Monday 3 January: Government energy policy compounds an already desperate fuel crisis

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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593 thoughts on “Monday 3 January: Government energy policy compounds an already desperate fuel crisis”

    1. I don’t need Big Pharma to tell me to get more exercise and to less less and better. In fact I don’t like the idea of any big corporation telling me how to live.

  6. Good morning, everyone. Good to see that the petition to reverse Tony Blair’s knighthood has exceeded 220,000 and is still growing.

        1. SIR – Will the long delay in bestowing the honour of a knighthood on Tony Blair give hope to John Bercow?

          Jonathan Mann
          Gunnislake, Cornwall

    2. Good morning,
      When masks in classrooms were last mandatory, it was only in secondary schools. There was no difference in the proportion of classes sent home between the primary and secondary sectors, so what was the point in enforcing masks inside schools?

      1. The idiots coming out with all these daft rules have not set foot in a school since they left. Children are easily affected by situations at school and home and tend to become fearful at change.
        All last year these nitwits were telling us that kids couldn’t catch covid etc etc. Now they want them to wear masks and be tested. Wouldn’t you be confused? It’s difficult enough teaching classes where some pupils are reluctant to learn, don’t want to be there in the first place and so on.
        Now add to that the anxiety of tests and masks.
        This so called government have done and are doing great damage to kids of all ages. Mental, psychological and emotional problems will become the norm as these young people attempt to make sense of what is going on. It makes my blood boil.
        And let’s not forget all those little guys slipping through the cracks because of all these asinine restrictions….how long will it be before little Arthur, Star and many others are just a statistic?

        1. Even if a pupil wasn’t bothered about having to wear a mask in class (maybe fully indoctrinated through parents, social media etc) having to learn with masks on will surely affect concentration – rather like having to learn in an over-heated, stuffy classroom, which is known to adversely affect concentration and learning. I once worked with a teacher who always kept the heaters on full with no windows open – her young children often seemed ‘out of it’.
          Even my 3 year old grandchild in Canada had to wear a mask in her kindergarten classroom.

        2. Children are being brain washed into believing that their fellow human beings are a source of lethal infection.
          Not a source of pleasure, companionship or love – just organisms that will kill them.
          That is disgusting.

          1. It is close to child abuse. Remember those despicable promos….stay home, don’t kill Granny.
            Brainwashing it is and it’s getting worse.

      3. ‘Morning MiB, somebody made a very valid point yesterday, there is no mandate to wear masks at work or in the office, so why in schools?

  13. Person spotted crossing DMZ likely previous defector from N.Korea, South says
    By Josh Smith – 2h ago

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c647e9170b9b891b18c13390b2f90a44df2520f1a0f874a24ca6fff65cabae8f.png

    The person observed crossing the heavily fortified border from South Korea into North Korea last week is presumed to be a North Korean who had previously defected to the South, Seoul’s defence ministry said on Monday.

    Person spotted crossing DMZ likely previous defector from N.Korea, South says (msn.com)

  14. SIR – Representations to ministers about shale gas (Letters, January 2) have fallen on deaf ears, as the only voices that are heard are those of well-funded environmentalists.

    One reason for the effective ban on shale gas is what is known as acoustic emission during the stimulation process. The traffic-light system, introduced to monitor nuisance, is based on the Richter scale, which is the wrong measurement for felt effects. The threshold set is 12 times lower than a quarry blasting limit and 30 times less than for some construction activities. Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, boasted about his part in setting these ridiculously low limits.

    Even if the Government decided to restart exploration and development of gas from shale rocks, it is unlikely that small gas companies and supporting service providers would be prepared to face more protest campaigns – with the constant abuse, serious threats to personnel, business disruption, damage to property, significant extra costs and bad publicity.

    There is no place in a civilised society for the level of interference with legitimate business and the general public that we have seen by groups such as Extinction Rebellion. Laws relating to protest, trespass and human rights must change to allow development of shale gas to proceed.

    John Beswick
    Rothley, Leicestershire

    Nothing will get done until Johnson and The First Totty are removed from No10

    1. Shale, while it proved an effective alternative in the vastly bigger and less densely populated United States of America, is not really viable in the UK, where the gas is deeper down, and the centres of population closer and more likely to be affected by disruptions to water supply, seismic activity, air quality and landscape degradation.

      It is far less likely to be viable until there is a huge sustained rise in gas prices that is not then devalued by currency inflation caused by official negligence at the Bank of England.

        2. Do I need to be?

          I remember once at at school an argument between two teachers at school – one was the art master, and the other the metalwork master. They were discussing whether an architect should be an artist or an engineer. The truth, I believe, is that they should be both, or failing that both should be listened to before any brick is laid.

  15. Morning all

    Government energy policy compounds an already desperate fuel crisis

    SIR – We are in a desperate energy situation (Letters, January 2). Very shortly many will simply not be able to pay their massive fuel bills. This is made far worse by the Government’s energy policies, which take no account of hard realities.

    The Government must without delay take the initiative with radical measures to address the crisis and not just stand back while disaster looms.

    Bob Hart

    Newark, Nottinghamshire

    SIR – I suspect that the crisis in the cost of energy to every household and business in the country could prove to be this Government’s poll-tax saga.

    Its fixation with green energy policy and its abject failure to secure long-term sensibly priced home-grown resources may well be its downfall.

    David Crawshaw

    Almondsbury, Gloucestershire

    SIR – Representations to ministers about shale gas (Letters, January 2) have fallen on deaf ears, as the only voices that are heard are those of well-funded environmentalists.

    One reason for the effective ban on shale gas is what is known as acoustic emission during the stimulation process. The traffic-light system, introduced to monitor nuisance, is based on the Richter scale, which is the wrong measurement for felt effects. The threshold set is 12 times lower than a quarry blasting limit and 30 times less than for some construction activities. Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, boasted about his part in setting these ridiculously low limits.

    Even if the Government decided to restart exploration and development of gas from shale rocks, it is unlikely that small gas companies and supporting service providers would be prepared to face more protest campaigns – with the constant abuse, serious threats to personnel, business disruption, damage to property, significant extra costs and bad publicity.

    There is no place in a civilised society for the level of interference with legitimate business and the general public that we have seen by groups such as Extinction Rebellion. Laws relating to protest, trespass and human rights must change to allow development of shale gas to proceed.

    John Beswick

    Rothley, Leicestershir

    SIR – Peter Williman (Letters, December 31) should challenge his energy supplier’s demand to double his direct debit. My neighbour, a pensioner, also had a notification that their monthly charge for electricity would go from £28 to £83, despite the letter also giving a quote for the next year of £360. After failing to convince the call handler of this mathematical nonsense, we resorted to haggling and settled at £35 per month.

    My feeling is that energy companies are trying to recoup their losses by collecting extra cash from customers on the monthly direct debits and hoping that most will just accept it.

    Susan Moden

    Aylesbu

    1. OOOps should be for above posr

      Will the Dentists join forces with the Chiropodists

      and fight tooth and nail for more money?

    2. I wonder if this wholesale gas price debacle was a ruse cooked up by the global energy cartel to pad out the executive quarterly bonus pot. It’s been done before, in 1973, when some Arabs wanted to live like sheiks and did so, because they could.

      Governments go along with it, because they cannot afford not to appear “business-friendly”.

      1. …a ruse cooked up by the global energy cartel…

        Morning Jeremy. Yes they’ve been buying at spot price straight out of Vlad’s pipelines then holding it back to sell at a higher price!

    3. In his letter to the DT, Bob Hart on the energy crisis:

      ‘The Government must without delay take the initiative with radical measures to address the crisis and not just stand back while disaster looms’.

      Does a single one of my fellow Nottlers actually believe that the government will do anything?

      1. ‘Morning, Richard, to answer your question I would say, “Not until we get a trustworthy PM.”

  16. Finding a dentist

    SIR – As dental professionals, we want to highlight that dental health provision in England is in a dire crisis, accelerated by Covid-19 and a lack of resources. Past rationing has resulted in just 52 per cent of the population accessing NHS general dental services. Millions of check-ups are being missed, despite dental workers heroically providing face-to-face services through these risky Covid times.

    NHS dentistry desperately needs double the funding it currently receives, but instead NHS England says we must work within our existing rationed resources and that we should dump regular loyal NHS patients in favour of those not usually seen, in order to prop up the NHS 111 urgent care service. It threatens to penalise and fine dentists if we fail to do this.

    Is it any wonder that increasing numbers of patients and professionals feel they have to go private for dental services, when NHS dentistry planning is so inadequate and punitive?

    It is time for the Government either to double funding for NHS dental services or make all private dentistry tax-deductible for patients. Better still, it should do both, giving patients and professionals true choice and realistic access to care nationally.

    Tony Kilcoyne

    Finbar Bryson

    Hana Tofighi

    Charles Lister

    Gurpreet Midha

    and 131 others; see telegraph.co.uk

    1. It’s always been the (undeclared) policy of British Governments to privatise Dental Services!

    2. And the Telegraph wants me to subscribe to their newspaper so that I can read another 131 names?

      2. Yo Elsie

        On a quick scan, about nine of the names on every puter page were foreign sounding

    3. Forget NHS dentistry and just go private. It’s only there for “the poorest in society”, i.e. the same people who get everything else for free. Not worth the rest of the population struggling to get a smidgen back on your extortionate contributions to the worldbeating bureaucracy.

      1. The problem I have with private dentistry is that they insist on an agreement to a “Dental Plan” whereby they throw in everything that can make them money as a condition of receiving any further treatment. This ploy has long been used in America, cooked up by their corporate lawyers.

        You cannot simply go and ask them – I know what’s wrong with them all, but right now, please just fix my front teeth.

        1. Agree, that is horrible. I’d look for one that doesn’t do that – I don’t think this practice is common on the Continent, where private medicine is well established and understood.

          1. I pay £21 per month and it goes up a bit each year. That covers me for a couple of visits to the hygenist and the dentist and any basic treatment – but not anything radical, which so far I haven’t needed.

    4. Indeed. I have an ongoing complaint against NHS dentistry.

      The official “Senior Complaints Officer” assigned to my case when her predecessor went on long term sick leave, is trying desperately to scapegoat my hapless local practitioner, or as a backstop the local Clinical Commissioner, whose remit is only to obey orders.

      I quote from something formatted in bold in a letter to me: “Please be advised that this form the entirety of the complaint and that we will be unable to add additional points at a later date”. This was following a statement that the specific question of treatment of my front teeth would be the only item to be considered, rather than following up on the reasons for my dentist’s choice of treatment. I have always suspected this was under guidance from the Department of Health, or possibly implied by its funding mechanism, and was at odds with the information displayed at the surgery.

    5. A richly -deserved rebuke for the multi-sig letter from the dentists:

      The Energy Chemist
      45 MIN AGO
      Dentists “heroically” doing their job. Ridiculous….you’re not heroes in any sense of the word. Just do the job for which you are paid..same as retail assistants, refuse collectors bus drivers ticket inspectors……and take sensible precautions available to you. No heroism there. The fact that you think it’s reasonable to describe your actions as “heroic” undermines any sympathy for your position..and the actions of real heroes.

    7. Many years ago, our NHS dentist stopped seeing adults unless they were prepared to pay privately. He claimed he and his partner simply couldn’t afford to treat patients under NHS rates. My heart bled for him. He could only afford 3 very upmarket holidays a year (including a 3-week summer break to an expensive resort) away from his beautiful large house, and he could only afford a brand new top of the range Merc every 3 years (bought outright he said).

      1. I travel nearly 100 miles round trip to see my NHS dentist. I had one 12 miles away who decided that they would no longer treat NHS patients on the pretext they could give a better service. Oh yes? If it had meant less income for them they wouldn’t have done it so despite their assertions to the contrary it was obvious they were doing it for the money. Greed is spreading faster than this virus

    8. Tax deductible dentistry would be a good start. As would tax deductible taxes.

      The problem isn’t the cost of things. It’s the offensive taxes we pay for them. The Swiss pay for their healthcare – they pay for what they buy. Their other taxes are very, very low.

      Their wages are higher, quality of life higher, happier and growing as a country. The UK …. isn’t – to be kind.

      1. It’s not only the BBC that needs to be made to pay for itself – could the same apply to the NHS?

  17. Tony Blair’s honour

    SIR – Tony Blair knighted (report, January 1)? Can there be a more blatant case of rewarding failure?

    Richard Freer

    Ribaute-les-Tavernes, Gard, France

    SIR – The honours system is, yet again, shown to be a disgrace.

    Tony Blair has been made a Knight of the Garter just five years after the Iraq Inquiry found that, at the time of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Saddam Hussein did not pose an urgent threat to British interests, that intelligence on weapons of mass destruction was presented with unwarranted certainty, that peaceful alternatives had not been exhausted, that Britain and America had undermined the authority of the United Nations Security Council, that the process of identifying the legal basis was “far from satisfactory”, and that a war was unnecessary.

    Mark Macauley

    Warminster, Wiltshire

    SIR – Tony Blair is the least deserving prime minister to be knighted.

