambulance chasing lawyers. The hospital had obviously passed or sold on my private information. I expected better from them.

        Also for another condition needing physio where i went private i had a letter from the local NHS Physio department giving me an appointment to attend. The letter also said that they were the ones responsible for allocation of services in my area.

        I wrote back to them cancelling that appointment and demanding they tell me who had given them my personal details and details of my condition.

        No response.

      3. Afternoon, vw. You and Stig are correct. This is from an email I received yesterday:

        All individuals over the age of 16 who are registered with a GP in England and have provided an email address to the NHS are receiving this email. Some people will receive a text message instead, if an email address has not been provided.

        1. I really do not like this business – I am not going to sign up to this track and trace or test, whatever, I wonder how soon it will be mandatory? Tory rebels must pop their heads above the parapet and create one hell of a fuss about the measures being brought in by diktat. We the public can struggle against it all but in the end there’s nobody sticking up for the other, my, point of view.

        2. Thanks Geoff. I expect there’s something within GDPR that allows the passing on of people’s details should the PTB consider it necessary!

        3. Good evening Geoff
          As doctors are self employed and our phone numbers were supplied to them would that be a breach of GDPR as they are private enterprises.

          1. No. GDPR has a few funny quirks and doctors are not truly self-employed because they are contracted to the NHS. You would have a case if a private GP handed over data, but not an NHS GP. The patient data which an NHS GP holds belongs to the NHS, not to the GP, and the NHS can, therefore, use that data for any of its own functions.

            Spent nearly a week doing GDPR courses a couple of years ago.

  32. The Left-wing DT seems to be delighted that the New York Times has exposed President Trump’s tax returns, leaked illegally by a Democrat within the IRS.

    “Trump tax bombshell may lead voters to trust him less on the economy. For working and middle class people struggling through a pandemic the president’s tax write-offs might well be a turn-off”. This is about as misleading as it’s possible to get.

    Anyone who has ever operated a business knows that offsetting income is one of the primary reasons to be self-employed. Additionally, the NYT completely skips over the tens-of-millions in payroll taxes paid by the Trump organization and tens-of-millions in property and sales taxes paid by all of the various Trump properties.

    In the commercial real estate market it is common sense to offset income tax liabilities with a host of valid annual expenses, long-term capital depreciation and mortgage interest payments. With over 500 individual business entities within the Trump organization the ability to offset income in one asset with expenses in another is simply good accounting.

    Additionally, President Trump donates his $400,000 government salary back to the U.S. government. So to accuse President Trump of only paying $750 in income taxes totally ignores all the other donations and tax payments he makes.

    In practical terms no President before Trump has ever had his actual business portfolio so deeply connected to the success of the American economy. It doesn’t cost the American taxpayer a cent to have President Trump in office.

    2. Freddy Gray
      What have we actually learnt from Trump’s tax revelations?
      28 September 2020, 10:25am

      Is anyone really surprised that Donald Trump’s tax affairs are opaque? Or that he is not as rich as he claims? Is it really all that horrifying that he has for years claimed business losses in order to offset his significant income tax liability? Does it appal us that the Trump family used a Delaware-based consulting group to pay themselves?

      Of course not.

      The New York Times’s big Trump tax files splash yesterday is therefore something of a damp squib. It is well-timed — an election is fast-approaching and the story might give Biden a good attack line in the big TV debate on Tuesday night. The reportage is quite interesting, too, especially to those of us who take a sordid interest in how the richest among us can get away with paying so little to the government.

      But there is no smoking gun. Despite clearly exhaustive efforts, the Times investigative team has failed to uncover any illegality or clear wrongdoing. In fact, the sub-text of the story is a mounting frustration at the skill of Trump’s accountants in alleviating their man’s fiscal burden. The reporters seem particularly pained to note that a law passed under President Barack Obama enabled Trump to recoup more historic losses than he could otherwise have done.

      As a result, the paper is reduced to mocking Trump where they think it hurts him most — by pointing out that he’s not as rich or as ‘smart’ as he says he is. Most of his business empire runs at a loss — ha ha! That line of attack gives satisfaction to media people who now hate Trump for a living. But do voters really care?

      It’s arguable that such disclosures remind voters that the man in the White House is an if-not-fraudulent-at-least-somewhat-deceptive billionaire. Many voters would prefer a president with a more virtuous business past. That might be why Trump has been so reluctant to publish his tax returns. Then again, Mitt Romney never excited the electorate in the way Trump does. And Trump’s ability to elude the IRS without apparently breaking the law plays well with many Americans. I remember asking an American in 2016 if he didn’t think Trump was a bit of a gangster. ‘Oh yeah, but these guys in Washington are 25 cent gangsters,’ he replied. ‘Trump is the whole dollar!’

      The Trump tax saga is really just another example of the way in which the anti-Trump media defeats itself. If let’s say the New York Times and other organs had never mentioned Trump’s tax returns; or had not run earlier ‘bombshell’ weekend stories about his tax filings that promised a lot more than they delivered — then a big Trump story might now make more waves. As it is Trump can just call it ‘fake news’ and the cycle moves on. Maybe Joe Biden will stumble onto a zinger line on Tuesday about Trump either being a hopeless businessman or a crook or probably both. Otherwise, the story will just fade away.

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

      BTL:

      Jolly Radical • an hour ago • edited
      Joe Biden commented:

      “Listen up, pony soldiers! Folks are asking me if the Supreme Court is important. C’mon, man! Of course it is. The Supremes were the greatest Motown group of the 1960s – my era! – and possibly the best female vocalist trio of all time. And I speak as someone who has a lot of Bananarama stashed on Betamax. Everybody loves the Supremes. I used to catch Barack miming to ‘Baby Love,’ singing into a hairbrush in front of a mirror. Wearing one of Michelle’s evening gowns. Plus Michelle’s spare wig. What a leader. And now the Supremes have their own court! Wow! Is it a tennis court? If so, how does it work, because there’s three of them. Maybe one of them’s the umpire. I met one of them once. A vampire. Pale, tall, hooded eyes, drooling fangs. No, wait – that was Chuck Schumer. We were in special forces together, Chuck, Elvis and me. I flew a lettuce to Berlin and back. And remember, folks – The Supremes must have their day in court! I vote to acquit! Oh, and watch me in the debates tomorrow. Sharp as a button, folks. Sharp as a button.”

    3. Be nice if someone exposed the MSM’s tax offsetting and expenses claims against tax, as a comparison.

      1. And the BBC’s dodgy employment strategies. Don’t get me wrong, I avoided income tax for nearly 25 years, legally, who wouldn’t ?

    4. Didn’t Warren Buffett once point out that his secretary paid more tax than he did? The rich have always had a way to avoid taxes.

      Unfortunately Trump has cried fake news too many times for his denials to be accepted by any except his most faithful fans. Anyone on a pay as you earn tax basis will not like what they are being told.

      No cost to the taxpayer? What is the cost of his almost weekly jaunts to his golf courses? I would expect that the charge backs for security would far exceed the salary. Didn’t Trump castigated Obama for his occasional golf outings?

      His tax lawyers must be paid a lot otherwise they would be out advertising their prowess.

      1. There’s a funny thing about all that fake news though.

        Far more often than not it is fake and has been throught his initial campaign and his Presidency.

        It has been used delibeartely, consistently and viciously, by the Democrats and their MSM supports to try to undermine every aspect of everything Trump has tried to do.

        I start to think that America will deserve a Biden Administration and then watch as his wrecking crew do an even better job there than Blair did here.

        The really amusing thing will be when the immigrants pour into Canada and overwhelm Trudeau’s idiocratic welfare state too.

        It will be swiftly followed by Chinese Hegemony and Europe will go down the pan too, because there won’t be a huge cadre of people willing to fight for it as there was in 1914 and 1939.

  33. One newspaper headline suggests Covid-19 vaccine might take years. Well, of course it will. The beauty of contingency planning is that it might never happen. That would mean that the Government controls on our every movement will continue indefinitely. They are only just getting Into their stride. By next year they will be really good at it.

  34. I like the new header! Most up-to-date!
    Morning, all.
    Late today – cat needed a vet visit for a spiking – cat ‘flu jab or something. So, crisis too early in the morning when trying to stuff 10+ kg of annoyed moggy into his travelling box.

