Saturday 14 August: Is there anybody there? The public-service mirage of working from home

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/08/13/letters-anybody-public-service-mirage-working-home/

657 thoughts on “Saturday 14 August: Is there anybody there? The public-service mirage of working from home”

  2. The Allies’ retreat from Afghanistan is a monstrous act of self-harm. 14 August 2021.

    The abandonment, first conceived by President Trump and carried out by President Biden, is a monstrous betrayal.

    Like other nations involved in this tragedy, Britain has suddenly jettisoned all the moral obligations we have formed over 20 years.

    It’s as though we had chosen to take a vulnerable family into our care, and then, in defiance of all promises of support, abandoned them. We should be profoundly ashamed of ourselves.

    Morning everyone. Monstrous betrayal? How so? We were not their allies. Stewart talks about it as if it were some sort of Foreign Aid project. We actually invaded the place. You know like the Third Reich did to France etc. We were a Force of Occupation. The Taliban are the Free French (though considerably more able) of Afghanistan. Apart from the members of the Kabul/Vichy government who have enriched themselves beyond the dreams of avarice and who are simply traitors and collaborators, everyone else hates us, not only because no one likes being ruled by foreigners but because we have meddled with their most basic beliefs. Female education may be a great idea, but even if it is, no one wants it imposed on them at the point of a gun. There were undoubtedly Frenchmen who thought, “at least we will get some decent roads now” as they watched the Wehrmacht marching down the Champs-Élysées but they cheered De Gaulle when he returned. Resentment will always trump gratitude. Iraq will eventually go the same way because the American Imperium is incapable of the long term rule of Islamic States.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9892183/RORY-STEWART-Allies-retreat-Afghanistan-monstrous-act-self-harm.html

  5. Morning Peeps and Geoff,

    Today’s Letters are nothing special but, as is often the case, some of the Comments are significantly better. These two are spot on, and my mini-rant to my MP yesterday (about the DVLA’s pitiful ‘service’) included my similar views on Johnson’s rabid and seemingly unstoppable eco-lunacy…

    “Angus Long
    14 Aug 2021 12:34AM

    My main issue with the more extreme elements of the climate debate is the idea that we can control the climate. Humans, while an advanced species, are a relatively recent addition to this planet and we mislead ourselves on the subject of controlling it.

    Mother Earth has been around for over 5 billion years and during that time has undergone many changes from extreme cold, to fiery hot. She has introduced new species and rid herself of others.

    In the grand scheme of things, we are nothing to her and nothing we do will change that.

    Severe climate change and the destruction and extinctions it brings is natural and will happen again. There’s nothing we can do to stop it. We can slow it down a tiny bit, perhaps, but come it is.

    So, maybe we should spend more time and money defending our homes and infrastructures from the inevitable instead of acting like King Canute and trying to stop the unstoppable.”

    And…

    “Our zero carbon targets will cripple our economy, bankrupt us and send us into the 3rd world- all in the name of reducing global carbon emissions by a mere 1%.

    Meanwhile China and other developing nations will carry on as normal.

    So, after we have committed economic and social suicide absolutely diddlesquat will impact the climate and weather.

    Brilliant just brilliant. But then our young won’t realise until it’s too late.”

    Hear, hear!

  6. Morning Peeps and Geoff,

    Today’s Letters are nothing special but, as is often the case, some of the Comments are significantly better. These two are spot on, and my mini-rant to my MP yesterday (about the DVLA’s pitiful ‘service’) included my views on Johnson’s rabid and seemingly unstoppable eco-lunacy…

    “Angus Long
    14 Aug 2021 12:34AM

    My main issue with the more extreme elements of the climate debate is the idea that we can control the climate. Humans, while an advanced species, are a relatively recent addition to this planet and we mislead ourselves on the subject of controlling it.

    Mother Earth has been around for over 5 billion years and during that time has undergone many changes from extreme cold, to fiery hot. She has introduced new species and rid herself of others.

    In the grand scheme of things, we are nothing to her and nothing we do will change that.

    Severe climate change and the destruction and extinctions it brings is natural and will happen again. There’s nothing we can do to stop it. We can slow it down a tiny bit, perhaps, but come it is.

    So, maybe we should spend more time and money defending our homes and infrastructures from the inevitable instead of acting like King Canute and trying to stop the unstoppable.”

    And…

    “Our zero carbon targets will cripple our economy, bankrupt us and send us into the 3rd world- all in the name of reducing global carbon emissions by a mere 1%.

    Meanwhile China and other developing nations will carry on as normal.

    So, after we have committed economic and social suicide absolutely diddlesquat will impact the climate and weather.

    Brilliant just brilliant. But then our young won’t realise until it’s too late.”

    Hear, hear!

  7. British soldiers did not die ‘in vain’, says Boris Johnson, as Taliban sweeps across Afghanistan. 14 August 2021.

    Boris Johnson yesterday said British soldiers killed in Afghanistan did not die “in vain” as the Taliban seized the former headquarters of the UK’s military campaign in the county.

    The Islamist insurgents took control of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province where British operations co-ordinated for eight years during the invasion, as their blitz towards a complete take-over of the country continued.

    Speaking for the first time publicly since sending around 600 UK troops back into Afghanistan to help evacuate Britons, the Prime Minister said the intervention had been had been “right” and “worth it”.

    “To a very large extent the threat from Al-Qaeda on the streets of our capital, around the UK, around the whole of the West was greatly, greatly reduced.”

    Black is White. Good is bad. They died and were maimed in the service of Moronic Governments who never failed to betray them. Whether this were poor equipment or wrong decisions. They were sacrificed not in the cause of UK Security but craven appeasement of US Foreign Policy.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/08/13/al-qaeda-will-probably-come-back-taliban-builds-momentum-warns/

    1. 3336792+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      Lest we forget,

      Widow hears details of Iraq soldier’s ‘friendly fire’ death …https://www.standard.co.uk › … › Home Page
      13 Apr 2012 — Killed by friendly fire: Sergeant Steven Roberts … up his enhanced combat body armour (ECBA) three days before his death due to shortages.
      RIP.

    2. Boris Johnson yesterday said British soldiers killed in Afghanistan did not die “in vain”

      Classic example from the BPAPM to show that the quote below accurately depicts a fool.

      It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

      In addition, it is insensitive in the extreme to all those family members who lost loved ones on the fool’s errand of attempting to quell the hell-hole that is Afghanistan. History ignored and the failings are repeated.

    3. Boris Johnson yesterday said British soldiers killed in Afghanistan did not die “in vain”

      Classic example from the BPAPM to show that the quote below accurately depicts a fool.

      It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

      In addition, it is insensitive in the extreme to all those family members who lost loved ones on the fool’s errand of attempting to quell the hell-hole that is Afghanistan. History ignored and the failings are repeated.

  8. Here we go:

    SIR – Having tried and failed to sign up to the HM Revenue and Customs’ website for managing my tax affairs (“Computer says no”), it was with heavy heart that I steeled myself to telephone.

    I was on the phone for an hour and a half for a fairly straightforward inquiry, the first 20 minutes spent waiting for the call to be answered.

    The lady I finally got through to was helpful, but had to put me on hold for lengthy periods on three separate occasions. She explained that, as she was working from home, instead of asking advice from someone sitting next to her if she had a question, she had to go away and telephone them.

    How much longer can this inefficiency go on?

    Jane Phillips
    Oxford

    SIR – Allison Pearson (Features, August 11) extols the virtues of home working, which undoubtedly has its place in the private sector.

    However, the public sector is another matter. The undeniable fall in productivity is evidenced by delays for driving licences and passports, as well as a long wait for grant of probate. The backlog at courts is ever growing and any dealings with the tax authorities is frustrating in the extreme. Think of any government ministry and you will encounter delay and inefficiency.

    Civil servants are well paid, have generous holidays and good pensions. However, they are run by trade unions rather than the Government and clearly think they are untouchable. MPs must set an example and ensure that Parliament returns to normality at the earliest opportunity.

    Ministers must issue directives for an immediate return to work at the regular place of employment for all members of their respective departments. Disciplinary action should result for those not wishing to comply.

    During the pandemic we saw nurses, policemen, firemen and dustmen working in the face of all difficulties. This was not the case for the administrative staff of large swathes of the Civil Service.

    The lockdown of course was a valid reason for many working from home, but this no longer applies. All state agencies should now return to doing what they are paid for – providing a service to the public.

    Mick Richards
    Worcester

    SIR – If working from home is more efficient, how come the Companies House phone line repeatedly remains unanswered before going dead?

    Rupert Erskine
    Wangford, Suffolk

    SIR – I recently had cause to call my credit card company on its 24-hour helpline. As we live in Australia I was able to call mid-afternoon when it was 3am in Britain. There was a certain inevitably about hearing the message: “We are experiencing an unusually high volume of calls right now…”.

    Richard Hughes
    Googong, New South Wales, Australia

    The Afghan disaster

    SIR – Nato leaders seem to have forgotten that we went to Afghanistan after September 11 2001 to remove the base of al-Qaeda, which was being hosted by the Taliban.