    We will never recover from the harm of devolution. Students are in huge debt as a result of tuition fees and the encouragement of youngsters to attend university rather than take apprenticeships. His reform of licensing laws has resulted in more antisocial and drunken violence. Selling gold reserves at a loss was hardly good economics.

    All this even before considering his military intervention in the Middle East, which has left thousands dead or homeless and led to mass migration.

    Clifford Baxter

    Wareham, Dorset

    SIR – Chris Whitty and Jonathan Van-Tam have saved lives, but this cannot be said of Tony Blair. I applaud knighthoods for the first two, and utterly deplore it for the latter.

    Dorian Wood

    Castle Cary, Somerset

    SIR – Will the long delay in bestowing the honour of a knighthood on Tony Blair give hope to John Bercow?

    Jonathan Mann

    Gunnislake, Cornwall

    1. In his letter to the DT Clifford Baxter mentions the disasters that Tony Blair has inflicted upon Britain: devolution, students blighted with monstrous unrepayable debts, the licencing laws, the selling of the gold reserves and his military interventions in the Middles East.

      But he links mass migration to the wars in that region rather than stressing that it was Blair’s deliberate policy to destroy the demography of the United Kingdom with mass migration. And this is very much a disaster today which Boris Johnson and his Home Secretary are completely incapable of solving – and so much so that many people are beginning to suspect that as well as actually being anti-Brexit Johnson is as pro mass immigration to UK as Blair was.

      2. Apologies Richard – not completely incapable, but completely unwilling.

        I have never understood the point of the army fighting Jihandi Muslims in Iraq and Afghan only for the foreign office to desperately bring them into the UK via the back door.

  18. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – General Lord Dannatt calls for structural and financial changes to give the Army a more formal role as “the nation’s strategic reserve of trained manpower”, and to help the UK become “more resilient to domestic threats” (Comment, December 30).

    We all have good cause to be grateful to Army personnel who have delivered medical supplies and assisted with the vaccination programme during the Covid pandemic. The fact that they have needed to help in such crises is a sign of the severe underfunding of civilian emergency services.

    The need to deploy the Army to tackle civil emergencies does not prove the requirement for more soldiers. Rather, it shows the need for more firefighters, paramedics and other civilian emergency workers. Using the Covid crisis as an excuse to increase the Army’s role in society is a worrying move that is in tension with the values of a civilian democracy.

    Symon Hill
    London N7

    Come along now, Mr Hill; all three services provide people in the event of civil emergencies. In the firemens (now firefighters’) strike in 1977 this wearer of the light blue uniform was required, with others, to escort the green godesses because their Army drivers, not unexpectedly, kept getting lost. Apart ftom this, Dannatt’s suggestion has merit.

    1. It could be, of course, that the “civil emergency” to which Mr Hill refers is civil disobedience – or worse.

      1. Good morning and thank you, Bill, I wondered why no-one else picked up on that crucial and chilling sentence:

        …and to help the UK become “more resilient to domestic threats”

    2. No, public services are not underfunded, quite the opposite, as governments have spending way more on them than we can afford even before Covid led to spending some £15,000 more per taxpayer in a year than it got in tax income.

      It shows the need to reform our so-called public services and the associated unions to act in the interests of the public, not themselves. They don’t want the armed services or public volunteers involved as that threatens their empires and pay bargaining power.

      That said, we need to reform our politicians first. Their naked self-interest and cowardice are at the heart of the problems.

      1. When government says it is underfunded it means it has spent the money given to it on the unnecessary and pointless that *it* wanted, and now hasn’t the cash to spend on services the public expect.

    3. BTL Comment:-

      Robert Spowart
      JUST NOW
      Message Actions
      Query. Is Symon Hill someone’s name or where they live?
      However, regarding the underfunding of Civilian Emergency Services and, indeed Public Service Funding in general, are they REALLY underfunded or are they in serious need of a shake up in the upper echelons to get rid of waste, overmanning, bloated bureaucracy and Diversity Managers?
      ESPECIALLY the Diversity Managers!

      REPLY
      0

  19. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – General Lord Dannatt calls for structural and financial changes to give the Army a more formal role as “the nation’s strategic reserve of trained manpower”, and to help the UK become “more resilient to domestic threats” (Comment, December 30).

    We all have good cause to be grateful to Army personnel who have delivered medical supplies and assisted with the vaccination programme during the Covid pandemic. The fact that they have needed to help in such crises is a sign of the severe underfunding of civilian emergency services.

    The need to deploy the Army to tackle civil emergencies does not prove the requirement for more soldiers. Rather, it shows the need for more firefighters, paramedics and other civilian emergency workers. Using the Covid crisis as an excuse to increase the Army’s role in society is a worrying move that is in tension with the values of a civilian democracy.

    Symon Hill
    London N7

    Come along now, Mr Hill; all three services provide people in the event of civil emergencies. In the fireman’s strike in 1977 this wearer of the light blue uniform was required, with others, to escort the green godesses because their Army drivers, not unexpectedly, kept getting lost. Apart ftom this, Dannatt’s suggestion has merit.

  20. The DM has an article on how tax on wine will now be based on alcohol strength to make it ‘fairer’. Surprise, surprise, practically all the most popular wines will see taxes rise. The best BTL for me is “ Just add a migrant & fishing tax to French wine and cut the tax on the rest.”

    1. This was, of course, the idea. When the state says ‘fairer’ it means ‘to take more’.

    1. Oh I’m sure they will be saying that everything’s different now, they do far more testing….unless it’s an experimental drug released under an emergency licence of course.
      The article doesn’t explain the mechanism by which the drug affects the children and grandchildren.

      1. I remember the name – Stilbestrol, but I don’t think I had any – and nobody was aware of the dangers of these things back then – it was years before they realised the dangers of Thalidomide. I did take an anti-sickness tablet – hopefully no harm done.

        I think the hereditary damage must have been done to the developing ovaries and so on during gestation.

          1. Presumably it must have affected genes somehow.
            Let’s inject millions upon millions of people with an experimental gene therapy to check.

          2. That part doesn’t really ring true. Unless there is some genetic defect as Sos suggests.

  22. Good morning all.
    A bright and dry start to the day with a cool 3°C in the yard.

  23. Good morning, my fellow Nottlers,

    The anti-Macron feeling in France is spreading to being anti-EU.

    It seems strange that in two World Wars the British stood firm when France crumbled while over EU negotiations it has always been the British who gave in.

    Discontent at replacing the Tri-colour with the EU flag has led to the EU flag being taken down. Maybe the odious Macron’s enthusiasm for the EU will stir up more calls for a Frexit! But if there were I bet that the French negotiators would not be as supine as ours have been.

    France takes down EU flag from Arc de Triomphe after Right-wing anger
    Emmanuel Macron accused of ‘erasing’ French identity after tricolore replaced to mark France’s presidency of the EU Council
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/01/02/france-takes-eu-flag-arc-de-triomphe-right-wing-anger/

  24. I have just received an email Marks & Spencer Click Plan

    I think it is a phishing one

  25. 343505+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    More ways to skin a cat, gas as used in both WWs, most effectively in WW2 with the evil termination of 6 million.
    Those type peoples that carried out those atrocities never went away, they spawned and amazingly enough found repeat favour with the lab/lib/con mass controlled illegal immigration coalition, the electorate are once again building a mass kill infrastructure.

    Monday 3 January: Government energy policy compounds an already desperate fuel crisis

    1. The Chinese researchers need to get it right next time. The current pandemic is still not quite selective enough.

      1. Predominantly it kills the ill and the elderly, regarded as dispensable, useless consumers. How much more selective do you think they wish to go?

    2. The Chinese researchers need to get it right next time. The current pandemic is still not quite selective enough.

  27. A Variation On A Theme

    Reaching the end of a job interview, the human resources person asked a young engineer fresh out of MIT, “And what starting salary were you looking for?”

    The engineer said, “In the neighbourhood of $125,000 a year, depending on the benefits package.”

    The interviewer said, “Well, what would you say to a five-week vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching your retirement fund to 50% of your salary, and a company car leased every two years, say, a red Corvette?”

    The young engineer sat up straight and said, “Wow! Are you kidding?”

    The interviewer replied, “Yeah, but you started it.“

    1. When you’re asked at interview what salary you’re looking for folk don’t know what to say. Obviously they’d like the highest offered in the range. The hirer wants to give the lowest to get best value.

      It’s more practical to ask what the pay increments are and how you advance. A low salary to start, knowing you’re on 3% per year after that is surely more sensible?

      Although, how can you have 5 weeks of ‘vacation’ and only 14 paid holidays?

      1. When I used to do commercial photography part time in the 80’s I was asked by a model agency to fill in for their resident photographer while he was on holiday. They asked me how much I would charge – I hadn’t a clue what to ask and cheekily spurted out £80 an hour, (four times what I normally charged) they immediately accepted that saying “great, we were expecting double that” Swines! I knew a photographer who did difficult assignments for the automotive industry who wouldn’t come out of his office for less than £3k a day and this was in the 80’s!

    2. If you ran the video on, she then says: “Not that branch: that one ! Idiot. Do you ever listen ? Mother always told me you were the wrong choice, I should have paid attention……. OMG ! Not THAT one. Can’t you do anything right ? Honestly, I think we should start seeing other Gerenuks…”

  29. What a man, and what a life…

    Colonel Tom Seccombe, Royal Marines officer who demonstrated both tact and bravery in the Falklands – obituary
    He stood his ground when under attack by Argentine bombers, while earlier he had led cross-border operations in Borneo during Konfrontasi

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    2 January 2022 • 5:35pm

    Colonel Tom Seccombe, who has died aged 87, participated in several campaigns, as well as the Falklands War, a conflict in which he displayed both bravery and tact, demonstrating the versatility of the Royal Marines.

    In 1981-82 Seccombe was one of the staff at the Royal College of Defence Studies and, with no vacancies available at his rank in the Corps of the Royal Marines, was due to go to a dull-sounding job in Brussels when the Falklands War erupted.

    Then Brigadier Julian Thompson, Commander of 3 Commando Brigade, asked for Seccombe as the Military Force Commander in SS Canberra, the ocean liner, flagship of the P&O line, which had just been co-opted for military use to carry into war 40 Commando, 42 Commando and 3 Para.

    Thompson wanted Seccombe there to balance the egos of their commanders, with the dynamic Captain Chris “Beagle” Burn in command of the embarked Naval Party.

    The affable and perceptive Seccombe ensured that relations between the independently-minded troop commanders and the ship’s master, Captain Dennis Scott-Masson, who was understandably anxious about taking the white-painted Canberra into battle, were harmonious. His humour and abundant common sense proved priceless assets in gaining the respect and confidence of all concerned.

    At the landings in San Carlos Water at the end of May 1982, Seccombe became the deputy commander of the Commando brigade, landing armed with a walking stick which he had borrowed from Canberra’s first officer.

    In the closing hours of the war the brigade headquarters was attacked by Argentine bombers; while others hurled themselves behind the nearest rock, Seccombe stood his ground.

    He encouraged the defending Blowpipe hand-held surface-to-air missile operators and machine-gunners by shaking his stick at the enemy in the midst of earth-shaking explosions, while rocks and metal splinters ricocheted around him.

    Thomas Seccombe was born in Kensington, west London, on June 5 1934 and educated at Felsted School in Essex. Three generations of Seccombes went to Balliol College, Oxford, but young Thomas found his National Service in the Royal Marines so congenial that he chose to stay in the Corps.

    He was commissioned in 1952, when he also qualified as a landing craft officer and as a swimmer-canoeist, and served in the Royal Navy Rhine Squadron as second-in-command of 2 Special Boat Section.

    Next, Seccombe qualified as an assault engineer before joining 40 Commando which, though based on Malta, undertook two operational tours in Cyprus during the EOKA Emergency. Seccombe also enjoyed training deployments to Libya, where his assault engineers revelled in the deadly mish-mash of unmarked Second World War minefields.

    During a “brew-up” on one such exercise, which included the future major-generals John Grey and Julian Thompson, Seccombe started to dismantle an Italian anti-tank mine until someone asked him kindly “would you mind doing that somewhere else?”

    In 1958 Seccombe began his happy association with Deal, beginning as a housemaster at the Royal Marines School of Music, responsible for the welfare of boy musicians. There he played prop forward and his smartly dressed attendances at the local cinema led to the usherettes calling him “Lord Rank”.

    Next, he spent a year as the assault engineer of 41 Commando before being appointed as the Officer Commanding Royal Marines in the commando carrier Bulwark, and then, after the adjutant’s course, as adjutant of the RM barracks at Eastney.

    Always a fine figure, immaculate both in uniform and in civvies, Seccombe ran the barracks with style and efficiency, furnishing his rooms with silverware won by a 19th-century naval ancestor, and making time to indulge his interests in literature, fly-fishing, the arts, snooker, boxing (in smoke-filled and somewhat insalubrious East End venues), and following Portsmouth FC from the director’s box at Fratton Park.