      1. No we haven’t been infiltrated by a hacker, VOM. It was an amusing reference to the gobbledy-gook words of some nutjob named Sunny Singh, that was quoted in the forum yesterday.

      1. 324058+ up ticks,
        12 bore anti drone batteries mounted on the roof of ALL public stress relief centres ( pubs) is the remedy.

  36. Morning all

    SIR – I’ve been disappointed in Labour throughout the pandemic. It has supported the coronavirus regulations at every turn without parliamentary scrutiny, instead choosing to wait for things to go badly so that the result can then be blamed on Boris Johnson.

    The opposition to government rule by decree (as exemplified by Sir Graham Brady’s amendment) is now coming from within the Conservative Party rather than from Labour.

    I urge Labour to stop focusing on winning the next general election and instead do its duty to the country.

    Isaac Adni

    London NW2

    1. Mr Adi
      You really don’t understand the thought process of the opposition Left.
      Far better to destroy the country to gain power than to do the job of scrutinising and questionning and getting the best available solutions to ongoing problems.
      When Socialists are the opposition, they are never HM’s loyal opposition.

    2. SIR – MPs must not have further powers to attempt to micromanage coronavirus regulations. No country can be administered by its legislature any more than by its judiciary (who should also keep out of it).

      Some MPs and an ex-Speaker, who should hide his head in shame in perpetuity, are indulging themselves in an orgy of what our American friends call “grandstanding”. They should stop behaving like spoilt children.

      John Pattinson

      London SW6

      SIR – Just when MPs are seeking to “bring back liberty” by parliamentary scrutiny of government Covid-19 restrictions, 63 per cent of the public indicate that they think the current restrictions do not go far enough.

      Is this a rare case (another being capital punishment) of the people needing protecting from themselves?

      Dr David Slawson

      Nairn

      SIR – The public is growing sceptical and restless about the lack of clarity in the tackling of Covid-19 after 198 changes in government rules this year.

      We are now well aware that science will continue to change in response to the swerves in the disease and experiences on mainland European.

      However it is imperative that the Government uses its common sense to plot its path, not just moveable science, and explains its reasoning to voters.

      Sadly, if Boris Johnson is not energetic and well enough to do this, he should appoint Michael Gove to do so in his place until he fully recovers his vitality and vigour.

      Andrew White

      New Alresford, Hampshire

      SIR – Under coronavirus restrictions, attendance in Parliament resembles a parish council meeting on a wet Wednesday night. The powers that be should relocate temporarily to one of the many conference centres in the country not currently being used.

      David Stephens

      Pickering, North Yorkshire

      SIR – There has been much discussion of the new intake of students being “imprisoned” in their halls of residence over Christmas.

      Advertisement

      ADVERTISING

      As a parent, I would not countenance abandoning my children to the care of inept university authorities at a critical time for their mental welfare. Unless the Government displays proportionality with its use of the law, then public defiance will render respect for our lawmakers largely obsolete.

      Al Matthews

      Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

      SIR – I too contacted my MP during lockdown (Letters, September 27), questioning some of the absurdities of regulation, such as being able to buy paint brushes but not paint. The response simply supported the Government’s actions, without explaining their logic.

      MPs are elected to be our representatives in Parliament, but rarely represent our problems if they conflict with party policy. They only appear accountable in the run-up to 
an election.

      Alan Belk

      Leatherhead, Surrey

      SIR – I think I’d like to go and live in Sweden.

      Patsie Goulding

      Reigate, Surrey

      1. It’s a great place, Patsie.

        Some people can hack it, enjoy the people and lifestyle. Others just fail and throw in the towel because they don’t fit in, then spend the rest of their lives whingeing about their own failings.

      2. Dear Patsie,

        I did. And, although I had initial misgivings I’m happy — right now — that I took the plunge. Common Sense is in short supply over here too, but currently we seem to have a tad more of it than is apparent in the UK.

        1. ‘……currently we seem to have a tad more of it than is apparent in the UK.’
          That would not be difficult right now!

          Good morning, Grizzly.

      3. Patsie should think it over very carefully before moving to Sweden. It’s not all ‘ABBA & Volvos’ there.

    3. Labour are in hog heaven.
      All their wildest dreams carried out without taking them having to take the flak.

  37. This man makes Superman look like a whimp. His courage is beyond mere words:

    Edgard Tupët-Thomé, hero of the Resistance and Free French fighter who won an MC – obituary

    He parachuted behind enemy lines and post D-Day played a significant role in facilitating the Allies’ rapid advance through France

    Edgard Tupët-Thomé, who has died aged 100, was one of the last surviving Companions of the French Order of Liberation and in June this year was awarded an honorary MBE for services to Britain during the Second World War, in which he also won an MC.

    Edgard Tupët was born on April 19 1920 in Bourg-la-Reine in the Hauts-de-Seine department of northern France, and grew up at Charleville-Mezieres in the Ardennes.

    As a young man he thought of becoming a monk, but, while studying at the Higher School of Theology in Reims, “the superior found me walking on my hands in the hallways. After two years, I realised that I had gone astray and that nothing interested me, except hunting and scouting.”

    In October 1938 he enlisted in the 8th Zouaves Regiment, an infantry unit, in which he subsequently took part, as a sergeant, in the fighting in Lorraine, and then in Belgium. There, in May and early June 1940, his unit protected members of the British Expeditionary Force as they embarked from the beaches of Dunkirk.

    On June 4, however, he was taken prisoner – though not for long: “The duty of a prisoner is to escape,” he recalled. “I reflected for a few days, and on June 10, Saint Edgard’s day, my feast day, I escaped.”

    He found a job in Clermont-Ferrand, where he came into contact with Roger Warin (code name Wybot) who, while working in counter-espionage for the Vichy regime, had established links with the Free French and was busy creating a resistance network.

    In March 1941 Warin established a direct link with General de Gaulle in London, through Pierre Fourcaud, one of the earliest Frenchmen to rally to the cause. The following month, Tupët, Warin and three others became the first secretly enlisted members of the Free French Forces.

    In August 1941 he crossed the border into Spain with two companions and travelled via Portugal and Gibraltar to England. There, under the pseudonym Edgard Thomé, he was assigned to de Gaulle’s private staff and underwent parachute training.

    On December 9 1941 he and a radio officer were parachuted back into France, landing near Châteauroux where, for six months, Tupët-Thomé was involved in Resistance activities. But injuries sustained during his parachute jump eventually forced him to leave for treatment in Britain, where he was promoted to lieutenant.

    After a few months convalescence he asked to be assigned to a combat unit, and in November 1942 he left England for the Commando Instructor Detachment of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, a French island territory off Canada controlled by the Free French.

    In August 1943 Tupët-Thomé joined the 4th Air Infantry Battalion (4th BIA), a Free French unit integrated into British forces and subsequently incorporated into the Special Air Service Brigade. In January 1944 he was transferred as second in command of the 2nd company of the 3rd BIA, which after D-Day became the 3rd Parachute Chasseur Regiment (3rd RCP) and went on to play a significant role in facilitating the Allies’ rapid advance through France.

    On August 5 1944 Tupët-Thomé parachuted into the Finistère department of Brittany where he led his section of 12 men to liberate the town of Daoulas, taking on a German force of 60, of whom he killed 12 and took 40 prisoner.

    He and his section went on to liberate the nearby town of Landerneau, a German stronghold, inflicting heavy losses on the garrison there.

    On August 27 he was dropped by parachute into the Jura, where he took Clerval (Franche-Comté) which, with 50 men, he defended against a German counter-attack, falling back yard by yard against a much stronger enemy but killing some 30 Germans and destroying a tank in the process.

    From September 11 he was attached to the 45th US Infantry Division. On September 15, assigned to a divisional reconnaissance group, he made a recce at Mancenans and Geney in Franche-Comté where, according to the citation for his MC, he killed “several scores of Germans”.

    On September 28 he made another dangerous recce in the Epinal area, bringing back valuable information about enemy formations.

    The citation to his MC, awarded in December, stated that Lt Thomé had “proved the highest military qualities”.