    Training and equipping a new Afghan army was successful, but relied on the direction, moral support and confidence-building of Nato personnel. With the withdrawal of that support, the bulk of the Afghan army seems to have lost morale, so that in many places it has given up with barely a fight. It seem likely that Kabul will be lost and with it Afghanistan, possibly by the significant date of September 11.

    The country will return to being a haven and base for terrorist organisations intent on attacking the West, which will also have to deal with perhaps 1.5 million refugees.

    The reluctance of governments and diplomats to learn from history – especially that of Afghanistan and the Vietnam War – has guaranteed its repetition. The failure and weakness of Western leaders to understand the problem will add confidence to Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

    Nicholas Watkis
    Gloucester

    SIR – Con Coughlin (Comment, August 12) is spot on: we will all pay the price. It will be back to the days of 9/11 and the Charlie Hebdo attack.

    Jack Marriott
    Churt, Surrey

    Con molto brio

    SIR – It was delightful to read your obituary of my uncle, the musician par excellence Stephen Wilkinson (August 12). Aged eight, I was on holiday in Ullswater with his family when he climbed Helvellyn on impulse, then later emerged from our tent in full evening dress, ready to conduct a concert that evening.

    That tent was a huge ex-Army one, with enormous tent poles at each end. We would transport this from Kingston in Cambridgeshire on the running boards of his second-hand Rolls-Royce.

    This beloved vehicle had a leaky radiator, and we had to carry as much water as possible in order to top it up. The first stop, of many, was before we had even reached Ely. Uncle Stephen had spotted a pond and shouted: “Water!” We five children then scrambled out with all sorts of containers, as the bonnet went up yet again. Afterwards, we resumed our journey to the Lake District until the next emergency stop.

    Liz Wicken
    Foxton, Cambridgeshire

    Vaccination passports

    SIR – Discussions about vaccination passports have centred on personal freedom and social responsibility, yet no one appears to have conceded that the vaccination will do little to stop the spread of coronavirus.

    I am a doctor and have been double jabbed. I expect the vaccination to mitigate the virus if I get it, but not to stop me from getting it or from passing it on. The delta variant will still be transmitted within both the vaccinated and unvaccinated populations.

    Vaccination will not stop the spread of the disease. It will, however, provide individual protection. Passports would be relevant only if the vaccination stopped the spread of coronavirus. It doesn’t.

    Dr Steven R Hopkins
    Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire

    SIR – I am doubly vaccinated but have had to submit to expensive and time-consuming tests to go on two short breaks to a green-list destination.

    I am shortly to indulge in another 60-hour trip to the same place and was amazed to discover on the government website that I can have my return lateral flow test at home before I leave.

    Andrew Lyons FRCS
    Chichester, West Sussex

    Why girls are cleverer

    SIR – I don’t disagree with any of the facts presented in Gina Rippon’s article (“So are girls really brainier than boys”, Features, August 13), but she is wrong to rebut my argument just on brain structure.

    It is possible, for example, that girls work harder and that it is this, among other things, that makes them cleverer, or, as Professor Rippon would prefer, more academically able.

    The starting point should be: how does the superiority of girls at all levels of education – though not in all subjects – come about?

    Professor Alan Smithers
    Centre for Education and Employment Research, University of Buckingham

    Bills and Bodmin

    SIR – In his feature on paying for shared meals in restaurants (August 11), Guy Kelly overlooks a vital fact.

    In The Meaning of Liff (1983) Douglas Adams and John Lloyd compiled words for phenomena that do not have a succinct label, using British place-names. Thus, Bodmin describes the shortfall between the total bill and the amount those at the table have put in to cover their share.

    Christopher Hawtree
    Brighton, East Sussex

    Wasps eating furniture

    SIR – Each summer, for at least 10 years, like G D Copson (Letters, August 13) we have watched wasps chew our wooden garden furniture. The damage,
    however, which is barely more than cosmetic, means that in someone’s roof space they are constructing a beautiful, paper-thin wonder of nature. I just hope it’s not in ours.

    Barbara Smith
    Stafford

    SIR – I would advise G D Copson to tolerate the wasps. On our gardening breaks, my husband and I would watch these industrious little creatures taking bites out of our wooden bench. Anyone who has ever seen the wonder of a wasps’ nest would never complain.

    The papier-mâché layers of these incredibly beautiful works of art are made from millions of minute mouthfuls. The queen wasp never returns to the old nest, so the process begins again each year.

    Sheila Williams
    Sunninghill, Berkshire

    The bottom line for comfortable churchgoing

    SIR – This week I visited a group of churches outside King’s Lynn on the fringe of the Fens. The names of the villages begin with Wiggenhall and the churches are famous for old glass and ancient carved bench ends.

    These wonderful relics have survived Henry VIII and the Civil War. They show how peasant, priest, nobleman and womenfolk dressed, and are descriptive in every way.

    So when I read that pews are to be removed at Gaulby, Leicestershire, as the congregation is diminishing due to uncomfortable seating, I wondered what happened to bringing a cushion to church? We do just that in Fring, here in Norfolk.

    Avril Wright
    Snettisham, Norfolk

    SIR – Enthusiasts for re-ordering churches constantly tell us that the naves were once used for all sorts of parish activities. Clive Aslet (Comment, August 11) even tells us that markets took place in churches.

    In reality, the rite for consecrating churches made it clear that the building was the House of God, set apart from secular purposes. Religious activity in those days included much that we have since secularised. Councils required guidance from the Holy Spirit. The liturgy incorporated drama with religious meanings.

    Enthusiasts claim activities of that sort as secular use of the building. It is no justification for our using the nave for activities we regard as secular.

    David J Critchley
    Winslow, Buckinghamshire

    A-levels now mislead students about their skills

    SIR – I am not a Tory and never have been. I wouldn’t read the Telegraph were it not for my neighbour buying it daily. But, for the first time, an issue has arisen on which I am in complete agreement with your editorial comment and many of your readers.

    Even seven years ago, when I retired as a city lawyer, we had introduced abstract and verbal reasoning tests for recruitment, because A-level and university results gave no indication of whether candidates had the skills we needed.

    What favours does it do students to mislead them into thinking they have the skills to undertake careers for which they are manifestly unsuited?

    They will have wasted years before starting more suitable careers, many of which will, in fact, pay more.

    Roger Doulton
    Bordon, Hampshire

    SIR – GCSEs may be given another grade, 10, “for the cleverest pupils” (report, August 13). Remember Spinal Tap where one character explains that a particular amplifier is louder than the rest because its controls go to 11.

    We all thought that was ridiculously funny.

    Bill Thompson
    Skipton, North Yorkshire

    1. Members of our congregation used to bring their own cushions to the service (a habit not confined to my church; others in the county did the same) until we did some fund-raising and provided very comfortable new pew cushions. They all had to disappear during the Covid restrictions and it was back to personal cushions again. Now, thankfully, the pew cushions we worked so hard to fund are back in use.

        1. …and E Sussex. Off to the beach shortly, Milly needs her swim. A nice brisk walk is in prospect, with low tide when we get there…

          ‘Morning, N, PA and Nanners.

  10. 336792+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Dt,
    Proven fact,
    Fools are soon parted from both money and countries,

    Exclusive: Holidaymakers charged up to four times advertised price for Covid travel tests
    Telegraph investigation leads to Government promising to ban misleading claims from ‘cowboy’ providers

    Insert “other” for fact.

  11. Another Obituary where the deceased lived to a ripe old age, despite his wartime experience of a Kamikazi attack on his ship. They were indeed a very special breed…

    Owen Lawrence-Jones, naval officer who kept a vivid record of experiencing a kamikaze attack in the Pacific in 1945 – obituary

    He was involved in operations against Tirpitz and on Arctic convoys before sailing to the Pacific on the carrier Indefatigable

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    13 August 2021 • 3:53pm

    Owen Lawrence-Jones,who has died aged 97, survived a kamikaze attack in the British carrier Indefatigable in 1945.

    On April 1 Sub-Lt Lawrence-Jones RNVR was at his action station in the Aircraft Director Room (ADR) high in the island above Indefatigable’s flightdeck when a Japanese kamikaze bomber broke through the cordon of Seafires.

    To observers it seemed that the pilot, as he turned over the ship, was looking to dive down the hangar lift or the funnel, but instead he hit the base of the island. “At the moment of impact,” Lawrence-Jones wrote, “I was looking at the heavy armour-plated dead-light, which was held shut over the porthole of the compartment by a heavy hinge and two thick turnbuckles on screw threads. I saw it bulge out from the armour-plated bulkhead and emit a spray of flames as if a giant blow-torch were working on it from the outside.”

    Unable to escape through the next, smoke-filled, compartment, Lawrence-Jones’s ADR crew squeezed through a scuttle and shinned down a rope to the flightdeck, which they found littered with debris and bodies. There were 14 dead and 16 seriously wounded, but Indefatigable was saved from worse loss by her armoured flightdeck.

    A US Navy liaison officer aboard remarked that an American carrier with its wooden flight deck would have been crippled or sunk by such a kamikaze hit, but “on a Limey carrier, it’s ‘sweepers, man your brooms’.”

    The dent in the flightdeck was filled with quick-setting cement, the arrester wires and barriers jury-rigged, and flight operations were resumed 37 minutes later.