    In 1964 Seccombe was responsible for 41 Commando’s drill at the Corps’ Tercentenary review by the Lord Mayor of London on the Honourable Artillery Company’s grounds; the exercise by the Royal Marines of their traditional freedom by marching through the City of London; and a Royal Review in the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

    Seccombe was then appointed to No 2 Special Boat Section in Singapore, but realising his lack of recent qualification to command such a very specialised unit in the operational environment of Konfrontasi, he sought re-appointment in 42 Commando.

    After attending the Jungle Warfare School and attachment to the Gurkhas, he took command of M Company on a tour in Borneo, where in cross-border operations known as Operation Claret he wrested the initiative from a crack Indonesian regiment. Over six months, Seccombe led seven “Clarets”, promising his men that he would not return without them, “be they alive or dead”, and on one occasion carrying a wounded Gurkha back.

    Next, Seccombe became adjutant of 42 Commando, which deployed to Aden to cover the withdrawal from the colony in 1967. He recalled that as a helicopter sent to fetch the Sultan of Socotra landed on deck, the Sultan’s bodyguards, wearing Argyle socks without sandals and carrying ancient blunderbusses, performed “an erratic and curious jig” as they stepped on to the broiling deck.

    In 1977 Seccombe was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and to command of 41 Commando, Royal Marines, then reforming at Deal. The Commando deployed to Belfast to assist security in the strongly Republican areas of the Falls Road and the Ballymurphy and Turf Lodge estates.

    Then 41 Commando carried out London Duties (guarding the royal palaces in the capital), the first time that the Corps had been so honoured since 1936, and this busy tenure of office was rounded off with a six-month tour in the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus. Seccombe was appointed OBE.

    As a Retired Officer Seccombe became Director of Naval Security. There were major setbacks when a group of CND supporters breached the defences of the submarine base in Faslane, and when the IRA murdered 11 members of the band service at Deal. Nonetheless he successfully shifted the emphasis on security from the Soviet threat to the physical threat from terrorists.

    In 2001 Seccombe and his wife Jacqui emigrated to South Africa to be near their sons, who were working there. It was not an easy decision for this quintessential Englishman, but they bought a house nestling under Table Mountain and close to Newlands cricket and rugby stadiums and Kenilworth racecourse. Unsurprisingly, as a devotee of Evelyn Waugh, PG Woodhouse and James Thurber, Seccombe had a great sense of fun and of the ridiculous.

    Tom Seccombe is survived by his wife Jacqui, née Wooll, and by their two sons.

    Thomas Seccombe, born June 5 1934, died November 10 2021

      1. Beautiful and sunny up here with a clear sky which I’ve been taking advantage of to clear more concrete blocks from the ruin over the road.
        Did think about doing a mortar mix, but decided I don’t have enough sand to make it worth while, so when Salisbury & Wood open tomorrow I’ll be on the phone to order a ton of stuff.
        Then. weather permitting, it’ll be a few days of filling sacks & lugging the bloody stuff up the “garden”.

      2. It was lovely and sunny this afternoon – I took Oscar for a walk and was able to leave my coat behind! Even managed to do a bit of gardening as well, afterwards.

      1. 343505 + up ticks,

        Morning B3,
        To be greeted as saviors by the political overseers who in turn have the electorates
        consent.
        This is NOT new but has been going on for decades.

    1. Over 368,000 now. BLiar will still get his gong but at least our overlords can’t say they didn’t know how hated/despised he is.

      1. 343505+ up ticks,

        Mib,
        It should be reflected at every voting opportunity in NO support for lab/lib/con candidates.

        1. It should but most people revert to type at election time. The recent by-elections show that, they should be the perfect opportunity to vote for an alternative party.

          1. 343505+ up ticks,
            Mis,
            Sad to say that you are so correct, they are quite willing to have their children / Country raped & abused on the alter of “party before Country” and are quite literally demanding
            via the polling booth, the same again as has been suffered.

          3. 343505+ up ticks,
            Morning N,
            Then due to their neglect decade on decade they have assisted the paedophile fraternity to make their connection, at the cost of mentally scarring their OWN children.

            This nation has sank that low, that is a FACT.

          4. Blame the education system rather than the great unwashed, ogga, for they have failed to educate people to think for themselves.

          5. 343505+ up ticks,
            N,
            I do beg to differ in the nicest possibly way
            natural inborn instinct tells one the difference betwixt right & wrong.

            Learning for many started after school was finally out.

          6. This nation has sank deliberately and malicious been pulled tdown hat low. Now the main perpetrator is being given a knighthood.

            Sometimes my own mortality is a comfort to me. At least when I die, I am increasingly coming to the conclusion thts there is a part of me that will be relieved.

          7. Who gives a toss? They’re all the same. Why? Because big fat state is in control, not the public.

      2. Of course Blair is very vehemently loathed by millions of people and there can hardly be many of his supporters on this forum.

        On the other hand, even though we admire Margaret Thatcher here there are millions of people who detested her as much as we detest Blair.

          1. I agree with you!

            Blair is hated for the evil he did; Thatcher is hated for the good she did and the unforgiveable sin of being right.

        2. Yes, but they hate Lady T because she beat them, not because what she did was evil.

          We hate Blair because he’s a self serving, nasty, greedy sociopathic bastard.

    3. “Clucking Bell,” says the Portrait In The Attic “I can’t compete with that.”

    4. ‘While this government recognises the public discontent over this issue we believe that Blair has earned this honour through his services blah blah blah shut up proles, we couldn’t give a stuff, keep whining, we’re not listening.’

      Until we have referism, recall and direct democracy nothing will change. When they pass these things and ignore us, and until we walk in to our propert, grab them by the hair and drag them out and into prison for that disobedience nothing will change.

  33. BTL Comments are often more concise and sensible than the articles under which they appear. Here is a BTL comment from a Mr Terry Smith under Nick Timothy’s article in today’s DT:

    Blair certainly did a lot during his time in charge:

    1) Mass, uncontrolled, irreversible immigration to rub our noses in diversity;
    2) Devolution, as a result Scotland’s main party trying to break up the Union;
    3) Took us into war on the back of a lie (remember Dr David Kelly);
    4) Politicized the Public Sector;
    5) Gave away our rebate in Brussels in the hope of getting the top job;
    6) Signed us up to the EU Human Rights act in its entirety;
    7) Continues to advise the EU how to inflict damage and undermine Britain.

    For all of this premeditated vandalism, Blair has one of the highest Honour’s in the land bestowed upon him. Begs the question, who is really running this country?

    1. What most Telegraph readers don’t seem to understand yet is that the Queen and the establishment are perfectly well aware of Blair’s ground-laying work for the great reset.
      Yet they still choose to honour him.
      Ergo, they approve of what he did.

      1. We know that Johnson, Major and Cameron are great admirers of Blair as are many people in the Snivel Service. But they had to wait until the DofE’s death before they could twist the Queen’s arm – what a shame she caved in when the Noble Greek was no longer there to protect her!

        2. She’s 95 and has had the year from Hull.
          Those who have taken advantage of her frailty are no better than ‘carers’ who drain their charges’ bank balances.

      2. Charles certainly would have worked on his mother. He’s fully engaged with the WEF and the Great Reset.

      3. I suspect it was Prince Phillip who blocked earlier attempts to “honour” Blair. Now he’s gone…

      4. Blaming Her Majesty is a bit daft. Same as re-opening parliament, she is given a list and reads it. Internally she is probably thinking ‘stupid buggers!’

        1. Have Charles and William’s antics this year not made you realise that they are up to their necks in the great reset? Neutral, they are not. They fully intend to keep the wealth and status that their family has got.

    3. A bunch of cretinous fools without character or competence.

      None of those things matter to big fat state. Not a one. It’s only concern over the Iraq war was having to spend it’s money on the army rather than bonuses and expenses. Probably found the paperwork annoying as well.

      It liked when we gave away the rebate – less for it to do.

      The public sector was already politicised, now it didn’t have to pretend it wasn’t.

      The HRA gave it endless opportunity to meddle and gold plate new laws specific to it’s agenda.

      Scotland leaving demanded a huge budget and tens of thousands of jobs (none of which were needed) to fill in ever more forms for ever less outcome.

    1. And a chum just had a couple of new gigabit fibres plumbed in to supplement their main 10gb line.

      He has more bandwidth from his telco than I’ve on our house core switch. What do we get in the UK? This twaddle over ‘full fibre’ – which is a copper wire. The marketing lies are absurd.

  35. Gosh, going green is costly…whoda thunkit?? From the DT:

    Revealed: The hidden cost of going green

    Exclusive: Homeowners face huge bills to upgrade electricity supplies for heat pumps and car chargers

    By
    Olivia Rudgard,
    ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT
    2 January 2022 • 8:00pm

    Homeowners are being charged thousands of pounds to upgrade their electricity supplies so that they have enough power to charge an electric car and run a heat pump.

    People trying to switch to greener forms of heating already face costs to install alternatives and improve the insulation of their homes.

    Gas boilers and petrol cars are set to be phased out under the Government’s net zero plans.

    But environmentally conscious householders are being penalised with eye-watering bills to upgrade their power supply amid concerns about the network’s ability to cope with a growing reliance on electricity, The Telegraph can reveal.

    Many older homes in the UK have an electrical service of 60 or 80 amps, but 100 amps is standard for newbuilds and is usually seen as a requirement for anyone who wants to install a car charger. For homes that need even more power, three-phase supplies can be installed.

    Gino Pooley, 59, a retired engineer from mid-Wales, enquired about improving his electricity supply to three-phase to enable him to install chargers for his family’s two vehicles and a heat pump.

    He was sent a letter from his distribution network operator, SP Power Networks, stating that the work would cost £14,678 and has abandoned plans to install a heat pump.

    He said: “Having your first charger, with a gas boiler, it won’t affect you. But it will start affecting people nearer the time when they are going to be really pushed to go electric and [get] heat pumps. Then they are going to start realising – hang on a minute, my home can’t deal with this.”

    Laurent Schmitt, the chief executive of smart home startup dcbel, who previously worked on electricity grids in Europe, said most UK households could not handle the electricity demand of car charging and heat-pump heating at the same time.

    “If you have your normal electricity appliances, plus an electrical car charging at a decent speed – the standard is around seven kilowatt – plus a heat pump, then you would already exceed this 100 amps,” he said.

    Faster car chargers that provide 11kw charging can be installed in 100-amp homes, but there is a risk of putting too much demand on the system if other electrical appliances are used at the same time, leading to blown fuses and blackouts, experts said. Extra chargers add to this risk.

    Electric car drivers have also been quoted hundreds of pounds to upgrade their power systems from 60 or 80 amps to 100.

    Ben Nelmes, the head of policy at NewAutomotive, a transport research organisation, said: “Some of them will charge an absolute fortune – or worse they’ll refuse to do it.

    “People will sign a lease on an electric car, they’ll call up their electricity supplier and say: ‘I want to have an electric car, I want home charging, I need to upgrade my fuse box.’

    “The electricity supplier will then ring up the distribution network operator, and the distribution network operators sometimes say no. And that causes chaos for people, which is really bad – they’re trying to do the right thing and switch to an electric car.”

    National upgrade to improve substations and cables

    A spokesman for SP Power Networks said it was planning to invest in mass upgrades and did not charge for upgrades to a 100 amp supply.

    “A typical electric vehicle can double household consumption, and heat pumps can have a similar or even greater impact,” he said.

    “In the majority of cases, these low carbon technologies can be safely accommodated by the cables and assets we use to provide the customer with their electricity supply.

    “Connection requests involving both upgrading a domestic supply from a single supply to three-phase and requiring expensive network reinforcement are rare.

    “The current cost of this upgrade can vary significantly, depending on the work required, and is in line with the charging methodology used by all GB distribution network operators.”

    A national upgrade programme, slated to begin in 2023, is expected to improve substations and cables to allow them to cope with the demands of thousands of domestic heat pumps and car chargers, which the existing grid was not designed to handle.

    A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “The vast majority of domestic consumers will not need to pay for an upgraded connection to accommodate a heat pump and electric vehicle charger.

    “Where costs are chargeable, these are regulated by Ofgem to ensure they are calculated appropriately.”

    The department added that an Ofgem review into the cost of new connections, which could see charges drop, is ongoing.

    * * *

    These BTLs are typical:

    Andy RoadKing
    13 HRS AGO
    I was told I had to have a 3 phase connection on a new property but the connection joint is quite large and Western Power are finding many cables are not deep enough which means lowering supply cables into the ground. I was also informed the structure carrying electric to cities, towns, villages and remote properties will need to be upgraded and that’s without the fact we are ploughing money into unreliable windmills, solar and power stations like Drax that burn 25 million trees a year.
    It will take 50 years and £trillions to even attempt the green eco-loons wet dreams and that’s without millions of new electric cars and 70% of property in the UK not suitable for Heat pump heating because of their construction and lack of insulation.
    And it is quite likely the whole eco-loon dream is the Betamax of future energy with other power sources coming to the fore in the future.
    The childlike eco-loon dream is destroying wealth, the economy, farming, aviation, travel and transport.
    There is no democratic mandate for this lunacy, we have been duped. It must be stopped now.