    Parachuted for a third time into the Netherlands on April 7 1945, he led his section of 15 men into further attacks on communication routes, inflicting serious losses on the enemy.

    After the war he was admitted to the École nationale de la France d’Outre-Mer and in January 1946 became an administrator in French Tunisia, where he later became a director of a wine co-operative.

    In 1950 he left Tunisia for Canada, where he had bought a farm. In 1955, however, he returned to France, and after training as an engineer joined the Singer Corporation in a pharmaceutical laboratory in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Subsequently he worked for the French motor vehicle manufacturer Panhard and later for a tourism agency.

    In retirement, Tupët-Thomé lived in Binic in the Côtes-d’Armor department of Brittany before becoming a resident at Les Invalides in Paris.

    In an interview he explained why he had been unable to accept defeat by Germany: “I didn’t hate the Germans, on the contrary, I spoke their language. But my uncle had told me: ‘You will one day be confronted with them, sooner or later.’ We had been in 1870 and in 1914. I had been prepared.”

    Appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of the Liberation in November 1945, Tupët-Thomé was awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion d’honneur in 2019.

    In June this year, during a visit to London by the French President Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that the last four members of the Order of the Liberation, Daniel Cordier, Pierre Simonet, Hubert Germain, and Edgard Tupët-Thomé, would be appointed honorary MBEs.

    He and his wife Geneviève, who died in 2018, had a son and a daughter.

    Edgard Tupët-Thomé, born April 19 1920, died September 9 2020

    1. Those who spent months – years if they were lucky – living in occupied countries were the bravest of the brave.
      That is not reacting to a few minutes’ burst of adrenaline; that is living on your nerves, watching every word and movement.
      Just think of a visit to a tetchy relative and then factor in unlimited time with a strong possibility of torture and death at the end of it.

    2. Gosh, a whole honorary MBE – pity he wasn’t a virtue signalling sportsman, he might have got something better!!

  38. As the wind is “gentle” – ie, not a gale – and it is MILD again – we ventured out to start cleaning up the garden.

    Pausing in my raking, I looked at the shrubbery and saw a slightly odd looking bush. Looked a bit, sort of, dead. Closer inspection revealed the “bush” to be the top canopy of a laburnum which had been blown over. So that took an hour to remove the easier branches – leaving the trunk for my man with his chain saw. That old God, moving in a mysterious way. The MR wanted the tree down, anyway!

  39. From the Tellygraff…the Stasi would be so proud!

    Neighbours urged to call police on Covid self-isolation cheats
    £10,000 fines introduced as Government faces rebellion by MPs over restriction legislation

    By
    Gordon Rayner,
    POLITICAL EDITOR

    Neighbours are being encouraged by the Government to report Covid sufferers who are not self-isolating to the police, on the day it becomes an offence punishable with a fine of up to £10,000.

    Police will also conduct spot checks in areas with high infection rates and in high-risk groups.

    The news comes amid concerns that people are becoming increasingly fatigued by lockdown measures and suggestions by Boris Johnson that the virus is spreading because people are not abiding by the rules.

    The new legal duty to self-isolate, which comes into force on Monday, covers anyone who has tested positive for coronavirus or has been contacted by NHS test and trace and told to stay at home.

    Like other coronavirus restrictions, it has not been subject to a vote in Parliament, and the Prime Minister has been warned that he faces “certain” defeat in Parliament this week if he refuses demands to give MPs more of a say.

    Up to 100 Tory MPs are now said to be ready to back a proposed amendment to the Coronavirus Act, tabled by Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, which would force ministers to give Parliament a vote on future measures.

    They believe the Government will back down if the Speaker selects the amendment for a vote, and party whips are said to have abandoned any attempt to bring the rebels into line.

    Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, wrote to all Tory MPs on Sunday explaining why the Coronavirus Act in its current form was needed, only to be accused of “missing the mark” by rebels who said the Government would be in a stronger position if future Covid measures had the backing of Parliament.

    The Government made it clear on Sunday night that it would act on tip-offs from third parties who have “identified others who have tested positive, but are not self-isolating”. Whitehall sources confirmed that police would be expected to investigate calls made to its 101 non-emergency number.

    Among the steps that will be taken to make sure that people are complying with the rules, the Government also cites “using police resources to check compliance in highest incidence areas and in high-risk groups, based on local intelligence” and “NHS test and trace call handlers increasing contact with those self-isolating”.

    Earlier this month, the Prime Minister was at odds with his own ministers after he said he was not a fan of “sneak culture”. That was after Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, said she would report her neighbours if she saw them breaking the “rule of six”.

    On Sunday, Ms Patel put people on notice that police will crack down hard on those who are reported for not self-isolating, saying: “These new fines are a clear sign that we will not allow those who break the rules to reverse the hard-won progress made by the law-abiding majority.”

    Her comments, and the Government’s insistence that it will act on public tip-offs, will be seen as a warning to police forces that they must enforce the new law, following rows with police chiefs who had indicated a reluctance to dedicate resources to crackdowns.

    That came after Mr Johnson said the Army could be brought in to help with the response, in what police chiefs saw as a direct challenge to their authority.

    People who fail to self-isolate can expect to be fined £1,000, rising to £10,000 for repeat offenders.

    Last week, a joint survey by King’s College London, University College London and Public Health England found that just one in 10 people contacted by NHS test and trace had stayed at home for the required 14 days.

    Mr Johnson laid the blame for the current increase in infection rates at the door of the public, saying it was “very difficult to ask the British population uniformly to obey guidelines in the way that is necessary”.

    If someone receives a positive test result, they are now required by law to self-isolate for 10 days after displaying symptoms or after the date of the test, if they did not have symptoms. Other members of their household must self-isolate for 14 days. People who are contacted by NHS test and trace and told to self-isolate are legally obliged to do so.

    Mr Hancock warned that if infections continued to rise “we will not hesitate to put in place further measures”.

    Tighter restrictions including a ban on households mixing indoors and the two-week closure of bars and restaurants could be imposed in the worst-hit areas as early as this week, it was claimed on Sunday night.

      1. In the main they wouldn’t. But I do remember that a few weeks ago a friend’s neighbours came back from a well publicised foreign holiday and treated the requirement for quarantine as a complete joke. My friend wasn’t particularly worried about it – but certainly knew enough to have reported it had she felt so inclined (she’d been feeding the cat while they were away).

        I had to isolate back in late March/early April and though I had no food problems I had to ask for help collecting a prescription (unrelated) because I wasn’t permitted to go to the dispensary. That sort of thing gives the game away.

    3. I don’t suppose that there might be small commission payment for reporting offenders, say £200 a time? (Asking for a neighbour.)

  40. Good morning, all. The gale has dropped – it is just very windy. And raining.

    Thanks to the NoTTLers who told me about the Bernard Haitink programme. A very interesting and moving film.

    He is typical of Dutchmen who lived through the, especially the ghastly last winter, after Market Garden failed and the Germans took retribution against the Dutch. They were only liberated on 5 May 1945 – three days before the Germans finally chucked in the sponge. Thousands of Dutch ded that winter. But they don’t hold it against us.

  42. Well, well, well

    NEW: PARLIAMENT U-TURNS ON ALCOHOL CURFEW EXEMPTION

    Parliamentary authorities have performed a swift u-turn after The Times discovered the palace was set to exempt itself from the new national restaurant and bar 10 pm curfew, on the basis it was being sold in “workplace canteens”, which across the country are exempt from the curfew. A UK Parliament spokesperson has now informed MPs that:

    “no outlet on the Parliamentary Estate will be selling alcohol after 10 pm, with immediate effect. This includes across the Commons and the Lords.”

    Food will continue to be exempt from the curfew if the Commons or Lords are sitting later than the 10 pm cut off…

      1. The Guinness canteen at Park Royal (Brewery long gone) used to have a keg of Guinness and another of Harp Lager in a corner of the canteen for employees to help themselves.

        3. Ah, the old days before US prudery got in the way of actually having some fun at work.
          Although alcohol & machinery always was a bad idea.