    Afterwards, the bomb’s nose cone was found to be from a British 15 in shell, presumed to have been captured at the fall of Singapore.

    Owen Lawrence-Jones (the hyphen was his) was born at Stock, Essex, on May 31 1924, the son of a solicitor. He was educated at Charterhouse where his housemaster was W C Sellars, co-author of 1066 and All That.

    As he loved sailing, Lawrence-Jones volunteered for the wartime Navy, reasoning that having been at boarding schools since five, the rigours of basic training would not dishearten him, and though his poor eyesight would prevent him from becoming a seaman officer, at least he would be able to choose which branch he joined.

    His unpublished memoirs describe his progress from RNVR rating in 1942 to young officer and the Japanese surrender in 1945.

    Basic training was at HMS Royal Arthur, a Butlin’s camp at Skegness, where the unheated chalets were so cold that he slept under his oilskin coat, and in the morning the frozen condensation enabled him to stand the garment on its own.

    Later he slept in a hammock on the gundeck of HMS Victory with plentiful cockroaches and no plumbing, and then in a maple-panelled room in the Royal yacht Victoria and Albert, with a marble washbasin and ivory tap handles.

    He found his training as a fighter direction officer “frankly bizarre” but surprisingly effective: trainees worked the plot as Wrens took bearings and radioed orders to pilots who pedalled “ours” and “theirs” tricycles, plywood screens allowing only a tiny slit for forward vision, with real compasses and make-believe altimeters across an airfield.

    An exercise would end with a young pilot yelling: “Tally Ho! Bandits three-five-oh angels twenty. Out!”

    He joined the new carrier Indefatigable before her launch in 1943 and after operations in the Norwegian Sea against the German battleship Tirpitz and on Arctic convoys, in 1944 the carrier joined the British Pacific Fleet.

    Lawrence-Jones recalled a Japanese pilot attacking Indefatigable even as the flagship King George V’s signal flags read “Cease Hostilities Against Japan”. Later he was present in the carrier Glory at the Japanese surrender on September 6 1945 in Rabaul Bay.

    Postwar, Lawrence-Jones read PPE at Hertford College, Oxford. A career in finance followed and in 1960 a shared love of sailing led to marriage with Philippa Milburn.

    In 1968 the couple opened a bookshop in a converted townhouse in Maldon, specialising in nautical books. Twenty-one years later they retired to Aldeburgh, where Lawrence-Jones would be greeted by his old padre in the Pacific War, the Rev Frank Hadfield, with a “What ho, Indefat!”

    He is survived by his wife and by two daughters and a son.

    Owen Lawrence-Jones, born May 31 1924, died August 3 2021

    1. Thank you for posting these obits. I wouldn’t get to read them otherwise, and they are fascinating. A different world.

      1. You are very welcome, A. I find them very humbling, and the finest counterblast to today’s media fixation with sporting ‘heroes’, just because they can win a running race or pedal a bike faster than anyone else, or be paid £400,000 A WEEK for kicking a ball…

        Military obituaries remind us of the true heroes, to whom we owe so much.

        1. One doesn’t get to see the obituaries of those who died during the “exciting times” of those who survived to an old age and write about it, more’s the pity. The dead are soon forgotten, yet many made their own significant contribution.

  13. Merkel to hold final Putin showdown at emergency summit before stepping down as leader. 14 August 2021.

    ANGELA Merkel will travel to Russia next Friday to meet with President Vladimir Putin, her spokesman has confirmed.

    It said in a statement: “The parties are expected to discuss the current state of and the prospects for cooperation in various fields, as well as a number of pressing international and regional issues.”

    She’s going to check that her KGB pension is going to be paid. Lol!

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1476428/angela-merkel-Vladimir-Putin-meeting-Moscow-latest-summit-nord-stream-2-gas-row-news

  14. Morning again.

    Charles Moore today…no surprises here, but it begs the question: what is the world going to do about it? My guess is, not very much.

    Early in March last year, as Covid-19 was beginning to take over the world, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Wuhan announced at a press conference that Chinese people “should learn to say ‘thank you’ to the party”. There was outrage on Chinese social media. Conditions in Wuhan had been appalling, citizens said. Many had died and many others had been immured for weeks. Reaching higher than the Wuhan leader, critics accused President Xi Jinping himself of concealing for a crucial 13 days in January his knowledge that the virus could be transmitted from human to human. So fierce was the backlash that the Beijing authorities actually deleted the Wuhan leader’s words online.

    That was pretty much the last time that Chinese public opinion has been allowed to surface. Since then, criticising the regime inside China has been more than anyone’s life is worth. The fear totalitarianism inspires can be very effective.

    Even more dismaying, in a way, is the discovery that it works abroad, too. You would have thought that the incubator and exporter of a disease which has now killed nearly 4.5 million people would run into some trouble from other countries and from international organisations about how it had managed to achieve this feat. The straightforward desire to know what started the plague, and how it spread, would have provoked the most rigorous inquiry from scientists, media and world leaders. But no, not really. Many even went so far as to follow the Wuhan leader’s call and say “thank you” to the CCP.

    One of the most prominent was the leader of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus, who announced, shortly after Xi’s 13 days’ silence over transmission, that China’s action had “actually helped prevent the spread of coronavirus to other countries”. He declared himself “very impressed and encouraged by the president’s detailed knowledge of the outbreak”. Dr Tedros had earlier gained his position in the WHO through Chinese backing.

    In February this year, a top-level, but not fully independent WHO delegation visited Wuhan to investigate how the virus had spread. Each team member had to be individually approved by the Chinese government. The regime had spent the previous year busily effacing physical and computer records, so there was little for the visitors to see.

    But the WHO appeared content. The mission’s leader, Peter Ben Embarek, said at the press conference that it was “extremely unlikely” the virus had spread from a lab leak in Wuhan. The BBC, always reluctant to touch the lab-leak theory, took this as all but conclusive. On its website, its health editor wrote that the WHO experts had “closed the lid on a controversial theory that coronavirus came from a lab leak or was made by scientists”.

    This week, however, on a television programme (unreported by the BBC) in his native country, Denmark, Dr Embarek spoke in very different terms. It turned out that, in a conference call in January, he had privately expressed his worry about a possible leak from the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control (CDC), which might have lacked “the same level of expertise or safety” as that shown, in his opinion, by the separate Wuhan Institute of Virology. In an interview conducted in June, but released this week, he told the programme that it was “likely” that a member of the CDC staff had contracted the virus.

    Why did Dr Embarek change as he did? Why did something he described as “extremely unlikely” in Wuhan in February become “likely” in Denmark by June? I do not know, but it is interesting to look at an interview he gave to Science magazine straight after his February visit to Wuhan.

    If you read it carefully, you can see Dr Embarek squirming a bit about his own phrase “extremely unlikely”: “We should not put too much focus on the wording. We were looking at different options … It’s more an illustration of where these hypotheses are to help us organise our planning of future studies.” Besides, the WHO could not conduct those studies alone, he says. He admits the pressure he was under as he faced up to 60 Chinese officials, many of whom were not scientists: “The politics was always in the room with us on the other side of the table.”

    Since then, the politics on the table of the world has changed considerably. So long as Donald Trump was US pPresident, many global bodies and scientific publications had a simple rule: if he took one view, they would take the opposite. Early on, Trump blamed a Wuhan lab leak, so they discounted it. Some outlets – notably Nature and The Lancet – seemed to be alarmingly uncritical of China. It seemed easier to blame the lab-leak hypothesis on Right-wing conspiracy theorists. Facebook removed material which, in its view, fell into that category. Scientists, such as Birger Sorensen and Angus Dalgleish, who published on the aetiology of the virus, were marginalised. Some people even said that to question China’s behaviour was racist.

    In May, however, Science magazine returned to the charge. It published a letter from several leading scientists, including Prof Ralph Baric, who had been involved in “gain of function” experiments in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which had originally cooperated with scientists in Wuhan. The lead signatory was the Stanford microbiologist, Prof David Relman, who has often advised the US government. Their letter said the leak theory had not been given enough “balanced consideration”. In an interview, Prof Relman complained that only four of the 313 pages of the WHO report dealt with the laboratory scenario, and those mostly under the heading “conspiracy theories”.

    At much the same time, President Joe Biden publicly tasked his intelligence services to investigate the leak theory. Their report is due at the end of this month. It could be that those who previously felt safer in their jobs and reputations if they were soft on China are beginning to wonder how their attitudes might look as they come under the scrutiny of an open society.

    Stand back and consider this sequence of events. It is an extraordinary story. The best way to understand it is to compare what would have happened if the Covid-19 virus had first appeared in, say, Oxford or Chapel Hill. How fast the world’s media would have been all over it, how violently would they have denounced any scientists, politicians or officials who tried to cover it up, restrict access to data or vet proposed investigators from international institutions. Think of how no prime minister or president implicated in such a global scandal could have survived. Then compare it with what a small price the Chinese regime has paid.

    This seems even more extraordinary when one recognises that China’s behaviour over the virus is no freak, but part of a pattern. The secrecy and dishonesty were there in its exploitation of its WTO entry, in the use of Huawei to gain access to Western information systems, in its influence-buying and attempts at thought control in British universities, in its hidden persecution of the Uiyghurs, its successful plot against One Country, Two Systems in Hong Kong and its pretence to be complying with net zero obligations. We have at last come to recognise the CCP’s methods in most of the above, yet remain reluctant to do so in relation to the one that affects us all – the global pandemic.