    Mick Lennard
    5 HRS AGO
    The banning of gas cookers and ovens from 2025 is the start of the roll out of the Climate Change Act which decrees that ALL household must cook and heat by electricity by 2035. The trouble, as we all know, is that 99% of our political masters can’t do even simple arithmetic.
    Firstly, it is utter madness anyway to turn vast amounts of electricity back into heat Secondly and even more seriously: 18,000,000 homes in the UK are currently heated by gas. In 2025 (and no later than 2035, 10 years being the lifetime of an average gas
    boiler) these will all be replaced by electrical heating. An average gas boiler is 25KW.
    An average person comes home from work at, say, 6pm and turns on the heating (25KW), plugs in his Electric Vehicle (8KW), turns on the oven (5KW) and takes a shower (7KW) – all at peak demand time.
    Thus, each household will be consuming electricity at the rate of 43KW at peak. Lets call that 40KW to make the sums simpler. Thus, at peak time the UK will need:
    18,000,000 x 40KW = 720GW.
    THIS IS MORE THAN *TEN TIMES* THE UK‘S CURRENT PEAK REQUIREMENT of 60GW.
    It is the equivalent of 180 Drax sized power stations. Oh, and then there is the replacement cabling required to carry ten times the current! Every street in every village, town and city must be dug up and cables replaced with ones that are ten times thicker!!
    As they say, ”Go figure! but our poor MPs can’t manage that.

      2. The government and its apparatchiks can always bleed the taxpayer to finance its lunacy.
        Money taken from us with menaces.

      3. The state is clawing in trillions from another tax source. Why should it care about reality!

    2. Quite apart from the impossibility, without vast expense, of upgrading our country’s underground power cabling to handle the power requirements, the thought of having to use electricity to cook horrifies me. I’ve experienced using it during holiday lets and compared to the instant and controllable gas jet, glowing elements simply do not operate well enough.

      1. No gas here so my ancient cooker is electric – it’s a ceramic hob and I like it, even though it could do with new thermostats.

        2. No gas here either,J, but we replaced our old all-electric cooker with one that has a gas hob, supplied by Calor gas cylinders affixed to the wall outside the kitchen. Works well for us and, aaaaah, the controlability.

          1. We had a calor gas hob when we bought this house – the bottle was in the adjacent cupboard. But I wasn’t enamoured of it and the rest of the cooker was past it.

          1. Depends on the pan.
            Our “old” ones, about 20 years old, were bought before we got the induction – from IKEA. Excellent, so they are. Then we moved house, fitted a new kitchen, and threw out the old hotplate top & bought the induction. Can’t use SWMBOs big jam copper, unfortunately, so that’s been relegated to decorative duty.

          2. My pots and pans are all old – but my biggest favourite is the cast iron pot I bought in France in 1987. I liked it so much as a part of the kit in the gite we stayed in that I bought one before we went home. It’s excellent for all kinds of casseroles etc.

        2. We moved from gas to induction hob and dual electric ovens 5 years ago and I have no misgivings at all. As sous chef and pot boy I can attest, amongst other things, that cleaning an induction hob is a delight after years of fighting rings , burners and sharp ignition bits. Head Chef (SWMBO) loves it as well.

          1. Our old cast iron hob was dreadful. It would get too hot too slowly, then take forever to cool. After a time it became corroded and rusty.

          2. Now when I look at gas tops, the ironwork, wells for yukk to accumulate and burn on, the complexity… I just wipe over the smooth, flat glass top, and done! Burned on overflow can be scraped off with a plastic windscreen ice scraper (kept handy). Never want to go back.
            In the case of Mother at home, if she leaves it on (not unknown), the place won’t burn down, either, blow up, or poison everybody!

          3. I agree, Paul. I too have induction hobs and an electric oven. As a back-up, if ever needed, I have a bottled-gas Weber barbecue, plus a separate gas ring that I could use to cook on in the event of a power failure.

            No throwing out old pans for me.

    3. Our village and surrounding areas had sporadic power cuts over the Christmas period , all the different phases / circuits or what ever you call them. Engineers had to to attend to various broken over head wires and fault substations .

    4. Why is using an electric car ‘the right thing’? They are incredibly polluting. Horriby environmentally unfriendly.

      It’s that massive gap in provision that this useless government hasn’t thought of – because it’s being driven by ideology, not rational, scientific fact.

      Hell, the whole climate change scam is just a tax scam used by governments to fleece their citizens.

      1. …and, Wibbles, no mention of the prices, a). of the vehicle and b). the replacement Li-Ion batteries (if they haven’t caught fire and marbleised the vehicle.)

  36. My wife and I were discussing Covid infections this morning and I mentioned a report I saw in the DT yesterday that proportionately 3 times as many black people in the UK were being admitted to hospital with the omicron variant of covid as white people. I thought this odd as the reports from South Africa, where the vast majority of the population is black, made it clear that people were recovering from the omicron variant very quickly.

    Caroline replied that she was discussing Covid with our doctor, Françoise, after church yesterday and Françoise made the interesting point that Vitamin D is the thing that gives people the most protection from being badly hit by Covid. Now black people’s bodies are less efficient at absorbing Vitamin D so in countries where there is plenty of sun they can get enough Vitamin D from the sun – but in cold European sunless places they are more likely to suffer from Vitamin D deficiency unless they take supplements.

    Françoise added that in her view Vitamin D would go a long way to dealing with the covid problem and I know that Caroline and I are not alone on this forum in taking daily doses of Vitamin D along with Vitamin C and zinc. However, as there is no money to be made out of Vitamins C and D and zinc Big Pharma is keen not to promote their use just as it is very keen to use its influence to have Ivermectin banned.

    1. ‘Morning Rastus. Vit C, D and zinc for me too. I started Vit D about 4-5 years ago when I was finding the long winter months difficult to live with. In my case it definitely helped. (Placebo effect? Quite possibly, but who cares if it brought about an improvement?) Vit C for many years now, following removal of part of a lung in the 1970s and back to back throat infections until my tonsils were removed when I was 40. I rarely get more than one cold per year now.

      1. I too have been taking daily Vitamin D for the past couple of years (not Vitamin C nor Zinc) and this has definitely kept me upbeat over the winter months.

        1. I take Vits B, C, D and zinc. I found that until I added Vit B, I was struggling on the verges of depression, particularly when stressed and there was little daylight.

      2. Nope, it’s real. My brother’s marks in school were always noticeably worse between Christmas and Easter, but nobody knew why. Diagnosed as Vit D deficient in adulthood.
        My son the same, plus he got every cold and virus that was going round, one after the other, non-stop. He has the classic body type that is often Vit D deficient.
        I tried to buy child Vit D supplements for him in a pharmacy, and got laughed out by the pharmacist.
        Later, we managed to get blood tests, he was very deficient, and now relies on Vit D supplements. The constant infections stopped as soon as the supplements started.

        1. I wonder if that could be the reason my younger son has always suffered badly with colds. As a very fit adult, he takes a multivitamin-mineral supplement every day but maybe it simply doesn’t include an adequate level of Vitamin D. Not that he would listen to my advice to check that – he knows best!

          1. The war queen used to say ‘You’ve not taken your vitamin tablet’ to me. I said ‘I haven’t’.

            What she meant was ‘take your tablet.’

            If you say what you mean, then the other can either say ‘I don’t want to’ or ‘I will later’.

            It is much easier if folk say what they mean rather than being oblique.

          2. He lives away, not much contact. Unfortunately, he doesn’t take kindly to advice on anything these days.

    2. Funny how it’s not racism when the government fails to point out that darker skinned people need to protect themselves with Vit D supplements.

      People have to start thinking for themselves, not trusting the authorities to give them good advice anyway.

      1. It is the same with Prostate Cancer

        Serum prostate specific antigen level (XabAM) 6 ug/L [< 5] Outside reference range Males of black ethnic origin have lifetime risk of of 1 in 4 compared to 1 in 8 for white men of developing prostate cancer.

        1. OH had never had a PSA test until his crisis early last January. He should have known earlier that he had it. Still the hormone injections now are keeping it under control.

    3. Mrs VVOF was told to take Vitamin D daily following her treatment for breast cancer. I take a multi vitamin tablet daily and so far we are still just “lucky” with avoiding Covid.
      Long may we remain “lucky”
      As the famous sporting quote says, “the more I practice the luckier I become”. In the same line of thinking, I hope the more we try to look after ourselves the luckier we are.

        2. My own mother lived until she was 90 her younger sister the same age, one brother 94 and elder sister 96, but she live in sunny QLD and apparently had a wee dram before turning in each night. Just shows most of the time the experts don’t get it right, too busy with facts and figures and they probably never meet enough people.

          1. Meeting people also allows you to build up an immunity to infection!
            Also – You need to eat a peck of dirt before you die.

          1. How nostalgic! We used to auction our mothers’ ages at primary school.

            Mine is 96, but still alive and rings up every day. She swears by the health pages in Tuesday’s Daily Mail. Each week she guides me through the latest treatment for Ailment of the Week. There’s little I haven’t had that she hasn’t had better.

    4. Mrs VVOF was told to take Vitamin D daily following her treatment for breast cancer. I take a multi vitamin tablet daily and so far we are still just “lucky” with avoiding Covid.
      Long may we remain “lucky”
      As the famous sporting quote says, “the more I practice the luckier I become”. In the same line of thinking, I hope the more we try to look after ourselves the luckier we are.

    5. We pallid northerners are the result of Darwinism.
      As humans spread from sunnier climates, only the paler skinned amongst them would survive to breed.
      The others would die from the results of skeletal disorders – particularly women if they reached breeding age with distorted pelvises.

      1. Well , times have changed , all school children were given a third of a pint of milk at breaktime , and we were loaded up with codliver oil and malt by the spoonful , plus Delrosa rosehip syrup or concentrated orange juice , watered down . we were post war babies , so how did the scientists know what was what?

          1. I don’t think I had Virol but codliver oil, haliborange and welfare orange juice and rose hip syrup all came my way. What do modern parents give their children now?

            We also had tonsillectomies……..whooping cough, measles, chicken pox…….

          2. There used to be a very old saying that if a child grew up in London it would survive anything. I had the lot, bar Scarlet Fever and Whooping cough- although my brother had the latter. I remember having mumps and sitting in bed swollen like a giant bullfrog. My dad brought in ice cream each evening as it was all I could swallow.
            I had numerous sore throats and it was said my tonsils would have to come out- I’ve still got ’em. My swan song was a horrible time with glandular fever when I was 17. I was off school for 3 weeks and had a lot of catching up to do.
            Apart from two bouts with bronchitis in CT, in August, I have been OK.

          3. I didn’t have Scarlet Fever, though an older friend of mine did. Whooping cough and the rest I did – though mumps not until I was 25 – and very nasty it was too. My two very young children had no immunity from me so we all had it together.

            I used to get ear-ache as a child but that must have been something I grew out of. Appendicitis and appendectomy when I was 10.

            I’m in good health now with no apparent defects to speak of.

          4. “What do modern parents give their children now?” Pizza, chips, burgers, piscine digits, gelato, and antibiotics.

        2. Aaaarrrgghhhhh …….. visions of two cold liver oil saturated teaspoons …… every night before bed.
          My brother and I were abused!!!!

          2. My mother actually kept two special teaspoons for the CLO because the smell and taste even impregnated metal.

          3. My memories are more of having at least a pint of milk every day, since several, even in rural Norfolk didn’t like milk and I would happily guzzle theirs. Same at lunch (dinner) time I stocked up on lotsa cabbage.

    6. Hang on – are you suggesting that we have adapted to our environment and that drawing thousands of unwanted invaders from alien countries here is actually detrimental?

    7. There is more than a suggestion in all that, some people might well be living in the wrong areas on this earth, perhaps more travel should be encouraged.

    8. Good afternoon Richard.
      We take Vitamin D3 as advised by two surgeons I saw last year. One a black man from the West Indies and the other an Arab I think. Both said that even if we spent every waking hour in the sun in our summer it would not supply sufficient vitamin D to activate the immune system to the necessary level, we are too far north. One of them mentioned the band, either side of the equator, which would have sufficient strength to generate sufficient protection.

  37. Those with high blood pressure and of a nervous disposition should look away now!

    ‘Offensive’ Black and White Minstrel Show features in BBC commemoration

    BBC History unveils exhibitions looking at the most iconic objects, people and contributors in a century of broadcasting

    By
    Victoria Ward
    3 January 2022 • 6:00am

    The controversial Black and White Minstrel show features in a new archive collated to commemorate the BBC’s centenary, as the corporation examines how such an “offensive” programme lasted so long.

    BBC History has unveiled a trio of online exhibitions looking at the most iconic objects, people and contributors as it seeks to tell the story of a “century of broadcasting”.

    The 100 Objects collection features technology, props and artwork from the Queen Victoria bust from the EastEnders set to Mr Darcy’s shirt from Pride And Prejudice, while the 100 Faces collection includes photographs of a broad array of correspondents, actors and monarchs, from Floella Benjamin and Bruce Forsyth to Delia Smith and King Edward VIII.

    The 100 Voices collection tells the stories of people who worked at the BBC, covering news and elections, the birth of TV, radio, pioneering women, and entertaining the nation.