      2. When I worked at the haulage firm our guys used to get “lunch” between midnight and 02:00 at quite a number of factories if they were picking up a load during the night. Kelloggs at Wrexham was a favourite spot. The forklift drivers stopped as soon as the “dinner-gong” sounded and the presence of truck drivers was never questioned.

        Hospital canteens provide meals for staff in the middle of the night – no one can work a 13 hour night shift without a meal break (at least not for 3 or 4 nights in a row) though my mother said that she never learned to enjoy meals in the small hours of the morning.

        Not only MPs are in the Palace of Westminster if the house is sitting late – there are far more staff than there are politicians and they need to eat too.

        The question of selling alcohol is an entirely different matter, but food, yes, certainly if they are at work.

        1. When I first did night duties c. 197i, we had a canteen that provided hot food to order.
          A couple of years later, when I did my next stint, the canteen had been closed, and there was a coin operated machine in the staff room to provide plastic wrapped sandwiches, crisps, chocolate bars etc….

          1. Mum was doing night duties between 1952 and 1955. When she started they had to hand in their coupons but had a jar for their sugar which they had to carry around with them if they wanted to sweeten their tea! My aunt was training at the same time and my grandmother used to send her, from time to time, a pound of farm butter in the post – there was no fridge available so she and her friends would feast on buttered toast when it arrived – Mum still talks, with glee, of being able to spread butter “thick enough to see the toothmarks in it” – an unheard of treat for a lass reared in a tenement with no access to such home made goodies.

            A friend’s daughter works in ICU in one of the big Glasgow hospitals. They have hot meals – but (unlike the 1950s) they have to pay for them. She often takes a packed “lunch” in the summer but appreciates hot soup on a winter night.

        2. 24 ours working offshore. Breakfast/tea at 06:00 and 18:00, lunch/dinner at 12:00 / 00:00.
          Ice-cream all day; buns & coffee, too – at least, on the crane barges.

          1. A connection of the family is a chef on a rig – he says they get really good produce out there and he doesn’t seem to mind cooking on a shift system. But he’s looking for a shore job at present as they have a little one now and he doesn’t want to be away for 3 weeks at a time.

  43. Dozens dead as Armenia-Azerbaijan clashes continue. 28 September 2020.

    At least 24 people have died in clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as the latest violence in the decades-long territorial dispute sparked international calls to halt the fighting.

    Fighting that broke out on the weekend over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh continued on Monday morning, according to Reuters, with the deployment of heavy artillery on both sides.

    This will probably continue for a while. There seems little chance of it expanding since there are no serious geopolitical issues involved. This said it is still interesting to note that the driving factors here are ethnicity and religion. Anyone tells you these things don’t matter (like a neoliberal) just point to anywhere in the Middle East!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/28/dozens-dead-as-armenia-azerbaijan-clashes-continue

      1. “You boil twenty gentiles to get one Jew; you boil twenty Jews to get one Armenian.” (Purely environmental, of course.)

      3. It is confusing Belle and an explanation would be long and complicated. Fortunately Vlad shows no sign of interest so we may relax!

    2. Naturally Turkey is getting involved to support the Muslims in Azerbaijan. But Russia might get involved because it has a base in Armenia.

      Turkey’s Ministry of Defense said:

      “In the struggle to protect the territorial integrity, we will remain in the ranks with our brothers, the Azerbaijani Turks, to the end.”

      The Caliph Erdogan wrote on his Twitter page:

      “By carrying out another attack on Azerbaijan, Armenia reaffirmed that it is a great obstacle on the way to peace and stability. I call on the Armenian people to use their future against the government, which is pulling them into the abyss of disaster, and those who use them as puppets. At the same time, I call on the whole world to support Azerbaijan, which is fighting against despotism and injustice.”

      The greatest obstacle to peace and stability throughout the Middle East, especially in Libya and the Eastern Mediterranean, is the Muslim Brotherhood’s principal proponent, Erdogan himself!

      1. Erdogan did not say anything about ” the Armenians better watch it or we’ll treat them to another massacring”, did he?

  44. Good morning , yawn, the golfer was up before 7am scurrying around.

    Cloudy cold morning , no breeze.

    RESIDENTS have been warned to expect some disruption due to eight helicopters being involved in military training exercises in Dorset.

    Bovington Camp will host a military aviation exercise from Monday, September 28 until Friday, October 2.

    Up to eight helicopters, including Chinook, Merlin and Wildcat will operate daily between approximately midday and 1am the next day.

    In order to meet all training objectives the aircrew are required to achieve a number of night sorties, this will necessarily mean flying through to the early hours of the morning.

    A spokesman said: “Aircraft routing in and out of Bovington Camp has been planned to minimise disruption as far as possible and the continued support of the local community is very much appreciated during this essential training.”

    3. Nice photo.

      From my years in Yorkshire I recollect that gate-posts were favourite perching spots for Little owls.

    4. A little owl sat on an oak
      The more he sat the less he spoke
      The less he spoke the more he heard
      I wish more folk were like this bird.

  47. A further article, from the Tellygraff, on this country’s inability to organise a drinking session in a brewery:

    Deadline to fix ‘dumb’ energy meters put back until end of 2021

    Supporters of the £13.5 billion meter roll-out argue it will enable better management of demand for power and allow consumers to save money

    By Sam Meadows,
    CONSUMER AFFAIRS EDITOR
    28 September 2020 • 3:29am

    The deadline to fix millions of first-generation smart meters at risk of going “dumb” was quietly extended by a year, The Telegraph can disclose.

    More than 20 million smart meters have been installed in homes as part of the Government’s plan to modernise the energy grid and reduce power usage.

    However, an estimated 14 million are first-generation devices which often lose their smart functions when a customer switches supplier, meaning they do not display usage in real time or send readings automatically.

    The latest delay means that customers with meters which were supposed to be fixed or replaced by the end of the year could have to wait until the end of 2021 for an upgrade.

    A programme to connect the devices to a national network began in August last year and was supposed to conclude by this December. But this newspaper has learnt that in March the Government shifted this crucial deadline.

    A spokesman said that the four million meters currently operating in “dumb” mode are being prioritised to be fixed by the end of the year. Currently just over one million have been connected to the network but this still leaves millions more which are at risk if a customer changes energy supplier.

    Peter Earl, an energy expert at switching website comparethemarket.com, said: “Any further delays to the enrolment of those early generation meters to allow inter-operability between suppliers is obviously a bit of a debacle.

    “You have a whole tranche of customers that were expecting their smart functionality to return in a position where they will have to go through another winter not being able to switch with confidence.”

    He also questioned whether the Government’s target of enrolling the four million dumb meters by January was achievable given the progress so far.

    A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “The replacement of traditional gas and electricity meters with smart meters is a vital infrastructure upgrade that will make our energy system cheaper, cleaner and more efficient, helping to reduce our contribution to climate change.”

    The department said that the end of 2021 date was just a backstop and not a delivery target or ambition.

    The meters being installed on Monday are second generation, which are automatically inter-operable between suppliers. Supporters of the £13.5 billion meter roll-out argue that it will enable better management of demand for power and allow consumers to save money.

    Robert Cheesewright, of Smart Energy GB, which was set up to promote the roll-out, said: “We share the frustration felt by consumers who have first-generation smart meters operating in traditional mode.”

    The Data Communications Company, which operates the national network, said it was for the Government to comment on the changed deadline.

    Leading BTL:

    Kate Ellison
    28 Sep 2020 3:57AM
    “The replacement of traditional gas and electricity meters with smart meters is a vital infrastructure upgrade that will make our energy system cheaper, cleaner and more efficient, helping to reduce our contribution to climate change.”

    “Interesting that it doesnt mention the one feature they were actually designed for, to allow targetted reductions in supply.”

        1. Kate Ellison is actually being critical of smart meters. She has quoted the article and asked the question.

    2. “millions of first-generation smart meters at risk of going “dumb” ”
      The words struck something in my failing memory. ‘Algernon’ came into my head, then, ‘Flowers for Algernon’. Anyone who ever read that book will know what I mean.