    China on the world stage cannot be trusted. Even now, the West finds it hard to think through what this simple fact means.

    1. They keep talking as though we didn’t already know that there are 73 patents on the structure of the virus, held by various organisations all over the world, but mainly from China and the US, I think.
      It’s obvious why the rest of the world don’t want to discuss the origin of the virus, and it’s not because they are scared of China – it’s because they don’t want the spotlight to be shone on their own activities.
      For example, US companies that registered patents for an aspect of the virus, and for a treatment for it, within days of each other, as testified by Dr Martin to Reiner Fuellmich.

    2. Surely refusing to expect higher standards of dispassionate scientific analysis from China is racist?
      It suggests that the biassed white west anticipates nothing better from the ch!nks.

  15. Good morning, all. Grey and breezy day. No likelihood of sun.

    Today I am identifying as a “Member of Parliament”. As such, I shall be “important” (© John Whittingdale MP) so I can travel abroad without the bother of tests and locator forms.

    On my release from Colney Hatch, I’ll let you know how that went.

          1. Involuntary absence, due to recent house move (lots to do, not enough time to do them etc). Anyone with any sense avoids moving house if at all possible, and in a pandemic it was positively insane. Mind you, a chain of no fewer than seven links was bound to try the patience of a saint, and it didn’t disappoint!

          2. Ah, yes , I understand .
            Must have been an exhausting time for you.

            Sealed bids seems to be the norm these days . Many people are being caught out by gazumping as well.

          3. Moving house ranks on a par with bereavement in the distress stakes, apparently. Hope you are getting sorted now.

      2. not helped with Gordon Brown News waffling about Eritrean “tragically lost his life” – what’s tragic about it? Risk v Reward. Expect more of the “flotilla” to come

        1. What is Gordon Brown News? Surely you don’t mean GBNews and if so why? The chap died in hospital of a cardiac arrest which could have happened anywhere.

          1. GB News is Gordon Brown News. My point was re TB’s post of 600 illegal economic gimmegrants landing yet Gordon Brown News opening strapline waffling about some Eritream who couldn’t swim and sunk, permanently. I don’t get any GB news here in Kenya and given it’s owner is now looking to make it more like Fox News and Andrew Neill looking to jump ship [or being eased out], it’s going nowhere

          2. Thanks for your reply AWK. I didn’t see the clip you referred to but one of the GBNews programme’s policies is to listen to peoples’ differing views and debate them. I am sorry you cannot view GBNews.

        2. Gordo McBust…there’s yet another useless politician and all-round bully boy I would prefer not to hear from ever again. It’s a long list, I know, but he and Blair are rightly at the top of it in my view.

          Edit:

          Manners- ‘Morning AWK.

        3. Gordo McBust…there’s yet another useless politician and all-round bully boy I would prefer not to hear from ever again. It’s a long list, I know, but he and Blair are rightly at the top of it in my view.

          Edit:

          Manners- ‘Morning AWK.

    3. Assuming 600 day when the weather is OK, call it 100,000 a year. (Half a million with added relatives.).
      The question is if say, 300,000* young male muslims started a revolution/takeover, could we stop it?

      *They already have these numbers.

      2. 600 in one day? – can we build a 600 bedroom hotel in one day? – and when the “family”( i.e. ANYONE ) turn up – all wanting and getting houses and the rest?? –

  18. NZ’s Hannibal Lecter opined she would consider ankle bracelets to know if people are ” self isolating” because of Coronavirus. And by the time Demented Joe answers a question [with words vaugely in right order], the Taliban will have full control of Kabul

  19. NZ’s Hannibal Lecter opined she would consider ankle bracelets to know if people are ” self isolating” because of Coronavirus.And by the time Demented Joe answers a question [with words vaugely in right order], the Taliban will have full control of Kabul

  22. A Job For Life

    Jack Valenti – the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – is flying down the road and he comes over a bridge. Sure enough, a cop with a radar gun is sitting on the other side of the bridge and pulls him over.

    The cop walks up to Jack’s car and asks, “What’s the hurry?”

    The guy says, “I’m late for work.”

    “What do you do?”

    Jack responds, “Well, I’m a rectum stretcher.”

    The cop says, “What? A rectum stretcher?”

    Jack says, “Yeah. I start with a finger, then work my way up to two fingers… eventually I get a hand in, then both hands, and I slowly stretch it until it’s about six feet wide.”

    The cop asks, “What do you do with a six-foot asshole?”

    “Well, most times you just give him a radar gun and park him at the end of a bridge!“

  25. The BBC feminists are now arguing for an extension of anti-terrorist legislation and police surveillance to be extended to all single men, who are now to be under suspicion of being “incels” (the involuntary celibate) after being considered unattractive by women. Misogyny is now considered as serious a hate crime as much as homophobia, islamophobia and racism.

    I encountered this bit of mission creep in the 1990s when I was treated like a leper each time I went to an event at my children’s school, and they installed CCTVs and passed Safeguarding laws soon after to exclude divorced fathers like me from such places, as well as blacklisting them from the workplace.

    A few days ago, the BBC feminists were boasting of the “pride” of South Korean feminists who, following the example of one of their olympians, have been cutting their hair short by the thousand to spite men and strike a blow against the “patriarchy”. They have their little signal to show their hate to passing men, which means they have a little penis and are therefore inadequate. Only if you are hung like an African are men considered fit as a bit of disposable entertainment in their lifestyles. This is referred to by the BBC as “Pride” rather than “Hate Crime” because their targets are not considered to have a protected characteristic.

    Yes, I am angry and dismayed, so it is deemed that I am as much as terrorist as a Kurd in Turkey. Do I now expect my front door to be broken down at night by plod?

    1. Aren’t Muslim men and other foreign religions deemed as misogynists ?

      The Taliban are seen thrashing a woman , in most Muslim or Hindu or whatever societies , women are murdered , burnt , stoned and humilitated and they fear for their lives and are not allowed to study , drive cars etc .

      Macho men in this society are misogynists ..

      1. The feminists seem fairly relaxed about the Taliban and similar wife-beaters. Too much bother tackling them – far better to go for the incels. They lack the get-up-and-go to get the woman by force if needs be, and are therefore inadequate and deserve to be hate-targeted for being patronising and misogynistic, even though most incels actually adore women.

        1. The feminists are so keen to talk about incels, not quite so keen to mention men who refuse to get married because of feminism.

        2. There could be a sexual element to this; there are women who actually enjoy that sort of dominance.
          Maybe the feminizes take their cue from doe rabbits. They only become fertile if the buck beats them up.

    4. It’s not just bbc wimmin: See https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-58209726
      Sir Peter Fahy, a retired chief constable and former policing lead on the prevention of terrorism, said police and government may need to re-examine definitions of terrorism as the threat from jihadist groups appears to diminish and other threats grow.

      “The real concern of the authorities is around right-wing terrorism, it’s some of this real extreme ideology, particularly coming across from America and particularly this developing theme around hatred for women,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

      “The efforts of counter-terrorism may have to be partially redirected.”

      Just a thought…
      The State takes action against terrorists, and also those who radicalise people towards terrorism.
      If “Incels” are to be on terror watch-lists, what about those who made them into Incels?
      Where does this crap end?

      1. Big fuss over that he was a licenced long-arms owner.
        No fuss at all about those shot by illegal firearms in London & elsewhere.

        1. Yes, but that is a cultural norm.
          We evil racist little Englanders must not dare to criticise.

      2. Where does it end – it doesn’t – – until the screaming demented harpies get face to face with the replacements on “kicking off” day, when the replacements show EXACTLY why they are here. A few public atrocities that involve women – I use the term loosely – being publicly “taken” while another replacent stands there with a gun – – and a sword to seperate a few body parts

      4. …and the authorities concern about right-wing terrorism, Paul, tells me that they are worried about civil unrest turning into Civil War and they know that they are the targets.

    5. I assume this is a reaction to the Plymouth shooting?
      When my daughter texted me to ask what it was about, she asked if it had been pinned on “far right wing terrorists” yet. I suppose the answer is now, yes it has. Truth is never enough for liberals, it must be distorted and used as a weapon against whichever group they want to direct their hate at.

    6. “Misogyny is now considered as serious a hate crime...”

      If that is the case then it must also apply to misandry which the feminists are now guilty of.

      1. We cannot do mass expulsions as they fall within the UN definition of “genocide”.

    2. This will go on until Britain has changed beyond all possible chance of repair.

      You and I both know that our politicians from all parties lack both the will and the testicular strength to do anything about it.

      1. Morning, Rastus.
        What makes you think that they want to do anything about it?
        Actions speaking louder than words, they welcome it, but pretend it’s inconvenient as otherwise the political fall-out will be massive when the population wake up to it. This way, wake-up will be too late.