    The People, Nation, Empire category includes a section on The Black and White Minstrel Show, which ran from 1958 to 1978 and is described as “arguably the BBC’s most glaring failure to understand the damage it could do when it traded in out-dated stereotypes”.

    David Hendy, Professor of Media and Cultural History at the University of Sussex, notes that the traditional defence that it was “of its time”, “does not quite wash”.

    He says: “For the best part of 20 years it didn’t seem to occur to anyone in a position of authority at the BBC that the series really was offensive to more than just a few ‘killjoys’.”

    Prof Hendy admits it is “hard not to be shocked” by a line in a letter sent by chief assistant Oliver Whitley to Barrie Thorne, the BBC’s chief accountant, saying: “The best advice that could be given to coloured people by their friends would be: ‘On this issue, we can see your point, but in your own best interests, for heaven’s sake, shut up.’”

    Other voices from the archives include that of Peter Dimmock, the producer responsible for the coverage of the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, as he describes the tricks he used to secure permission to film the event, and David Attenborough, who describes in 1991 how he thought The First Eden, a documentary broadcast four years earlier, would be “about it” for him as he was “getting on a bit” at 60.

    * * *

    No BTLs allowed. Silly me, the DT doesn’t like free speech. David Hendy is just another scruffy media luvvie and former Beeboid…no surprises there. But he does have a book to flog, poor chap, so a bit of early Wokey Cokey is only to be expected.

    https://profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p131073-david-hendy

    1. Telling whinging Lefties to shut up when they dislike something should be common place!

    2. That Hendy bloke has little or no idea of history.

      Does he rail against medieval robber barons, another item “of its time.”

      No, of course he doesn’t, either because he agrees it was “of its time” or he simply doesn’t know what “Might is Right” meant in those days.

  38. Today we shall mainly be entertaining 8 adults and 6 children (4 households!) chez nous, and sticking our collective fingers up to Nikeliar! I expect some of the younger ones may have a bit of a jig aboot, so we will lock the door against the Scottish Stasi polis, as we don’t want to be arrested as per the oaps in Glasgow, at Hogmanay! Will let you know what transpires!

    3. Pull the curtains across too and have some of them come in through the back door after dark!

  39. Good morning and Happy New Year, dear NoTTLers.

    Still in bed – complications. Happily, I am able to spend a bit more time on the laptop, but it is still rather an on and off thing; this however has made me metaphorically sick to my stomach. I am sure that the anticipated knighthod of the odious Blair has already been well and truly covered here. I have very little doubt as to what my fellow NoTTLers’ views are.

    Sadly, but perhaps not surprisingly, the Reform party has come out in favour. W*****s.

    Plus how in all that is sane, could the Queen have anything to do with this? It is Blair who took away from her, her beloved yacht Britannia. Never mind about opening the floodgates to the world’s population to come and undercut working people’s livelihoods (in the case of those that bother to work – legally or on the black market), significantly overcrowd our poor little island with the increasing demand on our education and health systems. Plus turn our societies into drug-fuelled knife-wielding gangsta-hoods. Plus set off the building over of our former green and peasant land. Oh, and overturning our centuries’ old common law rights and freedoms…

    Blair was one of the most destructive persons ever to have come into contact with this country, if not the most destructive – various German Chancellors included.

    I have siged this petition. If the PTB want to continue to behave in a completely undemocratic and high-handed way, we can at least show our contempt. If only more people would never vote for LibLabConGreen again – but the poison has run through the veins of our lovely country.

    Apologies if this is rather disjointed, as what I have got has a side-effect of being rather disorientating – but you know me – and will no doubt get my gist!

    I look forward to reading your views and conversations again. This really is a lovely community unlike any other online! Love you all!

    Here is the petition again – it can’t be mention too often IMO:

    https://www.change.org/p/the-prime-minister-tony-blair-to-have-his-knight-companion-of-the-most-noble-order-of-the-garter-rescinded

    1. So sorry to hear you’ve been ill! I did wonder but assumed you must have been busy. I hope you’re on the mend now.

    2. Good job, Lass,
      The petition is currently at 392,625 when I last looked. Aiming for at least 500,000.

      1. Pavlova looks fantastic, but you’re supposed to set off the fireworks, not wear them!

      2. My word that’s what I call a dessert, how many people ate their way through that ?

        1. There were more strawbs inside that i had steeped in Gin and Elderflower cordial. For a surprise.

        1. You have seen it once before. It is only the second time i have worn it and i’ve had it more than two years !

    5. Hello HL

      Hells bells , poor you , sorry to read you are feeling horrible .

      Blair is looking more like the image of a devil , by the day.

      He is an absolute narcissitic freak .

      He exhudes glib poisonous vibes .

      This is what tainted money does to someone like that.. same league as Fred the shred and Green and all the others , it is the glint in the eye, ughhhh.

      2. It is not nice to wish death on anyone – but unfortunately I don’t believe karma will ever catch up with him. Karma is something that we believe in, in order to keep us sane (there must be some punishment somewhere – mustn’t there? kind of thing)…if Karma doesn’t exist, what’s the point?

        Therein lies madness! Best to stop thinking about the evil and concentrate on the good.

    6. Hi T, Happy New year to you, I hope you’ll be better soon. Let’s hope this year blows away all the horrible old cobwebs, who needs them.
      Don’t get me started on AH Blair, he did more underlying and long lasting damage to the UK than Hitler did. I see there is one person about every 10 seconds signing the petition. That’s great, but my money is on him getting it, this is another way of showing the people of the UK that those in charge aka the political classes and civil service, do as they wish and have already constructed an on going process of complete liberty to deliberately eff up everything they want to.

    7. 343505+ up ticks,
      Afternoon HL.
      Chin up, better times
      acoming,
      In my book reform party = tory (ino) party top up.

    8. Good afternoon Hl and a happy new year. I hope you’re feeling better soon and that you were not ill over Christmas. Regarding HM, I have wondered recently whether she is actually still there, either physically (died or major stroke) or spiritually (dementia?). If so, has this been taken advantage of in an attempt to further demolish the monarchy by awarding the detested Blair his long-desired knighthood and to give him a leg-up into their nest of vipers? The powers that be could get away with a great deal under the auspices of ‘covid’ – I have thought that some of the videos showed evidence of deep fakery; there was no Sandringham visit this Christmas, no Queen at the Remembrance Day service. Strange things throughout history occur in circles of power. I mentioned this on another web site – one person replied, the words ‘sectioned’ and ‘crackpot’ were used in my direction, but such was the vehemence I did wonder if I were over the target – derision and humiliation in one form or another has always been governments’ preferred manner of steering populations away from thoughts that they do not wish them to have. It is all just so odd because the Queen has held out for so long over Blair and the knighthood.

      2. Has the Queen been seen in person since before Remembrance Day? The Christmas message could have been recorded at any time – has she attended any public event since then?

        1. I don’t think so, I can’t remember exactly, she turned up to the G7 (15?) event in Cornwall (June?) and I think that was the last time she was out and about. She declined the COP26 do in Glasgow in September (?) – I’m not sure of the month – so I think she hasn’t been seen since Cornwall. There are rumours circulating on Twitter that she died during the summer sometime and although as I said I have had insults hurled at me, I neither believe wholeheartedly, nor disbelieve, the rumours. It just seems odd that she hasn’t been seen. On the occasions that she has been seen on video I have thought she looked a good ten years younger than when I saw her at the last State Opening of Parliament, probably 2019.

          After the Christmas of Dec 2019 do you recall Channel 4 showing us a video of someone purporting to be the Queen tap dancing on a table? The face was certainly that of a much young Queen, probably in her late sixties and the body definitely was not the one to which we are accustomed seeing. Perhaps there was a message there for us ‘things are not always what they seem’.

          1. I expect she was glad to get out of the Cop Flop. I think she was last seen walking with a stick, then they announced she’d hurt her back just before Remembrance, so I think it’s a couple of months now since she was seen. But they are going ahead with the Jubilee arrangements so perhaps she’s just being careful. I don’t think they’d be able to keep her death hidden.

          2. I agree, though cover of ‘covid’ would make it easier, and a few, trusted, very well paid employees. They would have to go along with Jubilee arrangements until a suitable time – though she may not turn up for the JubiIee as being too frail. I’m not convinced either way – I just really like playing around with ideas…! We shall see.

          3. She’s lost a trusted friend and lady in waiting this week – but at her age she’s probably realistic about these things.

      3. I know what you mean about HM having dementia. Perhaps she is on a “forgive everybody” crusade before she dies – but she has no right whatsoever to forgive Blair for what he did to us and OUR country.

      1. 343505+ up ticks,
        Afternoon WS,
        If you were a pharmaceutical investor their mantra would be ” wonder drug”

  42. Good morning, May I ,with regret, add to the January delights with this just in from Robert Malone MD. A $100bn US life insurance company reports that deaths of working age people are up 40%. A one in 200 year rise of 10% would without Fauci, Gates and friends be regarded as exceptional.

    https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/what-if-the-largest-experiment-on?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo2MTcyNTczNiwicG9zdF9pZCI6NDY0OTc5NzEsIl8iOiJNcWxILyIsImlhdCI6MTY0MTIxMDU5NSwiZXhwIjoxNjQxMjE0MTk1LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItNTgzMjAwIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.elqN4SVnD7LBxBnskR7shAdvsrn-lKGtdYZDfGBZ9z4

    1. We certainly need to get as much gen as we can get on this planned genocide!

      More and more doctors are beginning to speak out about it in France and certain prominent experts, such as Christian Peronne, are being silenced because main stream papers and television companies are not allowed to publish what they say.

    2. Overall death rate appears to have gone up about 2-3 % in figures from Britain and from Germany. That’s with 2/3 of the population jabbed.
      I wonder if the 40% figure is so high because the sort of people who have life insurance are also the wealthy, educated people who tend to go for the jabs? Still 40% rise in death rate appears to be very high. I suppose we will get more information in time.

  43. Liz Truss must ditch the Protocol to keep the peace in Northern Ireland

    Frustrated Unionists are losing faith in the Belfast Agreement

    KATE HOEY • 2 January 2022 • 9:00am

    In wishing Foreign Secretary Liz Truss a happy and successful New Year, I want to reassure her that her new responsibility for the Northern Ireland Protocol is not a poisoned chalice but a golden opportunity to secure both the future of the Union and the continuation of the now fragile peace bought by the Belfast Agreement of 1998.

    At the heart of the Belfast Agreement is the cross-community consent principle, a form of voting used in the Northern Ireland Assembly which requires the support of both main communities in Northern Ireland. In other words the majority of unionists and the majority of nationalist members of the Assembly.

    But in the case of the Protocol, the cross-community consent mechanism has been “disapplied” in an attempt to neutralise any Unionist effort to vote down the Protocol.

    Unsurprisingly, Unionists are opposing this removal of a key element of the Agreement, and are turning against the Belfast Agreement as a whole in increasing numbers.

    The instinctive feeling spreading across grassroots loyalist groups is that those who support the Union must give, and those in support of Nationalism must get what they want.

    Liz Truss might also usefully look at the above situation in the context of the ongoing legal challenge to the Protocol, in which I am one of the applicants. The Government claims that the terms of the Protocol “subjugates” the Act of Union of the English and Irish crowns of 1800. The Union, as a legal construct, is the Act of Union. It follows, that by subjugating the core terms of it, Northern Ireland’s place in the Union is subjugated. If the Government can subjugate the fundamental constitutional basis of the Union and hand law-making powers to a foreign jurisdiction, without offending the principle of consent, then what meaningful protection does it really afford the Union? Rather it seems that the principle of consent has been reduced to mere symbolism.

    That is bad news for Northern Ireland: I am increasingly fearful of the simmering anger amongst loyalist communities. The potential for serious violence has been underestimated. This is a dangerous moment.

    So, what must Liz Truss do? Leaving Northern Ireland in the single market, would require a fundamental change to the substance of the Union which would be unacceptable to Unionists, both in England and Northern Ireland

    Yes, tinkering with the trading issues at the Irish Sea border (a “solution” which has been aired) may help alleviate some of the ridiculous bureaucracy and expense for business incurred by the Protocol, but the Foreign Secretary needs to understand it will not be enough to stop growing instability. This is an issue which cannot be fudged.

    In fact, there is only one way to confront these basic issues, and to resolve them to the benefit of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland remaining in the EU single market, subject to EU laws and the EU court is and always will be fundamentally incompatible with being part of the United Kingdom. It really is as simple as that.

    If the Prime Minister wants to protect Northern Ireland being an integral part of the United Kingdom, as he has said he does, there is only one way to secure that. The Protocol in its entirety must go.

    Scrapping the Protocol is also the best way to secure continuing peace in Northern Ireland: if it is left in place and the cross-community consent principle is not reinstated, simmering loyalist tensions will surely bubble over.

    Deep down, I think the Prime Minister knows that there is only one sensible way forward.

    And I expect that Liz Truss, too, believing in the Union as she does, will conclude that the best and safest way to proceed is to ditch the Protocol altogether.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/02/liz-truss-must-ditch-protocol-keep-peace-northern-ireland/

    1. I would love to have the confidence in our rotten government, to ditch the protocol, that Kate Hoey thinks exists in doing something sensible.