      2. I remember that one from the late 50s, Mola. There was some great science fiction being written around that time.

    3. Ah, I read this just in time. I was about to post similar. Also I would ask, where is the evidence that smart meters will provide any of the stated benefits?
      Each of these claims can be individually challenged. Cheaper – not likely – with constant demand and lower production, prices will go up. Cleaner – my old fashioned meter is quite clean. More efficient – how? There is nothing efficient about wind turbines, compared to central generation close to users.
      Contribution to climate change? Climate change is cyclical and we have little effect. Moreover any effect that the we do have on it comes as much from use of energy as from generation.

      1. Well said, HP. And it seems to me quite preposterous that our relatively small island, which is said to put out just under 2% of world C02, could make any kind of difference by wasting vast sums of money in order to assuage our terrible guilt. It is simply bonkers – even assuming for a moment that carbon dioxide is the ogre it has been made out to be.

  48. At last, a Spanish practice with which I agree:

    “Madrid refuses new lockdown as city leader argues ‘people get run over every day, but that doesn’t mean we ban cars’ and Spain’s coronavirus hospitalisations hit 350 a day”

    2. Wee Willie Winkie rins through the toon,
      Up stairs an’ doon stairs in his nicht-gown,
      Tirlin’ at the window, crying at the lock,
      “Are the weans in their bed, for it’s now ten o’clock?”

  54. Good day, my friends

    Last week Caroline drew my attention to the Figaro article about this this tattooed man in France who is a schoolteacher who has been banned from teaching children under the age of six as a parent has complained that his appearance has given her child nightmares.

    I posted a link to the Figaro article but now you can read all about him in the Daily Telegraph:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/28/frenchman-says-tattoos-cost-kindergarten-teaching-job/

    Would you like someone who looks like this teaching your children and if not are you an intolerant and bigoted person who needs to go on a special course to modify the way you look at the world?

    1. It was interesting (in the Figaro piece) that the children didn’t seem to mind; and the main whinger was a slammer.

      1. I must admit that I am not a great admirer of tattoos and Caroline is even more repulsed by them. Are you and Carolyn more tolerant than we?

        1. No – we both loathe them – and cannot understand why, often very attractive people, ink themselves.

    1. Won’t they steam up? My mask makes my specs steam up, whether I push it under them or not. I lipread and find people are very muffled.

      1. Yes I would have thought so as well.

        My glasses steam up all the time when I am shopping and my mask makes me cough , it is one of those paper things .

          1. I was quite glad to wear my bog-standard face mask for the walk back to the car from the shop in the bitterly cold wind on Friday.

      2. I saw a clear visor with nose-clip supports like specs (but no lenses) in a local shop. They might be an alternative for you. I don’t know if they would still steam your specs up, but it might be worth investigating. If you can get them out here in the sticks, they are probably available on the ‘net or in places nearer civilisation 🙂

        1. I don’t really fancy wearing a clear visor either – they are good for people in shops who have to wear them all day, but I would think they’d steam up too. The one you describe sounds rather uncomfortable, if it is supported just by nose clips.
          Anyway, I’ve ordered a couple more cloth ones, printed withh my own photos – If I have to wear a face-nappy, at least it can be more stylish than those horrible blue and black ones.

          1. I think it had spectacle type ear supports as well, so maybe, if you use specs anyway, it wouldn’t have been suitable. I wear a bandanna and avoid going into shops if I can get away with it, to be honest.

  56. I think its time to stop using that dreadfull phrase -“Bringing Together”
    I don’t particularly want telling I have to “bring together” – all and sundry
    I prefer to decide who I want to be together with –

    1. The phrase I cannot abide is “The Special Relationship!” It gives me the raving collywobbles!

  57. Mike Pompeo due in Athens amid spiralling tensions between Greece and Turkey. 28 September 2020.

    Like others in the Greek officer class, the former V-Adm Vasilios Martzoukos believes in the power of military might. In a career punctuated by crises with Turkey, the threat of armed conflict reinforced his conviction, long ago, that “if you want peace, you prepare for war”.

    “It’s the strange thing about deterrence,” the retired admiral said. “The more you don’t want war, the more you have to appear ready for it.”

    Now this is dangerous! If Turkey and Greece go to war it will shatter NATO and destabilise the whole of Southern and Eastern Europe. Not least because Erdogan will release all his migrants! It is difficult times we are living in and history tells us that eventually something will snap!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/28/mike-pompeo-due-in-athens-amid-spiralling-tensions-between-greece-and-turkey

    1. Yep. I suggested this a few weeks ago. Oil is dangerous stuff, as is natural gas.
      (Funny though, why are the Turks so keen to get their hands on it when they could be building wind farms all over Anatolia?)

  58. Uber get licence back:

    “Uber has kept its licence to operate in London following a court ruling today despite a magistrate criticising ‘historical failings’ by the ride-hailing service. Deputy chief magistrate Tan Ikram allowed its appeal against Transport for London’s refusal to renew its operating licence after it was removed due to safety concerns. He declared that it was a ‘fit and proper’ company to operate minicabs in the capital, following a four-day hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court earlier this month. “

    After he got his sweetener, no doubt…(a cynic writes…)

    1. Bangladesh gets flooded every year – it’s the monsoon season and always has been. They should by now have thought about installing flood defences (so that people further down get flooded instead) or move to higher ground. Instead of limiting their population, they have encouraged them all to move here. I seem to remember floods in the UK last winter – who organised flood relief here?

      2. Good morning J

        What do the Islamic Relief UK expect the PM to do?

        NO one offered us help, no one from countries outside Britain offered help or sympathy.

        They come over here and breed like alley cats , through their irresponsible behaviour we now have a plague which has torn our economy apart.

        Enough said !

    1. The EU will come out ahead and still in control. Our people don’t have the necessary hard edges.

      1. 324058+ up ticks,
        HP,
        The peoples that do have the hard patriotic edge are NOT allowed a say in what has been occurring for many a year.

        Peoples supporting / voting for the lab/lib/con, still pro eu coalition party, as in putting party before country fight against
        any group threatening the close shop, & the family tree vote
        regardless of consequence.

  62. OT – Border Farce buggerment.

    Talked to a couple of chums on Saturday. They are just back from France. They filled in the “locator form” on their phones, then – at some inconvenience – found somewhere to print the forms. On arrival the BF people were not interested in the forms …. didn’t look… just said “All the info is on your passports”. So that’s yet another of Halfcock’s wonderful schemes that work so well.

  63. ‘Trump is a half-baked celebrity real estate hypocrite’. 28 September 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f1b9ed37f4ff91aa067635ee072d1e7ffa7bfecd4461c2ca4226d3c2cc706f45.jpg

    It is 1989 and racial tensions in the US are simmering. Public Enemy have just released Fight the Power on Def Jam, with a video featuring a massive political rally, the Young People’s March to End Racial Violence. Fast-forward 31 years and Public Enemy are back on Def Jam and Fight the Power, immortalised in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, has been reworked in response to the Black Lives Matter protests that spread across the US and beyond.

    Do you really want to live in country ruled by the likes of this?

    https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/sep/28/public-enemy-chuck-d-trump-fight-the-power-black-lives-matter

    1. If we did we’d move to Somalia, or South Africa, or Libya, or the Congo, or almost anywhere else in Africa

      1. 324058+ up ticks,
        Afternoon W,
        Under the submissive pcism & appeasement umbrella it is NOT
        applicable to both party’s.
        AKA the elbows knees a bumps a daisy unwritten rulings.

    3. DT, 2:24pm today:’

      ‘Further 10 Covid deaths in English hospitals

      A further 10 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospitals in England, the NHS has confirmed.

      That brings the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 29,918.

      Patients were aged between 60 and 97 years old. All had known underlying health conditions.

      Date of death ranges from 24 to 27 September 2020.

      The North West and North East & Yorkshire were the worst-affected regions, with three deaths recorded in each, while the Midlands recorded two deaths and both London and the South East registered one death.

      There were no Covid-related deaths in hospitals in the East of England or the South West.’

      So, well worth all the masks and lockdowns and Stasi-style snitching?

      Boris, are you sure this is all worth it?

      2. “Covid deaths”? They may have tested positive and died, but did they die OF covid19? I doubt that, given they all had known underlying health conditions.