  27. Good morning & happy Saturday all Nottlers from a hot & humid 31’C Tel Aviv at 11:00 AM locally . Is there anybody there is todays NTTL headline, so the most appropriate song I can think of right now is : The Beatles – Girl (Rubber Soul) Is there anybody going to listen to my story, All about the girl who came to stay? She’s the kind of girl you want so much, It makes you sorry, Still, you don’t regret a single day, Ah girl, Girl
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5m5EAU8nXc

  28. Good morning & happy Saturday all Nottlers from a hot & humid 31’C Tel Aviv at 11:00 AM locally . Is there anybody there is todays NTTL headline, so the most appropriate song I can think of right now is : The Beatles – Girl (Rubber Soul) Is there anybody going to listen to my story, All about the girl who came to stay? She’s the kind of girl you want so much, It makes you sorry, Still, you don’t regret a single day, Ah girl, Girl
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5m5EAU8nXc

  29. Who says that there is no justice in the world?
    EXCLUSIVE: At least 74 people on Martha’s Vineyard have tested positive for Covid-19 since Barack Obama’s maskless 60th birthday bash – the most cases on the island since April , By Shawn Cohen For Dailymail.com, 21:10 13 Aug 2021, updated 06:15 14 Aug 2021 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9891873/amp/63-people-Marthas-Vineyard-tested-positive-Covid-Obamas-60th-birthday-bash.html?__twitter_impression=true

          3. True, but what I had in mind was a vegetative state where they knew what was happening but couldn’t move or communicate.

    2. Of course it’s too early to say if it had anything to do with the party. In exactly the same way the G7 had nothing to do with the West country surge.

      There is no way all the imported lackeys and security who will have been around for a considerable time before the events could possibly have contributed, oh no sirree, nothing to do with the elites.

        1. Let’s hope place of death is accurate because the place of birth will certainly not be in Hussain’s case.

          2. Normally they can’t stop gushing about what the women are wearing. Fur coats this year i see.

            It was nice to see all the children enjoying the birthday party. And of course all the adults smoking pot.

        3. I think all news obit depts have prepared obituaries written. They are updated every so often.
          I would imagine the old and the druggies are ready to just press ‘send’.

          1. I am rather wicked so I am hoping that the Obits for Soros, Obama, Blair, Brown, the Clintons , Merkel , Bezos, Gates & a few other top Globalist scum get published very very soon!

    1. Variations on the final hours in Vietnam.

      One difference being that I very much doubt that 50 years hence Afgaff will be a popular tourist destination.

      1. Good Morning, sos

        I very much doubt if any NoTTLer needs the explanation provided in your first sentence. The question remains as to who should be the lucky winner of the free voucher suggested by your second sentence.. Answers by plain postcard to Gus & Pickles, Fulmodestan, Norfulk.,

        1. In the major cities; I very much doubt it was like that in those areas where the more traditional Muslims held sway.

          1. Well no.it would be rather analogues to modern Turkey in that sense. The educated classes v the country folk.

          2. “educated classes”

            Those would be the ones who change with the wind and hope they will be on the committees deciding who gets re-educated, presumably.

          3. No. They are the ones who on being told that the sun sets in a swamp under Allah’s throne, know it to be nonsense.

      1. One of the many defects in that film is that the soldiers – all of whom had had a shattering journey from Arras etc to Dunkirk were all wearing pristine uniforms and tin hats which were not even marked.

        1. And all were clean shaven too! Films made by yuppie noggins who never were in battle are always unrealistic. I assure you Bill, by the 2nd week of hard fighting during the 1973 Yom Kippur war I & my comrades in the Sinai were dirty, smelly, bearded, boots unpolished, uniforms disheveled, hungry, stinking of cordite & red-eyed from lack of sleep but our weapons were clean and our spirits lifted as the battlefield became increasingly littered with destroyed Egyptian tanks, trucks, dead bodies & the POW compounds filled up. Never seen much realism in war movies especially not in the Hollyweird ones & don’t recall many UK made ones that truly reflect on the reality of war.

          1. One of the complaints about ‘Tenko’ was that the women looked too well fed.
            I gather the actresses did slim down as much as possible, but the production company could hardly have their stars dying of beri-beri or some fearsome tropical lurgy in the name of authenticity.

          2. Happy Saturday Anne, so called authenticity nowadays means a complete re-write of history with having Women , Blacks, other minorities, Transgenders & multi-species in the cast leading the troops to victory !

        2. Like those living rough in Calais for months – get here in neat tidy clothes, hair trimmed, look well fed, and able to climb onto BF boats or run up beaches no problem.

      2. With that evacuation we returned in triumph to liberate the oppressed who then in gratitude took revenge by the EU and are still screwing around with us. Ingrates.

  33. Canada’s bi-sexual Marxist & pro-Muslim PM Justin Turd-Poo needs to be either shot by firing squad or institutionalized in the mad house ASAP
    Canada to accept 20,000 vulnerable Afghans https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/canada-to-accept-20000-vulnerable-afghans-676668
    The effort is in addition to an earlier initiative to welcome thousands of Afghans who worked for the Canadian government, such as interpreters, embassy workers and their families. By REUTERS AUGUST 14, 2021

    1. Pah, Canada has had an open door to the muslim countries for at least twenty years. They’re fxkcd.

  34. From yesterday’s blog

    Bill Thomas • 17 hours ago
    That’s me gone – drinks shortly at soldier neighbour’s. Might even be able to sit outside.

    Exactly one year ago, I was on a trolley in A&E at Norfolk and Norwich UH. The MR did not expect she would see me again. Thanks to an efficient NHS consultant, who diagnosed my problem – I am still here. The fact that I am still waiting after five months for a check up appointment is another matter. Frankly I don’t care whether it happens or not. At the point when it mattered, medical people came up trumps.

    Great excitement tomorrow – Fakenham Parish Church is having the first jigsaw sale for two years. Need to stock up for the winter (and the next three lockdowns… Perhaps there’ll be a cat puzzle…{:¬))

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

    17
    •
    Reply

    Just in case any NoTTLer missed the irony in Uncle Bill’s top ranked posting of yesterday, I am nigh certain that he was referring to the 1000 piece cat puzzle produced by Pomegranate of Portland, Oregon. The MR has already been sent 17 copies to hide in the family Christmas Present cupboard so that she can stuff them in his Christmas stocking and he can express delight and surprise as he opens each one of them. Don’t let him down.

    https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0528/0297/7982/products/AA997_05_400x400.jpg?v=1627449275

    1. Our local newsagent & shop is run by a Sri Lankan, but I guess people don’t know the difference……

        1. Probably because they are usually Buddhists not contemplating cutting your throat in the name of Allah.

      2. Odd! So is mine. Is it now the done thing for corner stores to be ran by Sri Lankans?

          1. My hair is cut by someone who comes to my house so not aware of Turks being barbers. Odd how some professions fall to specific cultures. I wonder why?

          2. Turkish barber shops suddenly opened up everywhere around here. No way i’m letting one near my neck with a very sharp blade. Happy with the gorgeous blonde lady who does mine.

          4. Also distribution points for drugs, I suppose. There is now at least one Turkish barber in every town in Scotland. I was looking up the details of a shop for sale in Elgin. the council rates for the shop are £14,000 per year. That’s £280 a week or £46 a day, before any other expenses. (Call it £6 an hour, and a haircut might cost £10 – £12.). How do they make it pay?

        2. If people GENUINELY come here to work and contribute, not to shove their fanatical “religion” down our throats, nor commit any crime or cause trouble, freeload on benefits, NHS, housing etc etc and be decent people- then I genuinely say welcome, If they are of what we are mainly getting – then NO.

  38. NET ZERO CARBON . . !!..!!
    A few simple facts . . .

    China is building new coal-fired power plants and blast furnaces at a rapid rate despite pledging to slash its carbon emissions to net zero by 2060.
    The world’s biggest emitter has planned or started building projects that will release 150m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, according to new research – roughly equal to the annual emissions of the Netherlands.
    The Australian port of Newcastle, alone, ships 150 million tons of coal each and every year to Asia / China. . . .

  40. Good Moaning.
    The ex Mrs Gove in the DM.
    As I read it, several points sprang to mind.

    My thoughts:

    1 With the Goves’ earnings, why were their children at a state school?

    2 I bet it wasn’t Bog Lane Comp, so they deprived children from less wealthy families a chance to go somewhere better.

    3 Private school teachers didn’t view Covid as an excuse to skive.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9892359/SARAH-VINE-GCSE-gap-state-private-schools-new-class-divide-shames-Britain.html

    3. I assumed they were virtue signalling by sending their children to a posh state school.

  41. Plymouth murders rightly given plenty of media attention, although in stark contrast to a number of others in this country – ‘Reading Three’ for instance – which disappeared from the headlines almost immediately.

    Why would this be?

    1. I’ll have a guess – – because the one who did the Reading deaths was a Libyan “refugee” showing his gratitude?

  43. Just back from a quick trip to the butchers in Fakenham. Most people IN THE STREET masked; virtually everyone in the supermarket and garden centre (especially outside…) and everyone (except us) in the Church (for the puzzle fair).

    Madness.

    2. “That is the last time I have a bet on with her !!! ”

      ” Is there any wonder I’m smiling? She dared me to wear this stupid hat, so I won £100 off her AND she has to have a giant beak on her head !!! “

      2. it’s an eco-cat-hat – charged with zero carbon electricity. We used to charge the school cat by rubbing it with a plastic rod.