      1. Brexit is doomed unless and until we get rid of the N Ireland Protocol, stop the ECJ’s meddling in our affairs, unbetray our fishermen and resign from the ECHR.

  44. Just back from taking younger son to the station to start his journey back to Switzerland……. we don’t see eye to eye on lots of things but we didn’t have a falling out so that’s good. His visit (first for two years) was uneventful so that’s good too.

    1. So pleased to hear that Ndovu. I have to be careful what I say too, as long as we keep off anything political we are usually (but not always) safe. I now have warnings going off in my head “don’t go down that path, it’s dangerous, keep off” when approaching anything remotely political. In the end they will learn the hard way, as I did – from experience.

      1. The last time I went to Switzerland, in 2018, we had a massive row over dinner – deliberately stirred up by his friend, in whose restaurant we were dining…….. he didn’t come back here that Christmas, but had calmed down by Christmas 2019. The other son is somewhat to the right of Genghis Khan, so I was rather dreading the table talk, but nothing transpired.

        1. Oh dear I’m sorry to hear about the eggshells. We too are tip toeing, around the “jab” subject. Our son, now that he is home, seems to be a full convert to having it. We dread the day when he says he’s made an appointment to have it done. Our d-I-l works for care homes (they’ve been extremely good to her while son has been so ill) but is a fully pAid up member of the Covid business – she does have to be but is on board and told us, when son was in hospital, he’s having the injections when he’s back home. Already the “I wish you would have it” has begun.

          We don’t mention it and are allowed to stand outside their house to talk to him, under a gazebo that friends loaned with a heater. I’ve been doing some ironing for her (actually for him as son does it usually) and cups of tea are handed to us. Only fully “vaxxed and boostered” friends are allowed in the house. It’s all very surreal when vaxxed and boostered can still catch and spread it. Madness.

          1. Other people are allowed in but not his parents?? Madness!!

            I can understand her fears and can see why he’s vulnerable but the jab might also make him more susceptible to catching anything – has she considered that?

            Younger son has booked his booster for next week when he’s back in Basel – elder son is adamant the jabs are coming nowhere near him………

          4. It is madness but they know our stance and it’s now avoided. As she’s a qualified nurse you would think she would recognise that viruses are airborne. We haven’t enquired where they thing he caught the virus and why she and our grandson didn’t catch it. They have both had the jabs and would, no doubt, claim hey didn’t get it because of the jabs that DON’T give protection.
            The madness will soon pass when he goes back to work and will mix with all sorts.

          5. I am sorry to say it, but that sounds utterly crazy to me. Can they not stand back and realise how weird this behaviour is? Are they trying to protect you or themselves?
            I dread my family trying some such nonsense on us.

          6. The whole thing is utterly crazy. I’m hoping that maybe in a little while we may be able to have some discussion about the jabs. Certainly I would think that our son having the jab now is most unwise if they both think he has had “covid”.

  45. Email to Jonathan Lord
    Sir
    I note Tony Blair has been granted the highest order of Knighthood,an event that surely reflects the esteem and support he is held in by his loving public…….
    It is high time his publically funded security detail was removed both as an economy measure and so he can meet his admirers at much closer quarters
    Yours Sincerely
    Rik
    (What could possibly go wrong)

    1. Unfortunately how can anything go right with this odious piece of sub-humanity.

    2. I sent him the article Hugh Janus put on here this morning about the stupidity of government policy about electricity.
      Haven’t had a reply yet but he may just have tired of my continued assault on his brain.

    3. Exactly. Anyone so universally acclaimed has no need to be protected from the public.

    2. I seldom see face masks being worn here in Sweden; however, this morning I attended my GP’s surgery for a blood test prior to my annual “Old Man’s MOT” with my GP next Monday. In the surgery all the patients awaiting being seen were wearing face masks, as were those nurses performing the blood tests. I was the only member of the public present not wearing a face-nappy.

      It was interesting to note that none of the other doctors, nurses and receptionists — who were wandering about — were wearing any form of face-covering. In addition, there were no notices anywhere advising of the wearing of a respiration-restrictor and no one pointed out to me the fact that I was not wearing one.

      1. OH went to our surgery for his blood test last week and apparently they are mandatory there. The hospitals and surgeries are the only places I have worn them since last winter.

  47. Face masks in schools won’t be in place ‘for a day longer than needed’, says Nadhim Zahawi

    But, as they say, ‘How long is a piece of string?’

    1. Yo Rastus

      Oh for someone in our guvenrnint to be called Fred Smith, Betty Jones

      Anyone but Brown

  52. Good afternoon all.
    Playing at pot stirring, has anyone bothered to look past their raised blood pressur score and steamed up spectacles with regards to Sir Tony’s ‘K’?
    Generally these sort of honours are awarded, or given, as a leaving/retirement present. I doubt that Sir Blair would want to waste his time in the House of Lords, so this knighthood allows him to gracefully depart politics for ever. In terms of precedence, it would allow him to sit at the top table at important functions, and represent some aspect of the Uk when necessary.

    1. Ha bluddy ha.
      Blair leaving politics is as likely as Saudi Arabia declaring the prophet Mohammed was a fraud.

    2. Unfortunately it seems he’s dead but he won’t lie down; he keeps popping up to put his oar in.

    1. What was the result of the Chilcot inquiry?
      The report found that in the run-up to the war, peaceful diplomatic options to avoid instability and WMD proliferation had not been exhausted, and that the war was therefore “not a last resort”.

      The Chilcot Inquiry cost £13million.

    1. I feel sorry for trans people but it’s their problem – not mine. They have a mental health issue and it must be hard for them but why do the rest of us have to go along with their neurosis?

      1. Why can’t we all just be treated as people? We all belong to the same race don’t we? Or have I just used a no-no word?

      2. That is the whole problem.
        If a bloke wants to dress like a woman & live a feminine lifestyle or a woman dress like a man & live a masculine one, no problem at all, so long as they do not scare the horses.
        But what has this lumbering old carthorse kicking in the traces is them not only claiming to be the opposite sex, but expecting me to agree with them.

      3. There have always been blokes who dress as women and vice versa.
        Why has all this nonsense been allowed to develop. What they do in the privacy of their own homes is of no interest to the rest of the world. Get over it.
        If they decide to bring it outside their homes then they must put up with the consequences.

    2. The trans lobby will never forgive them for the insult “boring.” Clearly a hate crime.

  55. I am getting tired of this:

    Stephen Tomkins
    5 HRS AGO
    Again.
    It’s only a mask, they said.
    It’s only three weeks to flatten the curve, they said.
    It’s only until Easter.
    It’s only until summer, it’s only until winter.
    It’s only a school, it’s only children.
    It’s only an office, it’s only an office party.
    It’s only a school nativity, sports day.
    It’s only the vulnerable.
    It’s only one injection.
    It’s only two, it’s only three.
    It’s only furlough.
    It’s only borrowing, it’s only half a trillion.
    It’s only mental health, only cancer, dementia, heart disease, Type II diabetes.
    It’s only a lump, it’s only a bad back, it’s only a headache.
    It’s only a funeral. It’s only Christmas.
    It’s only a gym, it’s only a family business, it’s only a job, it’s only a marriage, it’s only a roof over your head, it’s only your past, your present and your future.
    It’s only your degree.
    It’s only your family abroad.
    It’s only teenagers.
    It’s only young people.
    It’s only the old.
    It’s only a nightclub, it’s only a football match, it’s only a mask.
    It’s only proof that you’ve been vaccinated.
    It’s only a health pass, it’s only temporary, it’s only permanent.
    It’s only essential shops, it’s only the difference between travelling the world and not.
    It’s only a request, it’s only a mandate, it’s only the law.
    It’s only for your own good, it’s only for the best.
    It’s only for you. It’s only for others.
    It’s only three weeks, only a mask.
    It’s only a small march, it’s only a conspiracy theory, it’s only a journalist, it’s only a troublemaker.
    It’s only democracy, it’s only a vote, it’s only your rights, it’s only the Nuremberg code, it’s only freedom.
    It’s only history, it’s only our values, it’s only what others fought for.
    It’s only the next three weeks, it’s only next year, it’s only forever.
    Except, it’s only one life.
    And only one chance to live it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/01/02/backlash-against-face-masks-schools-covid-cases-ease/

    2. Had a chat with a fellow radio ham tonight; he said when he visits his parents’ grave he always goes by the War Graves in the churchyard. He told me he’s now started to wonder if it was worth it and whether they’d be turning in them.

        1. Still on limited walks. Worryingly, three days ago we woke to find that she was vomiting from both ends. Took her to the emergency vet in Wimborne where they admitted her and put her on a drip to rehydrate.
          We collected her last night and she seems fine now. The bill was £1200 and change. We have insurance but the premium is huge.

          1. Sadly there appears to be lots of dog type viruses around .. bugs like that are a terrible worry, and the vet charges a small fortune .

            Our spaniels are 13 rs and 8 yrs, our premiums are huge as well . An absolute racket !

    2. Oh Poppiesmum I obvious missed your birthday yesterday. Hope you had a wonderful day. Many happy returns 🥳👏🍷

      1. Thank you, vw, I had a lovely day. The photo was taken in the ‘interim’ between the restaurant lunch and the mud walk in the woods (Christmas Lights event) in the early darkness of very late afternoon.

    7. An empty plate but a full glass, glad to see age has not destroyed your priorities. Keep on like that and the next 30 years will fly by.

    8. An empty plate but a full glass, glad to see age has not destroyed your priorities. Keep on like that and the next 30 years will fly by.

    1. While the image may not be valid, the simple truth is that charging an electric car means either gas was burned, coal was mined, wood was transported across the ocean (to be burned) or nucear waste was created.

      Until we have fusion/hydrogen/helium3 power, charging an electric vehicle is as polluting as a petrol car. Anyone who thinks otherwise is lying to themselves.

      What’s that? What about wind? It barely hits enough energy to return that which was spent creating it. Sorry kiddies, green ain’t green.

      1. Green always meant unworldly, inexperienced, lacking in knowledge.

        The meaning hasn’t changed has it.

        1. ……..my salad days
          When I was green in judgement, cold in blood
          To say as I said then.

          As your English teacher would have told you if you had been studying Antony and Cleoptra that by this, the Queen of Egypt was explaining to her maids, Charmian and Iras, who were teasing her about her former lover, Julius Caesar, that in her youth her taste in men was not as sound as it is now.

    2. It’s a good meme but apparently the “diesel powered EV charger” is a spoof which has been around for a couple years!

    3. And yet ironically it was the odious Hilary who did his best to negate the voice of the people who wanted Brexit and who put damaging obstacles in the way of getting a good one with a WTO deal.

      What did Tony Benn do to his son Hilary to make him grow up to be such a twittish, twerpish twat?

  59. The Duke of Cambridge privately told Afghan refugees that he was “frustrated” that the UK was unable to evacuate more people fleeing the Taliban, The Times has been told.

    During a visit to meet some refugees who resettled in the UK last month, he also asked refugees and volunteers why it was taking so long to find permanent homes for the 15,000 Afghans who were evacuated to the UK in August.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/duke-of-cambridge-expresses-frustration-over-failure-to-evacuate-more-from-afghanistan-rt3np5ppn

    1. He could move out of his mansions and offer them to deserving refugees, that should fix the problem.

      1. They have huge homes, are surrounded by beautiful art all day long. Get driven everywhere, have all their meals prepared, have no bills, live in sprawling parkland…

        … and have no privacy, no choices, no anonymity, no silence. It is a life of servitude in a golden cage. Folk look at what they have, not what they don’t.

        I think I’ll pass.

        1. I know perfectly well how the royals live – and William is so out of touch with the common man that he should keep his mouth shut on current political events.

          1. He doesn’t seem to ponder or worry about the indigenous homeless or the PTSD’d veterans who are unemployable and without a home through serving his country in his interests. William should stick to events that involve the cutting of a ribbon, the opening of a curtain and actively avoid comments of any political nature.

          2. He is busy seeing how many of his father’s errors he can commit himself before he himself becomes king.

          3. I honestly don’t know what he thinks. I don’t think he’s allowed to say anything of his own.

            And yes, but the failure there is of government, which refuses to provide the funds to help the injured military as it’s far nicer to invite the people they fought against in the front door.

          4. He isn’t very bright, to start with. So he prolly doesn’t think much, anyway. He is fed lines by “convincing” people – and, like his equally dim father, believes them. And re-tweets them.

          6. Yes. To see sister-in-law for a couple of hours. And her cat!! Her house was terribly cold, though. She finds it expensive to heat.

        2. I’ve always said I would hate to have HM’s job – always on parade, never off duty, always having to be well groomed, every move watched …

    2. I often wonder how much these folk are quoted out of context almost intentionally.Why, for example, ask the gimmigrants the question?

    6. If homes were available they should first be offered to indigenous homeless.

      They will have to work harder repurposing office blocks into flats, instead of more and more countryside being built over.

        1. Only certain types of jobs can be done from home – and that doesn’t include lower paid jobs or service industries. Nice for those who can.