  66. The app relies on Bluetooth to determine if someone has been within two metres of an infectious person for 15 minutes, but other Bluetooth devices can interfere with the signal, generating a ‘false positive’

    https://nttl.blog/monday-28-september-scrutiny-of-bad-coronavirus-laws-now-comes-from-conservative-mps-not-the-opposition/

    The NHS COVID-19 app uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) according to BBC Doctor Sarah Jarvis so she was much more positive about using it in her last broadcast that I saw.

    Whilst I am unable to use the app due to outdated Android version I can nevertheless monitor the Recieved Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) using a BLE tracing Android app (below).

    As pointed out in the headline above, I have concerns that the five BLE devices I am currently continuously monitoring whilst resting on my bed in a COVID secure environment could well register as a positive 15 minute COVID contact on my phone (should I have the app).

    The ramifications of becoming a ‘false positive’ are unthinkable.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2ee6e46472bc83d5ceea8ccf41d72cac33bb4c3330e8de970c4f7a90d01f604d.jpg

  69. Anyone heard from bassetedge lately? Realised I haven’t seen any of his bird photos for a long time.

  71. No further comment necessary…

    Pubs and restaurants ‘to blame for only 3% of Covid outbreaks’ amid Tory mutiny over ‘idiotic’ 10pm curfew that ‘is doing more harm than good’

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d69cb184c4ee862eaeb399d5452f242c9d94f0b60e54082834452061d4b06cee.jpg
    Public Health England showed that the majority of outbreaks of coughs and chest infections – some of which were likely Covid-19 – happened in schools and care homes in the week to September 20. Just three per cent were reported from bars and restaurants.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8780631/Pubs-bars-restaurants-blame-3-coronavirus-outbreaks-week.html

      1. 324058+ up ticks,
        Afternoon B3,
        It is so ingrained that I do not believe it will make a great deal of difference to the voting pattern
        will it ?

  73. When Boris said he would allow the Hong Kong Chinese to come to the UK he never told them that they would have less rights and freedoms than under CCP rule

  75. SIR When my wife developed symptoms of Covid-19, I isolated her in my attic in compliance with Government rules. After some days, she became deranged from boredom, and set fire to the house.

    Who is going to pay for the damage?

    Edward Rochester
    Thornfield Hall

  76. . From the Spectator email update: Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle won’t give MPs a vote on
    a rebel Tory amendment that would force the government to consult
    parliament before bringing in new coronavirus restrictions, according to
    the Daily Mail.

    1. It seems that he is concerned that he would be seen to be doing a Bercow, by bending the rules to suit his own agenda.
      That nasty little toad Bercow has a lot to answer for.

  78. Matt Hancock announces legal ban on households mixing in North East. 28 September 2020.

    Households in parts of the North East of England are to be legally banned from meeting each other indoors in any setting, Matt Hancock has announced.

    Referring to the areas in the region where the rules were tightened a fortnight ago, he told the Commons: “Unfortunately the number of cases continues to rise sharply. The incident rate across the area is now over 100 cases per 100,000. We know that a large number of these infections are taking place in indoor settings outside the home.

    Wow! Makes North Korea look like Butlins! Kim Jung-Johnson!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-uk-trace-cases-deaths-students-lockdown-vaccine/

    1. 325058+ up ticks,
      Afternoon PT,
      gove the assassin,my pint is as clear as your true agenda,
      Amnesty R me johnson reply, as it should be.

      1. 324058+ up ticks,
        Evening JBF,
        Under Batten / Braine leadership UKIP was once again on the road to credibility as a opposition party & one that was feared by the now revealed opposition.
        Treachery was triggered, all on record.

    2. Well none of the people who turned at East Grinstead Rugby Club to honour the memory of the dead sergeant, hugging each other, wore masks or maintained distance. Probably exempt. There must be a list of secret exemptions.

        2. Don’t you mean:

          ‘Witless and Unbalanced?

          ….an easy enough mistake
          to make given the combined
          thinking capabilities of those
          two morons!

    4. That’s so that they can spread it when they break into people’s homes checking up on numbers and whether “isolators” are at home or not.

    5. I downloaded it, out of curiosity. But I’ve turned off Bluetooth, so it has no idea where I’ve been. If I’m forced to scan a QR code, I can do that. The Good Intent has a QR code on the door, unrelated to the NHS app, and it merely saves you from giving them your name and mobile number for Track and Trace. So I go in, they ask for my details, and I say “It’s OK, I’ve scanned the QR code”. They have no way of knowing whether I actually have done so.

  82. Covid cases have moved from surging upwards to soaring. What’s next? Rocketing followed by lunar-tic orbiting?

      1. It’s well beyond any joke now.

        If they have got this wrong, nobody will ever believe such a thing again and when eventually the wolf really does arrive it’ll be supper for the wolf.

        2. Frankly, I do not believe any of the “figures” published by the totally useless clowns posing as a government.

        3. The number reflects deaths recorded in the past 24 hours, but typically they will have occcurred over the past four or five days.

    4. Where does exponential fit in the scale of things. That seems to be the level at which they start imposing more restrictions.

      1. Easily done – all you need to say is, “A Million Dead by 1 November” and people will just die from fright.

    6. As most of South Wales moves into lockdown today, we check to see the terrifying toll of the virus in Wales yesterday – no deaths at all.

    1. Fortunately, I have no access to twitter or facebook or any of the other “platforms” which are so popular with intolerant virtue-seekers.

      Many of them appear to post BTL on he Grimes. Totally unable to see an opposing view; full of bile and, often, really vicious ad hominem remarks.

    2. I think 77 Brigade are on overtime! You need to watch them in the Mail where every other poster is a Russian Troll according to them! Lol!

        2. I have a number of Russian dolls. Including internested presidents, all the way back to Lenin.

        3. Really Bill? Russia’s looking pretty good at the moment and that hasn’t been written very often!

  84. “Jean Haste, 70, from Suffolk, whose husband Trevor, 75, has dementia,
    has said his illness is 100 times worse than it was at the start of
    lockdown because he has limited social interaction.She called the
    restrictions ‘torture of the heart’ and said the period has impacted her
    husband’s illness ‘grossly’, telling the BBC: ‘It’s affected his
    illness a hundred times. He’s hunched in his wheelchair and I hardly get
    any eye contact.'”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8781247/Dementia-patients-wife-70-describes-torture-lack-visits-Covid-19-crisis.html
    I can’t bear to read this in full………….

    How many hundreds if not thousands of cases like this are there??

    1. I’m sure my Mother (91) is badly affected by the lack of social interaction, despite getting a carer visit daily.

    2. One hesitates to give an upvote but I agree with your sentiments.

      I watch how it is affecting my own family and it’s heart-breaking.

      God help the politicians and “experts” if HG dies before I do, as a result of their actions.

      1. Hope she hangs in there, Sos. Statistically, she’ll outlast you – if that’s any comfort.

        1. Looking at her family vs mine, by about 15 years.

          She’s an extremely outgoing and sociable creature and this whole thing about not being able to get out and about, meeting friends, attending classes and particularly being unable to see her children and grandchildren etc etc really gets her down.

          2. Normally we hug on the hour every hour!

            I’ve just done so, at your suggestion, she extends her thanks, with a big grin!

    3. I have read it, and reading the comments afterwards, has brought tears to my eyes. I never thought this would happen in our country.

    5. I read it in full, earlier. Tragic. As it happens, I have a (rather older) cousin in Carlisle who has just been moved from the Cumberland Infirmary to a nearby care home, for palliative care. I checked out the website, and visitors aren’t allowed. So, in his final days will have no contact with his loved ones, save for the occasional Facetime session.

    6. It’s certainly made MOH’s condition worse. We used to go out for a coffee/hot chocolate on a regular basis, which meant stimulation and a change of scenery. When it all shut down, there were no cafes open and no excursions. The downhill slide started then and has accelerated since.

        1. Thank you for your sympathy. Dementia is a living death, really. There is no cure; the best one can hope for is to stave off the worst effects as long as possible. With the lockdown and everything, that has been made impossible. May those responsible for the restrictions rot in hell!

        1. Thank you for your commiserations. It’s been a tough year and looks to get tougher, unfortunately. Still, that’s life – KBO.