  46. More, “Things are bad, stay at home and hide behind the sofa,” news from Independent SAGE. If the situation is as bad as this scaremonger states then she must, being a professor and therefore smart (sarc), draw the conclusion, as did Professor Pollard earlier this week, that the “vaccines” are quite useless as well as being dangerous. Expect more of this rubbish as the new school term approaches.

    https://twitter.com/AllisonPearson/status/1426292573082161158

    2. Can’t see anything, AWK. if you still have it, please take a screenshot and post it.

      1. Its a very good video – I get it ok – maybe a setting on your comp is not letting videos play?

  48. Can anyone forward a legitimate reason for someone owning a pump action shotgun?

    I don’t even think they are used in clay pigeon shooting.

    1. I thought that they were illegal in the UK? Only manual reload guns are legal where allowed.

          1. I have an English-style side-by-side, Firstborn a pump gun, and Second Son an over-and-under. Got it covered!

          6. I can’t hit a barn door with a side-by-side. An over-and-under, on the other hand, is fine.

    2. When I was a teenager (many, many moons ago) my friend’s father owned, among many other various firearms, a Browning Automatic shotgun. This held 5 shotgun cartridges in the forestock and all you had to do was keep your finger on the trigger and all 5 fired automatically, no need to pump it. I did that a few times and it had an awesome destructive capability.
      No doubt they are illegal now but equally not in doubt is that there must still be a few in circulation.

  49. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/362251a6bf1ab6c800a9b892b33405cd71e10b35989704b8cdaac57606ac1776.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a65f7996f4113cad22c1f81f3ac49c2f5671923ab0a3867e9067b7421cdb0ae2.png What is it about Londoners that they elect rulers who have an avowed intent to destroy their city? If they are not commissioning idiotic architects to construct gruesome monstrosities to ruin the look of an ancient capital, they are paying out six million quid to some half-wit to pile a mound of earth next to the Marble Arch!

    Now, some other cretin has built a new stand at Lord’s, the home of cricket, where a number of high-fee-paying cricket fans may sit with their view of the ground obscured. Time to shut London down, methinks, and relocate the capital to York, Norwich or Winchester. Then parachute all politicians, national and local, into the South Atlantic.

    4. Lord’s appears to be losing much of its ‘pavilion’ character. Anyone who’s been to a recently refurbished major railway station (e.g. Reading, Brummagem New Street) will be familiar with the style – lots of grey and white metal panelling. Yesterday’s match highlights showed a section of cladding already rusting through, just like a Leyland car.

    5. There’s two types of Londoner. The rich one, who don’t vote for Khan and are not affected by his gormless policies nor his waste, and the welfare dependent foreign gimmigrant who doesn’t care what Khan does because they’re not paying for it and get all the benefit(s).

    1. It’s pointless to investigate. The virus was obviously Chinese, the real issue is why the WHO didn’t lock down China to prevent it spreading. Either it has teeth, or it doesn’t.

  51. 336792+ up ticks,
    How about seeing as these politico’s are in for creating fear as a tool of manipulation, shamelessly abusing the weak of mind why not give ” your” MP cause to fear REAL fear, boycott all things lab/lib/con coalition at the polling booth.

          4. Rather than try to turn the fish over, when the underside is cooked (4 to 5 mins) finish under the grill.

            Excellent fishy.

  53. 336792+ up ticks,
    Peoples think the Ities have a problem, I do believe that the lab/lib/con
    coalition ( the peoples favs.) have plans for ALL single peoples, owners of double beds being asked to double up with an incoming DOVER unit.

    The request may be mandatory among party members, for the welfare of the party.

    breitbart,
    With Populists Out of Govt, Illegal Boat Migrants Up 673 Per Cent in Italy

  54. Oh my goodness , the football season has started , and Moh is tense and grim faced because the manager of Southampton has chosen the wrong players for the first game today against Everton ..

    Will be fun and games when they lose .

    I am off out shortly, cannot bear the build up and pre match tension..

    I wish some one would cancel football.

    1. Does the wendyball season ever stop? It seems to run throughout the year.
      In my yoof, there was a break roughly from a late Easter to the back end of August. (The new season was one of the doomy signs that the school holidays were drawing to a close.)

      1. Yep, and Autumn is nearly here as well.. Football is an autumn winter game , but it goes on forever .

        I enjoyed bits of the Olympics, but the football nonsense prior to that and all the hysterics wore me down .

        1. The other day the LGBT+non binary and whatever other term these attention seekers have dreamt up – – were on the radio calling for the big football event in Qatar next year to be called off – because being gay is illegal there. Power crazed loonies.

          2. It’s interesting that they’ll do anything except protest in Qatar. As always, the Left expect others to change to suit them. Their hubris knows no end.

      2. I developed a life long hatred of football. Standing in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt in pouring rain with the wind blowing in September.

        By my third year of secondary school i flatly refused to do it. Had a snooze in the library instead.

        I did enjoy athletics and orienteering though. A good opportunity to have a smoke.

          2. I enjoyed hockey as well , wasn’t so keen on netball, but enjoyed tennis and rounders . My sister played lacrosse .

            School sports were boring because the taller girls always galloped along in athlletics , and came first .

            I cannot believe how these young women play rugby and football, and use their fists boxing , and also take part in all the martial arts .

          3. I played left or right back.
            I developed a mean chop that launched the ball into the air.
            I understand that lacrosse is blood sport.

    2. Up here they have on the radio – “Football Heaven” – where fans call up and say what the manager should do etc etc. To me it is clear – the club should sack the manager, then give £100 to one of the fans to choose the team – if they win, he keeps the cash – if they lose – he has to pay the club double.

  55. Yay – I’ve just done the classic batty old biddie thing.

    Ran out of golden syrup; rummaged through every cupboard. Absolutely convinced I’d seen a new one somewhere. No luck
    Admitted defeat and popped out – finally tracking down a small tin that was enough for my purposes.
    Treacle tart in oven and I began tidying up.
    There, on a shelf (but on a DIFFERENT shelf) was an unstarted tin of golden syrup.

    God, this tart had better be worth it.

          3. My school dinners were better than what i got at home. There was always a roast on. With roastie potatoes and gravy.

            Then they went over to canteen style (sausage, chips and pizza) and i went without. Too expensive.

    2. “God, this tart had better be worth it” – the number of times one has said that…{:¬)) (A very long time ago)

    3. Not exactly brain failure, but a visual memory incident. Your brain is telling you where it remembers seeing the treacle, but it is stumped when the can is not where it should be.

  56. G’day all!

    Usual apologies if repeated, but it’s criminal! No it’s not but it should be:

    A reminder for all:

    UK Government said they do not want to make it a criminal offence to lie in the House of Commons because “It is an important principle of the UK Parliament that Members of Parliament are accountable to those who elect them”. That seems a bit conflicted…

    They then go on to say that “Freedom of speech in Parliament is an essential part of our democracy” despite the many restrictions on freedom of speech imposed in the UK.

    So there you have it. The UK Government doesn’t think much of accountability. Let’s get this petition to 100,000 votes so it will be debated in Parliament.

    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/576886?reveal_response=yes

    1. So a manifesto isn’t a pack of lies? Saying they’ll cut immigration isn’t a pack of lies?
      And god knows why they use “My Honourable . . . “

          2. Chilli Oil on Vanilla Ice-Cream Goes Viral https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/chilli-oil-vanilla-ice-cream
            Starting in China, the hack involves simply adding some spicy chilli oil to a vanilla ice-cream sundae and that’s all there is to it. But the trend quickly spread beyond China, popping up in Australia, the US and Europe.10 Jun 2021
            https://www.finedininglovers.com/sites/g/files/xknfdk626/files/styles/article_1200_800/public/2021-06/chilli_ice_cream__%C2%A9feichenpan.jpeg?itok=RZPadv6-

          6. Ah yes! If only General Custard had taken the advice of General Rhubarb that day at the Little Bighorn & had a desert after lunch with him & avoided doing battle with the Redskins, they would have been known as Rhubarb & Custard !

        1. If I may ask, do you really drink a lot or just pretend that you do? I personally rarely drink, the last time I had a glass of wine was back in April as part of a Passover meal & as for beer – well it must be a decade since I had a beer – just one glass of cold beer whilst having lunch with friends at a café on the Tel Aviv promenade

          2. I drink more than I did before my ankle injury plus Lockdown. However as I like to keep fit I know my limitations…Cheers!

          4. I drink more than I did before my ankle injury plus Lockdown. However as I like to keep fit I know my limitations…Cheers!

  59. Football and Strictly Come Dancing is a cosh .. to keep the masses happy.

    Footballers have just taken the knee as have the wallies in their suits ..

    So will the Strictly Come dancing effnic mix take the knee as well ?

    1. And on the radio – the match – with the commentary mentioning a player whose parents weren’t thinking when they called their lad Jack. Mr and Mrs Hunt . . really?

        1. Afternoon Bill. The way the world is at the moment I wouldn’t have been surprised at one under Tokyo which would probably finish off the world economy!

          2. Afternoon Hatman. I believe he did which might be an explanation of the dire results that are expected from the real thing, which is not only inevitable, but long overrdue.