          1. My lovely neighbour has been working from home. She has…I have been checking ! :@)

            Her husband can’t though because he can’t fit a RN Warship on his drive.

          3. SWMBO & I are working from home. But then, we’re office rats. Firstborn can’t, as he’s a motor technician, and 2nd Son is a teaching assistant / kindergarten worker.

          4. It does include London and other large city office based jobs. Civil service, Lawyers, Accountants for example.
            All those empty offices would make great homes.

    7. I would not be at all surprised if many of those Afghans were deliberate or unwitting contributors to the deaths and maiming of British service personnel.

    8. He ought to set up pre-fab dwellings and tents in the grounds of his own houses and pay all the expenses of housing them himself.

      Charity begins at home so he should use his own home.

    9. The Czech media reported that on New Years’s Eve a 23 yr old Afghan refugee who was based in Germany crossed the border and then allegedly stabbed a woman in the chest before allegedly raping a 19 year old woman. Of course, senior Royals have bodyguards.

    10. I’m Sure William and Katherine have more than enough room to put them all up.

      Don’t just do something. Stand there.

  61. Junior and I usually do the shopping together. we’ve got it down to 36 minutes (until tesco move everything again).

    The war queen suggest we go together, with MiL looking after junior. Now, neither are a good suggestion.

    To say the trip took a while is an understatement.

  62. 343505+ up ticks,

    No Hope of Progress on Channel Migrant Crisis Until After French Elections: Report

    WHY, have we a vote in their
    elections, why are we dealing with the allies of the lab/lib/con
    gov. controlled mass illegal
    immigration peoples ?

  63. Evening, all. Just back. Much traffic going south – grockles returning to Lunnon, I suppose, after their Narfurk glamping breaks….

    Have I missed anything?

    1. The petition demanding T. Blair’s Knighthood be rescinded has more than 400,000 signatures.

        1. Why so few? Just think of the millions of clueless muppets who voted him into power thrice!

    1. Linguine vongole is a standard in my house, Philip. And I make a better fettucine amatriciana than any Wop. 👍🏻😉

      1. Got a spare room ?

        He talks of how the food is bastardised for the American palate which he doesn’t approve of. I prefer authenticity.

        Americans add cream to pasta dishes !!! The fecking heathens.

          1. Tucci says of Italianesque restaurants in America that they sometimes put cream in Carbonara and Fettucine. He says ” Cream has crept its way in (unnecessary), as well as chicken (yuck), broccoli (why?) and turkey (really? Fuck off)”.

          4. Grizz!! Say it isn’t so! You put dairy in espresso??
            Hopefully, only at breakfast time…
            Love espresso, me. I like it extra fierce, like drinkable radiation, fit to pucker the face. 🙂

          5. HelI have been over here too long, all of those Americans are strange they do this to food sound quite normal to me now.

          6. Flat white, Cortado, Cappuccino, Macchiato, Caffè latté: all espresso drinks with dairy added, Paul.

            I’m not a big fan of black coffee of any type.; hence the cream. I only ever drink my coffee at 1300hrs.

        2. I trust you have bought an Imperia pasta machine. Once you have made your own, you’ll never want to buy dried pasta again.

          1. I do have a pasta machine. I do make my own. Though not always.

            Guess what? One of the biggest markets in the world for dried pasta is……………….Italy.

          3. We got a wee clip-on motor for ours. Makes rolling pasta easy when you don’t have three hands, particularly for the longer pastas. Bloody noisy, though.

        3. That’s as bad as putting cheese into a genuine Quiche Lorraine recipe. Adding cheese may make a delicious quiche, but it is no longer a Lorraine.

        4. As was the Chinese Chop Suey and Chow Mein. Both dishes the Chinese won’t eat, pure crap for Western (American) taste.

    2. I make a very good Carbonara. Have a wonderful recipe for Penne with shrimp which is spicy and hot, man it’s yummy.

        1. I said that just before I clicked on your comment – and there it was! It sounds delish.

    2. Martin Zellner’s car has been blown up several times. Criminals know they can target “enemies of the state” with impunity. The law does not apply equally to everyone.

    3. Same ones as every year. Lose weight, save more. I really ought to make some new ones that might happen….
      Sell paintings. Win art prizes. Get fabulous new software contract at new high rate. That sort of thing.

      1. I share the same excellent NY’s resolution. It never fails to work for me year after year and I feel virtuous.

      2. Snap. I know I’m incapable of keeping such things. Why confirm to yourself that you are weak willed?

        1. I must confess to walking bravely past the chockies in Asda this evening. Gave myself a pat on the back for stoicism ;-))

    6. The maskwanker lockdown pushing government shill troop hating liar Morgan
      The only human being on the planet I despise more than Blair and that’s going some!!

    7. Seventy years ago, I resolved never again to make New Year’s resolutions; I’m sticking to that, sweetie! … x

    8. Get rid of stuff and stop collecting more. I’ve been throwing stuff out today, but I doubt it will last more than a week at most before I start adding more 🙁

  68. I am off – I enjoyed my brief look in – to see that standards were maintained in my absence.

    Tomorrow will be chilly but sunny. I hope.

    A demain.

      1. I was actually referring to the spider one…things seem to have shifted since I last looked. However, I can relate to the doggy chewing one;-)

    2. Your dog chews because he is bored.

      Thus… play with your dog! Teach him tricks, have him count to 2, walk with him and talk to him while you’re walking (take an interest in *their* life).

  70. Sir Tony Blair: More than 400,000 people sign petition for former PM to be stripped of knighthood
    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/sir-tony-blair-petition-knighthood-controversy-garter-b974730.html
    More than 420,000 people have signed a petition calling for the honour to be revoked, saying the former Labour PM caused “irreparable damage to both the constitution of the United Kingdom and to the very fabric of the nation’s society”.
    The petition claims: “Tony Blair is the least deserving person of any public honour, particularly anything awarded by Her Majesty the Queen.”
    But others have congratulated Sir Tony on the designation.
    Among them were Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Health, Wes Streeting, who said: “Congratulations to Sir Tony Blair, but I know he’ll be even more proud that @ValerieAmos, a personal hero of mine and so many others, has become – yet again – a trailblazer”.
    The Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has also said that former prime ministers should be given knighthoods.
    There are now 21 non-royal ‘companions’ in the order, with a maximum of 24 allowed.
    Appointments are for life, and only 40 people have been deemed no longer worthy of the honour and removed from the order in its nearly 700 year history.
    While the petition has garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures on Change.org, petitions relating to Sir Tony and honours have been rejected from the Parliament.uk website, which can lead to a debate in the House of Commons. This is because petitions about “honours or appointments” are not accepted.

    1. Would they accept one on abolishing the Monarchy? It seems to have passed its best before date.

  71. I am really getting p1s*ed off with emails today

    Now some buffer is chasing me to update My Funeral Plan

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

  72. According to the latest stats the numbers in ICU / on ventilation are still below the 19th December figure. Historically one would have expected the figure after Christmas to be higher than before Christmas. Influenza and all that…

  74. Debbie Hayton
    Harry Potter and the strange absence of J.K. Rowling
    Why was she overlooked by the reunion programme?
    3 January 2022, 9:19am
    *
    *
    *
    *
    **********************************************************
    Demosthenes • 8 hours ago • edited
    The great irony is that Ms Rowling herself has been more than happy to jump on the woke-wagon in the past when the target was men, or white people or the loathsome Brexit supporters, but is now gobsmacked when she finds herself on the receiving end. Tyranny is always capricious, and you can fall afoul of it no matter how hard you try. She thought she was on the right side of history, fighting the good fight of social justice against ‘The Man’, how confusing it must be for her when she realised ‘The Man’ turned out to be the liberal activists she has been championing all her life.

    It’s not about whether you actually believe that the 6’6 hairy bloke, who’s meat and two veg are swinging towards you across the female changing room, is every inch as much a beautiful woman as Emma Watson… the number of people who genuinely believe that is vanishingly small; no, it’s about forcing you to say you believe it in public, for fear of the consequences if you don’t. Ultimately, it is about power. Just as it was in the Soviet Union, where they didn’t care if you actually believed the lie, so long as you pretended you did. In fact, the more absurd the lie the better, as it demonstrated the individual’s total submission to the State, and its version of reality alone.

    We used to mock the citizens of the USSR for their abject moral cowardice, who’d have thought that in less than in a single generation the once free men of the West would meekly submit to such humiliation themselves for the sake of an easy life?

    The Watcher • 7 hours ago • edited
    I can’t remember which of you lovely people it was who posted this BtL on a trans article a few days ago, but I want to thank you for a much needed guffaw, even if it did take me five minutes to get the splattered tea out of my keyboard afterwards

    XX – Female
    XY – Male
    YYY – Delilah

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/harry-potter-and-the-strange-absence-of-j-k-rowling#

    1. MB and I are watching “Chernobyl”. Everyone is co-operating with the lies or being destroyed / killed by them.
      35 years later, it would appear that the Soviet system has won.

      1. Channel? Or on i-player? The Guns of Navarone is more my cup of tea and more truthful/realistic.

        1. Very true. I only included the clip as an adjunct to the original post it is appended to.

  75. Just picked this up on a news feed. According to Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders,
    there is a ‘big risk’ of closures as HALF of teachers could be off by Tuesday.’
    I fail to believe half of teachers would be off work with convid. If rates of convid were so high, then surely half of every sector would be off work.
    It is high time this requirement for daily/frequent testing is ended. Unless a person feels unwell or has any symptoms, then there is no reason to test.

    1. Second Son will be at work at school on Tuesday.
      But then, he only gets paid if he turns up and works.
      Wonder if that has anything to do with it?

    2. Even if I felt “poorly” I would not test. Would lie low until it, what ever it is, passed.
      PS, the school I taught at in CT had a serious outbreak of ‘flu. I was assistant librarian at the time and I already knew the librarian was going to be out sick. I went in to keep the library open so the kids could check books in and out. Principal came in and said they were closing the library and putting me in a classroom- no, I said, if that’s the case I am going home. I had no voice and felt shi**y. They left the library open and I stayed.
      The school was not closed and people coped as best they could.
      That was then…

      1. Rumour is that our teachers unions threatened a strike if schools remained open.

        Make it public servants and teachers only getting paid if they turn up to work.

        P.S.
        The Daily Mail tells the story of UK bin collections being canceled because of staff shortages. Our binmen are working normally, there was a collection last Monday as well as today – there again the work is contracted out and it is definitely no workee, no payee.

        1. I heard about the rolling strikes in the autumn before convid landed. Very disruptive and unsettling for the grandchild who had just started JK. Can’t remember what the strikes were about or if the school boards caved.

        2. No work no pay, unless you have a Doctor’s certificate stating that you have been physically examined and are unfit.

          Good luck with that, because the doctor probably won’t see you.

          1. Not that many. Most teachers used to turn up as absence made more work – setting for the supply/cover teacher (bad luck on really unwell teachers, the Heads were pretty unsympathetic) then even more work on return to catch up on the work the class hadn’t done/done badly.

  77. Damn, double damn, in fact triple damn.

    Ontario is going into another round of covid restrictions.
    Schools closed for at least two weeks
    Work from home if possible.
    Gyms and indoor sporting events closed to the end of January, outdoor dining only (it’s January and -10C!).
    I guess that it is sit on our backsides and be vegetables again.

    Cases in our health area have dropped by about 30% since Friday.

    Glad the provincial government is conservative, I would hate to see what a wishy washy bunch of lefties would do!

    1. Revolution Richard! Same here, it’s going to be the only way to go. This is out of control now and WE the People need to regain control over our lives!

    3. The great reset was never going to be easy.
      Just sit back and accept that the powers that be have decided that in order to save the planet that we have to become extinct.
      The polar bears and the elephants will recover.

    4. Cases dropping so much since Friday is a mere ignorable fact for the policy makers.
      That’ll scupper work plans for my son and his missus. Very young children at home for at least two weeks. Remote learning for a just-4 year old in JK? Young children should not be ‘learning’ on a computer screen anyway. If the teacher gives practical/play activities for little ones, that will ruin any chance of one parent working. The child would learn far more simply playing with decent toys, construction toys, role play toys and the like though fights likely to break out with sibling 🙂

    5. Evening! Rolling lockdowns are necessary to crash the world economies. Only then can they be reset.

      1. Of justice? No! Just blobby fingers!
        Have had a very busy day full of our daughters and husbands and grandchildren, plus my nephew and wife and their two lovely daughters! We’ve eaten great food, laughed a lot and had a really fantastic day! The noise level was incredible and our indoor naked cat escaped 3 times as the children left the front door open! We’ve had a ball, and it was an absolute joy to see all the children together, ages 7 down to 16months.

        1. What a lucky lady you are! It’s good to hear of families ignoring the scare-lies to still gather, have fun and make memories! Well done!

          1. Thank you MiB! We have pretty much ignored our Scottish nutter overlords for the last 18 months, particularly when it comes to seeing family. Our son in law has a very disabled sister, so we’ve been careful with her, and his Gran is quite vulnerable but she was quite happy to join in! I do believe an awful lot of people have been using common sense, particularly when some of the drivel descending from the loonies in charge, has made absolutely no sense at all! We’ve been careful and sensible and mask-free!