    7. After a month or two of very limited visiting, the home that MIL is in has gone back to a no visitor policy.

      She has had only one visitor since we were there in February and her only outing has been a brief walk down to the river. She was not gaga when she went in, the lack of stimulation must be helping her on her way. –

    8. That was the case I mentioned the other day when it was shown on Look East. It reduced MB and me to tears.

  86. That’s me for this very agreeable day. The MR and I spent, between us, eight hours clearing most of the debris and removing the smaller branches from the fallen trees. It was very nice and mild. Picked 4½ kg of tomatoes (that makes about 40 kg – so far) and yet another pound of raspberries.

    Rain forecast tomorrow – but who knows? May be fake news…..whatever that is.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

  87. Have overseas students returning to the UK increased the risk of Covid?

    As usual Lulworth and Durdle Door were heaving with week end visitors , and probably a few of them came from lock down areas as they usually do.. straight down the motorway.

    1. Overseas students brought it here initially. Thee are large numbers of students here from China. All paying full whack of course.

      1. I do hope you are having a good day Issy.

        Has Mrs Feather Duster been to see you this morning .

        Happy Birthday to you , and lots and lots of good wishes .

        1. Good afternoon, Belle. Mrs FD has been isolating for many months … mainly self-tickling now … gulp !! Have had a grand lunch via LK and her daughter’s brilliant cake.Plus a glass of single malt.

          Thank you so much … birthdays beat covid every time … Welsh lockdown is quieter cos the choirs iz silenced … no comment !!

        1. Thank you so much, G.
          Very qwuit here, sneaking past lockdown stormtroopers … managed a wonderful smoked salmon brunch with a ho-made, amazing choc/cream cake. A glass of single malt to send me to zzz. ….

      7. Happy birthday.

        Is your comment a description of what you are allowed to be today, without let or hindrance?

        If so, make the most of it!

        ];-))

  89. Here’s the first two paragraphs in the “notes” that attach to my Mother’s Land Registry entry, the one with the map of the property.
    Can anyone explain whether they will, or will not, issue a paper official copy??
    Please note that this is the only official copy we will issue. We will not issue a paper official copy.
    This official copy was delivered electronically and when printed will not be to scale. You can obtain a paper official copy by ordering one from HM Land
    Registry

      1. Nope. They all cost. The first one cost me about £28 including VAT (not chargeable on things exported, but hey, this is HMG, who would expect them to know their rules?)

        1. My experience of VAT on exported goods is that you have to claim it back when you export it. Quite how that would work with something sent electronically is anybody’s guess (which is why they bank on nobody trying it, I imagine).

    2. Yes, they will issue a paper official copy. You used to get one when the land was registered but now, I think, you need to pay for it … but it certainly should be available.

      1. The point is, they write that they won’t issue a paper copy – then that they will. Which one is it? And yes, I paid.

        1. The last time I needed to get one for a client I rang up and asked for it… but I see that they no longer display a phone number. Try the “contact us” email – and see if that gets you any further.

          I haven’t had to contact them for about 3 years and so many things have become “online or nothing” in that interval.

    3. I remember when you had deeds for a property. With older properties these would be on parchment or vellum, using beautiful hand inked scripts and sealed with several large round wax seals.

      Many of these deeds were destroyed in favour of a simple Land Registry number. I believe such as the Halifax Building Society and other similar organisations thought it unnecessary to retain historic deeds and destroyed them to avoid the cost of storage.

  90. I have posted this before but the students complaining of privation and draconian rules would benefit from watching this. This man is inspirational. He builds people up not weakens them. He offers hope for a shared future not one of fear. I give you Admiral McRaven.

    https://youtu.be/TBuIGBCF9jc

      2. Good evening, N – thank you for following me too on Twitter, as I said I do not tweet very often (it is a jungle out there!) but occasionally I do make a comment.

  93. Evening, all. Been digging out tree stumps most of this afternoon. I had the ones I didn’t want cut down a few days ago and now the ground needs to be cleared. I expect I shall regret it tomorrow. Apropos the letters, no MP, regardless of which side of the House they sit on, seems to want to scrutinise (or question) bad coronavirus laws. More and more I get the feeling they are definitely not on our side (not to mention I believe they have only a passing acquaintance with the real world).

        1. “Have you got a light, mac?”

          “No, but I have a dark overcoat!”

          I’ll get me cagoule…

    3. Probably the only way that MP will get any publicity.

      There are apparently 318 nominations for the peace prize already. Surely biden must be way, way down the list.

      1. How does one nominate someone, and what are the criteria to be allowed to nominate?

        Hells’s teeth I deserve it for keeping the peace between my mother-in-law and my wife.

        Much harder than dealing with North Korea.

        {:-((

  95. Off topic, but looking towards the Trump/Biden debate.

    I hope that Trump just beats him up on facts and doesn’t attempt to make him look like a geriatric old fool.

    Never under-estimate the sympathy vote.

    1. Precisely. Trump has to be seen to be respectful of the terrible wicked old fool. Biden will surely dig a hole for himself and keep digging.

      Trump must then offer to help him out of the hole by saying nice things about his service to the country etc. tempting as it is to throw in a bigger shovel, I know.

      1. Trump being nice to an opponent would probably be an upset, all he appears to do is shower abuse on sleepy Joe. He is more likely to try and overpower and upstage biden,just like he did with that Clinton woman, an action that will appeal to his base but repel others..

        When does trump restrict his rhetoric to facts? He might start well but frequently goes off at very questionable tangents.

          3. Indeed, he is probably the least corruptible/bribeable President for a long time – in contrast to the last two Democrat nominations.

          1. Fact like his claim last week that Canada was desperate to reopen the border with the US.

            Seen as total BS from this side of the border, the closure is reviewed every month and every month the provincial premiers demand that the federal government keep the border closed.

            He doesn’t talk in the diplomatic style of many politicians but truth is not always on his lips.

          3. He stated in a campaign speech that Canada was desperate to have him open the border, that is what is wrong with that. Parts of that speech were broadcast, only fools would claim that in that scenario, any statement delivered as if it was fact was no more than a personal opinion.

            Not a “my opinion is “, it was stated as a fact. On that occasion he was not telling the truth.

          4. But you cannot prove or disprove that can you. I am sure many people in canada agree with Trump and many do not. in fact its no big deal.It is not a lie as you cannot prove its a lie.

          5. If the television screening of hi-speed cannot be taken as proof and the television coverage of premiers talking against the reopening cannot be taken as proof then you are right. I do not have affidavits from Trump and the premiers but that seems to be what you are demanding .

            Trump wax bragging about how he proactively closed the borders. He added the whopper about Canada being desperate for the border to reopen.

            Why not accept that he is not perfect

    1. the players aren’t idiots. However, those that pay huge sums of money either on the gate or via TV subscription to watch their antics then that’s another matter….

      1. Nah, the players really aren’t the brightest buttons in the box. They assume that other people give two hoots what they think(?) Same as moaning Minnie Hamilton.

      1. Good grief.

        I must take it from that that no crowds will be permitted for the rest of the season too.

        1. There is little likelihood of racing crowds being allowed back before March, so probably not. Despite there having been successful pilots at racecourses, the government keeps pulling the plug – after a lot of money has been spent by a cash-strapped industry to comply with their idiotic regulations.

        2. Here’s another example of the madness of the regulations. Competitive football below the Premiership and Football League has restarted but spectators are allowed into grounds only at the lower ranks, from the seventh level downwards. The decision is based presumably on the logic that attendances are so low that they are manageable. Limits have been set on the number to be allowed in, the maximum being 600 at level 7 grounds, even though some of them have capacities of more than 3,000.

          The early qualifying rounds of the FA Cup have started and clubs at level 6, who are not allowed spectators, enter the competition this weekend. Many of these clubs have typical attendances and stadia no better than some of those below. A Level 7 v. Level 6 tie can have spectators, the reverse cannot. This is as arbitrarily pointless as the 10 pm pub curfew.

    1. The lure of being a victim is very, very strong for weak-minded people (not referring to the lass above, of course).

  101. From the DT (Dispiriting Tripe?)
    “Meet the new Kardashians – they are called Harry and Meghan” I read the head line as new Card&cashitins…..