  61. Hum of the combine harvesters is rather soothing and familiar..

    Acres of fields being worked , they have a rhythm and order . Next month will be the turn of the maize to be brought in, the smell there is delicious .

    3. And the scent of the diesel…….traffic jams behind the tractors taking the grain to the barn……(not that I have much sympathy there though…)

          2. ?גריזלי or גריז
            According to Gurgle, one is ‘grease’ and the other is ‘grizz-ly’.

    2. It’s astonishing how obsessed some Lefties still are with Trump. They can’t let go, can’t admit he’s not in office.

      I sincerely hope he comes back, because it’d send them absolutely insane – although, I fear there would have to be significant changes to voting identification and perhaps demanding some measure of social contract from those who can vote.

      Both those are good things, in my book. I don’t see why someone who has neveer contributed should be allowed a say in this country.

    2. It’s disgusting that we sent our soliders over there to fight these nutters then have the sewage Blair, Cameron and Boris import them by the truck load, give them a free house and cash while our soldiers are homeless.

      It’s time that was reversed, and all welfare scrapped and applied on a local basis, with local boards staffed by people in the community deciding who gets what. No more houses for the idle breeders, no more houses for the illegal gimmigrant.

      1. 336792+ up ticks,
        Evening W,
        You know and I know that the lab/lib/con coalition, members / voters would never allow common sense to take a hand, actions such as that could destabilize the voting pattern, then where would we be ?

      2. Did you know that this is supposed to be technically the most perfect song ever done? It is also my favourite. So thanks for putting it up.

    2. Not sure Landlines will be phased out, more that the move to fibre optic lines which don’t carry a current will mean the current ones won’t work.

      However, apologies for being a cynic – BT have had 50 years to install fibre. They haven’t. It will take them much, much longer to be forced to replace all interconnects with fibre. They stand to lose too much from their troughing on leased lines.

      If everyone has a gigabit connection, why would someone pay £1500-5000 a month for the same?

      Ah, you say. BT are forcing them to be asynchronous. Yes, yes they are. And that’s criminal.

          7. An Iron & a Phone – well there is a connection, a Henny Youngman joke !
            A Polish man had a bandage on each ear. What happened? “I was ironing, and the phone rang!” “What about the other ear?” “Had to call the doctor!”

          9. In Winnipeg, c. 1992, an acquaintance and his girl fiend were occasional visitors to my flat; his ‘brick-sized’ device was always in evidence.

            I thought it was a joke …

      2. I think that house phones will be VOIP and the PSTN equipment in the exchange will be withdrawn from service. To be honest, BT’s landline equipment is falling apart, literally crumbling away due to constant heat in the racks. When I worked in Telecoms they were struggling to get replacement kit from Ericsson or GPT, and I suspect Virgin Media were in the same predicament.
        The only question I ask is how to provide a 999 service under power cut conditions, your modem will go down and therefore your internet. You can have the best fibre cable or worse copper, it makes no difference in a power cut.

        1. For a while, I was involved in a ‘reactive maintenance’ contract for BT. All their exchanges, including some which are no larger than a domestic garage, have backup generators. My landline phone is cordless. With one exception, no-one known to me rings it. Plenty of scam calls, but the phone blocks those. Were it not for broadband, I’d get rid of the landline. But I keep an analogue phone for emergencies.

          At the last place, I discovered that I could get better internet access via a 4G router. Just as I was leaving, FTTP became available. It won’t arrive here anytime soon.

          But I agree – VOIP simply won’t work in a power cut, and – having lived in a village which had so many power cuts I bought a generator – the mobile cells clearly don’t have backup power. When the power went down, so did the mobile.

          1. I used to maintain an exchange in such a village with no permeant generator, the batteries used to keep it going until a petrol generator was delivered and plugged in to the inlet socket on the outside wall. I forget the number of trips I made to keep the thing full of fuel after the great storm of 1987.
            I would lay a sizeable wager if I drove back there it is still without a permeant backup generator. Thank goodness I have long retired.

          3. Yes I have worked in one of those as well, your hands are freezing after washing them in the rainwater butt during the winter months. Ah happy days, working all day in a UAX with no heating and snow on the ground.

          4. Really? I’d assume they had UPS’s of some sort? Interesting that.

            We are due to get actual proper fibre in a few months. I’ve asked if I could have two lines. The man was a bit confused as to why I wanted two. I hadn’t the heart to say I really wanted three….

  70. Mass shooting was Plymouth’s 9/11, residents’ leader tells Priti Patel
    Home Secretary visits scene of Jake Davison’s gun rampage in which five people were killed, calling what happened ‘tragic beyond words’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/14/mass-shooting-plymouths-911-residents-leader-tells-priti-patel/

    I cannot see the similarity between a lone lunatic with a gun murdering five people and a group of well-planned Muslim suicide terrorists commandeering airliners and massacring thousands of ‘infidels’.

    Yes, the Plymouth killings – committed by an insane weirdo with unclear motives – were obscene and cruel – but hardly on the same level as 9/11 and Manchester which were well planned and committed in order to honour a prophet whose disciples want to destroy all non-believers. We must not lose our sense of proportion.

    “Take but degree away, untune that string,
    And hark what discord follows.”

    1. Yet again, Priti Awful demonstrates how utterly unfit she is for office – let alone the Home Office.

    2. There’s a lot of publicity examining the man and his life. It feels wrong to spend so much time on him when the Muslim terrorist is ignored, let alone the antifa and er greeniacs.

  71. I am off. The village hall committee is having a free barbecue – to show the world that Fulmodeston is up and running again. Be interesting to see how many masks will be on display.

    Have a jolly evening planning the next Cabinet reshuffle…. Won’t take long – ALL OUT.

    A demain

  72. Does anyone else get sick and tired of housework? Not the pleasure of cleaning up, but that moment when having hoovered, seen the grime around the washing machine, wiped it up, sprayed, wiped again, then hoovered and thinking it clean enough then sees that weird gremlin – a seed, a bit of gravel, a hair that you didn’t hoover?

    Then you see that where you wiped is streaky…

    I’m not a clean freak by any means but it’s annoying to do so much then see ‘a bit you’ve missed’.

      1. Oh, everyone does housework, Plum!

        I just hoovered, did the kitchen and saw these stuck bit, hoovered… it’s not ‘neverending’, it’s just that sense that your home is never clean?

        1. Quentin Crisp came up with the answer: after four years the dust doesn’t get any thicker – or somesuch.

          3. I think it just got to me today. I’m not a crazy person on the cleanliness front – you can’t be when drool can fall from the ceiling – but I do like to have some measure of ‘clean’.

            Scrubbed the loo, bleached, then behind the loo, saw the sink cupboard door is flaking (because after ten years and lots of moisture it’s finally given up.. then the shower drain pipe is black… Gah!

          4. I had the flaking (delaminating) kitchen cupboard doors at the last place. Replaced them all thanks to a B&Q clearance sale.

            I’m worried about the drool from the ceiling – do you have a flying dog(s)?

          5. Occasionally Mongo will do a headshake and a gobbet lands on the ceiling, where it clings until gravity.

            He’s furry. He’s fluffy, he drools all the time, his farts can clear rooms.

            But the day when he has his sun hat on, sat outside with Junior, or huffing during a thunderstorm, or is acting as a table extension, or I’ve a book leant against his shoulder I wouldn’t be without him.

            He is currently being a Dad to his puppies and is apparently being very good with the mum (I can’t write [female dog real name] as disqus complains).

        2. Quentin Crisp came up with the answer: after four years the dust doesn’t get any thicker – or somesuch.

        3. Quentin Crisp came up with the answer: after four years the dust doesn’t get any thicker – or somesuch.

        4. Minimum hoovering and dusting….and a brief tidy up…then I can’t find anything….can’t be @rsed with polishing

        5. I’ve just spent 1/2 hour hoovering the bungalow – I should make the cat do it because most of the fluff is down to her
          As I’ve said before “Home is where the cat hairs stick to everything except the cat”

      1. When I broke my back I had someone in to hoover and clean for me as I couldn’t. Otherwise I like doing it. It’s my home.

        Maybe the madness started with wanting to please a woman at university, when I’d mop out my room every evening.

          1. I am wondering if a cordless hoover is a good idea.

            I’ve a rather nice Miele, but the bally cord twists all the time.

            Maybe in five years or so.

          2. I took out all the carpets and laid wood floors. Mop and bucket does the trick. Not me obviously.

          5. I have a Treasure who really lives up to her description. She’s very good at cleaning and I don’t know what I’d do without her, thanks to my arthritis.

          7. How do they work and are they good if you have pets? I use an ordinary mop but because of health find them an effort to use, so I’m always looking for gadgets that will make my life easier.

          8. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flash-Speedmop-Starter-Hygienic-Floor/dp/B07TBWK32G/ref=asc_df_B07TBWK32G/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=399640232057&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15428242363962841762&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006680&hvtargid=pla-844283754678&psc=1&th=1&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=89109177990&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=399640232057&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15428242363962841762&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006680&hvtargid=pla-844283754678. I have a largeish kitchen floor and other rooms to sponge down, my hip and knee have been playingup , so i invested in this gadget with a flexible head and a box of soggy throwaway pads . So easy , really you will find it a doddle

          10. The trouble with no feet, or neuropathy, is that there’s no sensation when you get tangled up in the flex. Cheapo electric tiller notwithstanding, most of my stuff is now cordless.