        4. Good to know that you had a day of joy to remember and right up wee Krankie’s hole with a Roman Candle.

          1. Knowing that makes it even better! The night before our youngest grandson was born we were in lockdown, I drove down from here to the Borders to look after our granddaughter when Emma went to the hospital! I was driving down the M74 praying some plod would stop me and ask where I was going! Sadly, they never turned up!

  79. I may post this again tomorrow: ” Unprecedented: Deaths in Indiana for ages 18-64 are up 40%”

    From the site of Steve Kirsch- a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur and commentator on Covid- who became concerned when he saw anecdotal evidence of health crises in newly vaxed people he knew.

    https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/why-are-non-covid-deaths-at-historic

    In the article is a link to Dr Robert Malone’s take on this. He is the man most responsible for the mRNA developments that led to these new vaccines.

    https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/what-if-the-largest-experiment-on

  80. Interesting, about face-nappies. My bold
    https://swprs.org/face-masks-evidence/
    E) Additional aspects
    There is increasing evidence that the novel coronavirus is transmitted, at least in indoor settings, not only by droplets but primarily by smaller aerosols. However, due to their large pore size and poor fit, most face masks cannot filter out aerosols (see video analysis below): over 90% of aerosols penetrate or bypass the mask and fill a medium-sized room within minutes.
    The WHO admitted to the BBC that its June 2020 mask policy update was due not to new evidence but “political lobbying”: “We had been told by various sources WHO committee reviewing the evidence had not backed masks but they recommended them due to political lobbying. This point was put to WHO who did not deny.” (D. Cohen, BBC Medical Corresponent).
    To date, the only randomized controlled trial (RCT) on face masks against SARS-CoV-2 infection in a community setting found no statistically significant benefit (see above). However, three major journals refused to publish this study, delaying its publication by several months.
    An analysis by the US CDC found that 85% of people infected with the new coronavirus reported wearing a mask “always” (70.6%) or “often” (14.4%). Compared to the control group of uninfected people, always wearing a mask did not reduce the risk of infection.
    Researchers from the University of Minnesota found that the infectious dose of SARS-CoV-2 is just 300 virions (virus particles), whereas a single minute of normal speaking may generate more than 750,000 virions, making face masks unlikely to prevent infection.
    Contrary to common belief, studies in hospitals found that the wearing of a medical mask by surgeons during operations didn’t reduce post-operative bacterial wound infections in patients.
    Many health authorities argued that face masks suppressed influenza; in reality, influenza was temporarily displaced by the more infectious coronavirus. Indeed, influenza disappeared even in states without masks, lockdowns and school closures (e.g. Sweden and Florida).
    The initially low coronavirus infection rate in some Asian countries was not due to masks, but due to very rapid border controls. For instance, Japan, despite its widespread use of face masks, had experienced its most recent influenza epidemic just one year prior to the covid pandemic.
    Early in the pandemic, the advocacy group “Mask for All” argued that Czechia had few infections thanks to the early use of masks. In reality, the pandemic simply hadn’t reached Eastern Europe yet; a few months later, Czechia had one of the highest infection rates in the world.
    During the notorious 1918 influenza pandemic, the use of face masks among the general population was widespread and in some places mandatory, but they made no difference.

    H) Risks associated with face masks
    Wearing masks for a prolonged period of time may not be harmless, as the following evidence shows:
    The WHO warns of various “side effects” such as difficulty breathing and skin rashes.
    Tests conducted by the University Hospital of Leipzig in Germany have shown that face masks significantly reduce the resilience and performance of healthy adults.
    A German psychological study with about 1000 participants found “severe psychosocial consequences” due to the introduction of mandatory face masks in Germany.
    The Hamburg Environmental Institute warned of the inhalation of chlorine compounds in polyester masks as well as problems in connection with face mask disposal.
    The European rapid alert system RAPEX has already recalled over 100 mask models because they did not meet EU quality standards and could lead to “serious risks”.
    A study by the University of Muenster in Germany found that on N95 (FFP2) masks, Sars-CoV-2 may remain infectious for several days, thus increasing the risk of self-contamination.
    In China, several children who had to wear a mask during gym classes fainted and died; autopsies found a sudden cardiac arrest as the probable cause of death. In the US, a car driver wearing an N95 (FFP2) mask fainted and crashed due to CO2 intoxication.

    EDIT: If I scrolled down, I would find this:
    Postscript (August 2021)
    A long-term analysis shows that infections have been driven primarily by seasonal and endemic factors, whereas mask mandates and lockdowns have had no discernible impact.

    1. This BS has got to stop. It must. If Boris thinks anyone believes anything he says he is nuts.
      See my comment re kids wearing masks in school posted earlier today. I have worked with children of all ages for most of my adult life- and this diktat will not encourage them to learn or, indeed, to want to learn and be in school.
      I taught, as did Rastus, Shakespeare- ponder that when all the kids are masked as is the teacher. ” Furfle, furfle pippick.” From a Bob Hope movie.

    2. This is not new. ThenWHO said maskmwearing was a political decision early on in 2020. Of course they didn’t shout about it!

    2. And the comment below: ‘You forgot to add “My wife who isn’t a royalist & never was has assured me that she’ll overlook me getting a Knighthood from the Queen just this once because she’ll become a Dame & we’ll make pots of money, which we’ll give to charity, honest we will”.’

      1. She won’t become a Dame (there is, after all, nothing like a Dame), she’ll be given the courtesy title “Lady”. I, however, have no intention of paying the Blairs any courtesy whatsoever.

    3. Small wonder over, 500,000 of ‘your own people’ hate you enough to suggest that the sword should be used to decapitate you – you miserable little toad (turd, pick your own).

    1. Nigeria is the second largest purchaser of Guinness worldwide. England is first, Nigeria second and Ireland third! 40% of Guinness is sold to Africa.

      1. 343505+ up ticks,
        Evening Lotl,
        Two breweries in Ikeja I worked on the newer one that knocked out harp lager the other Guinness.

  83. I doubt there have ever been any restrictions of BAME climbers attempting to climb Everest. Were there skin inspections of climbers at the bottom?
    “Team of nine black climbers attempt to scale Mount Everest to tackle the peak’s ‘INTENTIONAL LACK OF ACCESS FOR BLACK PEOPLE’ and mountaineering’s ‘colonial history”
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10365049/Team-nine-black-climbers-attempt-scale-Mount-Everest-tackle-sports-colonial-history.html

    1. I guess they’ll all be gasping for both Vitamin D and Oxygen.

      How many might be seen off?

    2. Yes and Eunice Mugabe would have been the first black woman to swim the English Channel had we ‘whiteys’ taught her to swim.

      What fucking nonsense.

      1. What are they doing climbing this mountain? Can’t they see that Mount Everest is covered with hideously white snow?!?!?

  84. Just heard the arsehole saying that those who’ve had their two jabs should get the booster…WHY? This booster was created before this new sodding variant even appeared.
    As Neil Oliver said, Just how stupid does the government think we are? No way.

    Sorry about language but it’s hard to not to swear nowadays.

      1. No- I will say the real word. Unlike so many in this country, I am not a pliant little child…as the govt thinks we all are.

          1. OK- put your hand over your mouth and say. “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this Sunne of York.” Even better, try in front of another person. I just did it to MH and he said, “What?”
            It is ludicrous to try and teach when the teachers are masked and so are the children.
            I have never, ever heard so much BS in all my life.
            And if I wish to use unseemly language then I will do so.

          2. One can only draw the conclusion that govt does not wish the children of this nation to be taught. Just as they are denying health care to much of its population. In the same way it denied Ivermectin to the people ill with ‘covid’ and did not inform them of the benefits of Vitamin D in combatting this infection. Indeed of any benefits.

          3. You are right- this govt does not want an educated populace, especially the youngsters. They are the followers of compliance and obedience. We older people, who might possibly have some serious education under our belts, must be silenced. We must be locked up and jabbed into oblivion. I should coco.

          4. On the local news tonight they spoke to people about wearing masks in class- a young boy said he really didn’t mind them and I thought ‘how sad that they’ve been brainwashed with this nonsense’.

          6. This rotten government are the worst in living memory.

            I think Boris Johnson has been partying and sinking gallons of Moët from his first days in office and this practice continues to this day.

            The fat clown is not serious about anything and as with his Bullingdon Club mate Cameron holds us all in contempt. Members of that elitist Oxford ‘society’ would trash an Oxford pub and then bung the landlord a sum to cover repairs.

            I noted just today that Hancock and his lover attended the infamous ‘working’ garden party at Number 10.

            The whole skip load are full of shit and should be prosecuted for their innumerable crimes against humanity.

  85. Evening, all. Government energy policy compounds an already desperate fuel crisis would be nearer the mark.

  86. We are watching a very enlightening programme on BbC2 about Dubai.. incredible spectacular hard work .. all on the back of oil .. Moh and I are very impressed by the amazing growth there , and they are impervious to the chaos elsewhere in the ME.

    We have allowed so much dross to arrive in the UK. leeching us dry, we have no rules , we are similar to an animal charity / shelter … Bloody overloaded and unable to keep things ticking over properly.

    We are / were an oil rich country , why don’t we have a standard of living similar to them , we are a green and pleasant land .. Who has had all our money , why are we being driven downwards ?

    Britain is resembling a filthy cesspit like Pakistan. Dubai appeared to be so clean and organised .

    Our government should be ashamed of itself , and the indigenous population are losing their sense of purpose and pride .

    What an eyeopener .. to build a new world out of the desert , and to have rules about who can stay and who cannot.

      1. Of course we are , Ogga , I haven’t forgotten .

        We have lost our granduer, we are nothing but an island of disorganised rubbish, and no one bloody well listens to us .

        Really quite pissed off being regarded as a charity , surrounded by grubby foreigners , just because we are English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish. We are losing our identity ..

        1. 343505+ up ticks,
          TB,
          We are not losing our ID in so far as we are voluntarily handing it over via a continuing lab/lib/con mass controlled illegal immigration coalition voting pattern, the majority DO NOT WANT CHANGE.

          Shortly the grandfathers axe will be applied to these Isles, new head (imam)
          new shaft ( tory ino) party , who’s Island then ?

          1. Yeh , and decent pensions are being gobbled up by huge rises in utility bills, rates, insurance , running a car, food bills , and loads of uncertainty.

        1. 343562+ up ticks,
          Morning NtN,
          The verb bare means “to reveal” or “to uncover.”

          As was my intentions on replying to TB.

    1. Beautiful , lovely, thankyou for sharing , Ogga.

      Imagine if we had to make homes with our mouths , it’s bad enough trying to sort a shed out!

    2. So that’s where my salad went! No, truly lovely, Oggy. In NC I once found a tiny hummingbird’s nest on the ground and it was totally made from Golden Retriever fluff.

    3. We installed one of those bird boxes with camera linked to TV for late mother in law. It kept her attention for months, watching the goings and comings of a family of Great Tits.

  88. Phew!
    Just had a wander out for the first time in a couple of weeks. King’s Head had a couple with their 3yo daughter and, after a walk round the back of Ball eye quarry to Cromford, got to the Bell just after she’d called an early Time, but at least managed a pint at the Boat.
    Pleasant evening when I started, starry with scattered cloud and a lovely view of Orion, but coming out of the Boat it was a light drizzle which intensified as I walked home.

    Can’t be bothered to catch up with the nearly 300 comments, so I will bid you all a good night & sweet dreams as I head up for a bath.

    1. How much money is that plonker getting from drug gangs? Knife crimes don’t matter, machete crimes don’t matter. Oh gosh, covid- state of emergency and let’s legalise drugs too. Such fun :-((

      1. let’s legalise drugs too

        If the drugs cured Convid, Sad Dick would be following Dr Kelly:

        There is more money in Convid ‘cures’ (for the Big Pharmsa, PTB, WEF, New World etc) than there is for Pot and Crack sellers

          1. Fine:, the Acronym

            F F’d Up
            I Insecure

            N Neurotic

            E Exhausted

            As group of ladies with cancer once explained to SWMBO

    2. He lives up to his Anglicised Name

      Sad: self explanatory

      Dick: self explanatory

      Cant: hypocritical and sanctimonious talk, typically of a moral, religious, or political nature.

    2. There are several competing petitions. Folk should vote on the petition with the largest vote. Those other petitions are probably spoilers.

    1. There is something rotten in this state of Denmark-oops – England.
      I listened to an episode of the Goons last night; it worried me- they sounded sane. It was The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill on Sea.
      Now, don’t misunderstand me, I love the Goons but when they start to make more sense than what’s going on now…..help!!

    2. They’re trying to rook us, Belle. I’ve had a great night at openmic so it passes over my head. (Not really, but I pretend it does)

    3. Jackdaws are evil. They kill other birds nesting in our trees, dashing the chicks to the ground for fun, and viciously attacked my wife’s cat. Good riddance.

    4. Our illiterate government passed the law as they thought it was part of their fight against covid

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