  102. Coronavirus latest news: Matt Hancock announces legal ban on households mixing in North East. 28 September 2020.

    Weekly use of a nasal spray could give 96 per cent protection from coronavirus, new research from Public Health England (PHE) shows. The new preventive treatment could move to human trials within months following successful results on ferrets.

    ROTFLMAO! No ferrets died of CVduring this experiment! Vicks nasal spray now compulsory for all ferrets! They’ve taken leave of their senses.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-uk-trace-cases-deaths-students-lockdown-vaccine/

    3. Wow! Well that’s gotta be cheaper than vaccinations! But then again U.K. have already contracted to buy 90m doses of vaccination. Wouldn’t it be great to cheat Gates out of his sainthood and fortune.

          1. NO. And not sometimes, either. It cannot come soon enough. Although he has four sons, ready and waiting, I understand.

    3. Lyrics from a 60’s song when one was often disappointed with people one had thought were splendid:

      And I’m trying to say something
      But I don’t know what to say,
      And I wish I had some idols
      Who have not got feet of clay
      And I wish I were original
      And gave and earned respect
      And I wish my mind was real
      And not a pseudo-intellect.

  104. Brain surgery on Chanel 4 now. The chap is awake while the surgeon is removing the tumour.
    Phenomenal microsurgery.

      1. Good morning John. After all the doom and gloom of the past few months it’s marvellous to see real experts, at the top of their profession, giving hope to a few well deserving cases. They also admit there is so much they don’t understand about their speciality. Quite mesmerising.

    2. The brain doesn’t feel pain. It also allows the surgeon better control as functions can be constantly tested throughout the procedure. It’s always impressed me too.

  105. Knackered!
    Began one project, building a retaining wall in front of the shed, when I realised that getting a 2nd project done, getting a waterproof membrane on the wall on the other side of the shed, would be a good idea.
    So I’ve dug an 8′ long trench against the wall going down 6″ below the shed floor level.
    Tomorrow I’ll be placing some plastic sheeting against the wall and start backfilling.
    Then, with somewhere to put the topsoil from the footings for the other wall, I can carry on with that.

      1. ‘Is it being so effing miserable that
        keeps you going, or quite the opposite?

        ‘Please post your replies in the suggestion
        box…rather than to my office door, secured
        with a poisoned dart!’

        My notice on the outside of
        my Office Door!!

    2. Bob.

      You are an inspiration to us all!!

      You carry on working and we will
      continue to carry on watching you!

      Isn’t that how the modern UK works?

      1. Right knee & right hip.
        As soon as I finished I went straight up for a bath and then took a precautionary couple of paracetamol and codeine before doing my evening meal.

        Now sat with another mug of tea and listening to Finzi’s Salutation from Deus Natalis and trying not to let my eyes leak.

          4. Apparently the hip is more strained ligament rather than arthritis.
            Still bloody annoying though and it’s knocked my confidence for going for walks for six too.

            Did a 6 miler with eldest daughter when she was up a couple of weeks back and I was limping very painfully for the last mile & a half.

          5. I sympathise.
            Before the replacements I could hardly walk up the drive.
            A new hip followed by a new knee followed by me as a new man.

            Arthritis almost everywhere, but manageable.

          7. I would still have done as much sport, even had I known how it would have affected my joints, the pleasure has far exceeded the pain

  108. Could a nasal spray offer hope against Covid-19? Scientists ‘amazed’ after trial of artificial solution stopped virus replicating in 96% of infected ferrets
    Treatment was administered to ferrets who were then exposed to coronavirus
    Spray was initially developed to help protect against the common cold and flu
    Human trials on the spray could be launched within the next four months .

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8780933/Scientists-amazed-trial-artificial-solution-killed-virus-96-infected-ferrets.html

    2. Yeah, but all you can smell for the next five years is ferret.

      I’ll pass, if it’s OK with you.

      };-))

  109. 324058+ up ticks,
    So you could die by coronaviris via truncheon seems like.

    Police to crack down harder on those who flout coronavirus rules

      1. 324081+ up ticks,
        Morning BB2,
        When the establishment employees say they ” are coming down harder” and in today’s unstable climate I can only take it to mean on skulls.

  111. Now they’ve No Platformed Richard Dawkins. Spiked. 28 September 2020.

    Celebrated atheist Richard Dawkins was booked to address the College Historical Society (nicknamed the Hist) at Trinity College Dublin next year. But the society’s auditor has now announced that the invitation will be rescinded, citing Dawkins’ views on ‘Islam and sexual assault’.

    In line with his militant atheism, Dawkins has been highly critical of Islam – alongside every other religion. He has described the faith as ‘the greatest force for evil in the world today’, and referred to the ‘pernicious influence’ of Islamic faith schools.

    It’s difficult to feel any sympathy but then we are not obliged too. It is sufficient that we all be allowed to speak or none of us will!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/09/28/now-theyve-no-platformed-richard-dawkins/

    1. No one is preventing Dawkins from speaking, he can speak to anyone who will listen. They are simply not inviting him to their “house” to do so. Perfectly reasonable.

      3. Well why did they issue Dawkins a bloody invitation in the first place? They must have known his views on religion in general, and Islam in particular.

        The whole thing is clearly a stunt, designed to signal their virtue and gain the maximum publicity for so doing.

    2. Bought one of his books, once. Hoped for a reasond argument, but no, it was just blether.
      “There’s no evidence God exists, so you are stupid to believe there is a God” sums up an expensive hardback book I deply regret paying for. That was basically his argument. Man’s a jerk.

      1. My father-in-law was an ardent atheist who was not shy of expressing his views. He was great admirer of Richard Dawkins.

        One of his lovely daughters (the one I married) became a very committed Catholic and gives a lot of her time to her church doing the parish accounts and playing the organ at masses, weddings and funerals. He did not really approve of her going against his beliefs but he was happy to admit that she was completely free to make up her own mind. Funnily enough he led a very Christian life in that he was very kind-hearted and was always happy to help people.

          2. I am an a-theist in the sense that I have an absence of religious belief. It doesn’t mean that I am anti-religion. I am not. I just don’t do it. I am exceedingly tolerant of the beliefs of others, though I reserve the right to criticise aspects of some religions. Especially Islam.

      1. Dawkins has offended people across the entire political spectrum. I’m not sure he’s bothered.

        In his 2006 C4 program, The Root of All Evil?, he went to the USA and interviewed Ted Haggard, an evangelical pastor. I watched it at the time and enjoyed Dawkins’ discomfiture as Haggard gently teased him. Well, that’s how I remembered it for some years. I saw a bit of it again more recently on Youtube and Haggard came across as threatening, his smile turning to a sneer. I almost sympathised with Daft Dickie as he faced his film crew afterwards and spoke of his bafflement and unease.

        Of course, Dawkins’ great fault was to appear to take literally the premise of the religious texts he so despised. I don’t know if he has ever answered the question as to why so many people need something to hold on to, even when they reject religion as we know it. Maybe he should examine XR, BLM, Antifa et al to understand how causes can possess people without, as it were, a deity in sight…

        There was a time recently when he appeared to be softening a bit, claiming to understand why people find comfort in rituals, even if he didn’t see the point of the ideas behind them. But, just as you thought he might be mellowing, he came out against Brexit, calling for such decisions to be made by panels of experts because they were too difficult for little people. It was his lowest point for a very long time.

    5. Surely a university should be a place where people of interest are invited to express their views freely and others can then defeat points of view with which they do not agree with superior arguments.

      This is particularly shocking coming from TCD as the Irish used to have a reputation for hospitality. To invite and then uninvite is extremely bad manners; Cambridge University did the same with Jordan Peterson and the Women’s Institute did the same with Anne Widdecombe!

      2. I didn’t think there was such a thing as uninvite until I met the German verb ausladen ( to uninvite).

      1. Just thinking back when people didn’t have to social distance and how they wasted their freedom doing that

  116. Excerpt from o e of the letters…
    “Her view that “it is … young people who have suffered most through lockdown” is self-centred, when in fact the care-home-dwelling elderly and care-giving NHS front-line staff have paid the ultimate price.”

    Not at all. The yoof have been best placed to keep in touch during the kerfuffle, what with their superior IT savvy.

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