          14. Dyson V10. Stupidly expensive, but it does the job. Got sick of tripping over the cord. Not a good idea, especially on the stairs (less of an issue now I’m in a bungalow, admittedly).

    3. If I’m honest, ‘housework’ only happens here to a significant degree if I’m expecting visitors. The Hoover (actually, it’s a cordless Dyson – saves being tripped up by the flex) has been in action the last few days, since I’ve been working full time in the garden. With two prosthetic legs, a swift change of footwear is tricky, and the doormats aren’t 100% effective.

      Speaking of the garden, My ‘lawn’ needed serious intervention. I have the heaviest clay soil imaginable. The fact that there’s a former brickworks around 500m yards from me is a clue. So I’ve broken up the lawn with a fork, reduced it to a fine tilth with an electric tiller (£49.99 at Screwfix – much cheaper than hiring a rotovator), and have just spread 1.5 m³ of soil improver over the top. I’ll add a layer of agricultural gypsum, then mix it all in with the tiller. Turf will follow. I may not end up with a bowling green, but it must be an improvement on what was there before.

      1. That sounds bally lovely. The ‘field’ next door where the mare lives is just left to wild. It’s not ours properly, so can’t do much about it.

      2. I just spread a couple of tons of purple blue slate and then put pots out.

        You do know you are going to have to mow that meadow several times a year….and only the one man.

        1. Yep. Next door has gravel. Having given up with “Mowhammed*” at the old place, I thought my modest 25 m² of lawn wouldn’t be a problem for a robotic mower. Sadly, most of the green stuff wasn’t actually grass, and “Mow” just made a mess. I’ve bought a cordless rotary mower, which uses the same 18V batteries as my other tools, so mowing won’t be a problem.

      3. I have a glorious neighbour who does my lawn, in fact she does three lawns altogether. It’s her therapy so we leave her to it. I did at one time propose a lawn of clover and other low growing plants for the bees. Relented when the look of horror on her face looked like my idea would send her to the hospital with a breakdown with one less lawn to mow. I have not dared to bring up the idea since. Although I still like the idea. Occasionally she does forays onto other peoples lawn too. But that means she is really stressed. But we all love her so we all leave her to it.

      4. I’m not kidding Geoff, contemplate buying some worms. They will do wonders for your soil.

    4. Be careful. That sounds a bit obsessive compulsive, nothing ever comes out perfect and there is always something where you can see it has not gone “right”. Better to preserve equanimity with the manta “F()ck it!”

    6. I actually hoovered the snug yesterday (without blowing the hoover up – which is one of my specialities).
      Within an hour, Spartie found a old fir cone and demolished it all over the floor. Who would have thought one cone to have so much crap in it?

    1. Patel could pass a statutory instrument refusing legal aid in the case of deportation cases. She could do it. She chooses not to.

      Hell, Mandelscum used a statutory instrument to get the bought and paid for copyright law passed through. Least we could do is stop legal flippin’ aid for the rapists and murderers already convicted.

      If that were removed, and the lawyer made to pay the costs fair play, it’s a conviction thing. Otherwise…

      1. Like I keep writing – they are happy about the illegals, or they would stop it.
        They would instruct border farce to turn them back; they would do as you wrote with a SI; the RNLI wold be discouraged, and many more actions. But they don. so they must approve.

    2. No taking out until you’ve put into the system. If the illegal immigrants can afford the quoted smugglers’ fees then they can afford to pay for anything beyond a basic subsistence and legal package.

    3. No taking out until you’ve put into the system. If the illegal immigrants can afford the quoted smugglers’ fees then they can afford to pay for anything beyond a basic subsistence and legal package.

  74. GB news advertising boycott backfires as more people likely to watch
    A survey of 1,000 people found that 29 per cent were more likely to watch GB News following the boycott

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/14/gb-news-boycott-backfires-people-likely-watch-without-adverts/

    “These companies pay for Nigel Farage to attack RNLI lifeboat crews on his TV show.”

    Never trust liars.

    Nigel Farage has supported RNLI for many years and has actively campaigned on their behalf.

    It is a total misrepresentation of the truth to say he attacked RNLI crews – what he attacked was not their legitimate activity of saving lives at sea but the charity’s compliance with helping illegal immigrants to enter the country rather than returning them to France whence they came.

    GB News has its moments but too much of it is crass. Too many of its curate’s eggs are rotten.

    1. It suits the Left to smear. They love to lie to further their cause. The end justifies their means.

    2. A few weeks ago, I took the train to Farnham, with the intention of shopping at Sainsburys. Upon arrival, I was greeted with a poster saying that they were proudly supporting Pride week/month/year/whatever, and their logo had changed from orange to rainbow. So I walked the extra half mile, to Waitrose.

      I have friends who are gay. They just want to get on with their lives, without the incessant virtue signalling.

      1. Well done, you, Geoff. The more who take similar action, the sooner that companies supporting ‘Gay Pride’ BLM etc. and demanding medical evidence at their doors, the sooner they will go broke.

      2. My 88 year old neighbour was taken to Sainsbury’s in Haverhill by her daughter. The shelves were empty of essentials so they visited the nearby Tesco where the shelves were stacked full.

        Go woke and go broke it seems is the mantra.

    3. “Go woke, go broke” should be the mantra spat in the faces of these bedwetting companies.

      I have their names and refuse to deal with them ever again.

  75. 336792+ up ticks,
    Can’t be long now, that is a re-make of the towering inferno around about the HP sauce factory, , silent invasion is picking up speed in DOVER.

    Foreign potential troops entering & being deployed in England / GB, genuine indigenous troops being deployed in Afghanistan, not fiction, FACT.

    May one ask Is the ” Beginning” near beginning because it surprises me it did not begin a long while back.

  76. BBC News
    Thousands of people could be risking their lives by delaying seeking medical help, Amanda Pritchard says.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58199169
    Cancers detected at an early stage can often be treated quickly and easily.But research suggests three in five people don’t want to bother the NHS, while others are simply not aware of common cancer symptoms.
    Don’t ignore cancer signs, says new NHS England boss
    Consult your doctor…..

    WTF is a doctor…?

    3. Well, Duh. What, for all too many people, has been the point of worrying about persistent stomach ache or niggly cough?

    4. It’s not “not want[ing] to bother” the NHS – it’s the fact that you often can’t get through to a doctor or get a face to face appointment (even after you have been holding on the phone for 40 minutes).

      GPs get money per patient registered, even if that patient can’t get an appointment for weeks. It’s a con. GPs take on tens of thousands of patients- the GPs get rich and work from home, and patients get ill and die. The system is completely skewed in favour of greedy medics.

  77. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/priti-patel-loses-security-minister-brief-after-less-than-24-hours/ar-AANi9tm?ocid=winp1taskbar

    Priti Patel has lost the security minister brief at the Home Office less than 24 hours after she reportedly took it over on a “permanent footing”.

    The government has been without a security minister for over a month since James Brokenshire stepped down for health reasons, and had not filled the crucial position with another MP.

    Ms Patel, the home secretary, was this morning reported to have personally taken charge of the brief following wrangling about who should replace Mr Brokenshire.

    A Home Office spokesperson, asked if Ms Patel was now holding the security minister brief, said: “The home secretary is responsible for all areas of Home Office business, including those related to national security.”
    But on Friday evening Downing Street announced: “The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of the Rt Hon Damian Hinds MP as a minister of state (minister for security) in the Home Office.”
    The security minister holds an extensive brief, with responsibilities including counterterrorism, serious and organised crime, extradition, cybercrime, economic crime, hostile state activity, and royal and VIP protection. It also covers natural disaster relief and online harms.
    Labour’s shadow security minister Conor McGinn had said on Friday afternoon, prior to the announcement of Mr Hinds being appointed to the role, that the lack of a separate minister was a “clear sign that the Conservatives don’t take the safety of our citizens seriously enough”.
    He had added: “Getting rid of a specific, day-to-day, senior government minister responsible for security and counterterrorism when Britain’s national security is under threat 24 hours a day, seven days a week is an abdication of responsibility.
    “From the chaos in the Channel to the Police Federation declaring no confidence in her, the home secretary is clearly struggling to deliver on her current responsibilities. It is unwise that she takes on an additional role.”

    2. “From the chaos in the Channel ” chaos? – – because when they KNOW they are going to STAY and get a totally free life – they WILL keep coming.

  78. Last post.

    The village hall BBQ was great. About 40 villagers turned up. Free food. Inexpensive bar. NO MASKS except (wait for it) for the two lesbians who were maskless UNTIL they took their chairs into the village hall – whereupon they ostentatiously put their masks on and started avoiding people (though they had been in the melée for two hours.

    Wanqueuses.

    PS Gus is in the Eastern Daily Press as a “beautiful pet”…!! The sod will be wanting salmon, next…!!

    2. Any chance of a link to see Gus’s finest hour please? Did quick search of website but could only find old reference to injured feline called Groot!

    1. Sooner or later?? I know which I choose. Straight onto benefits, get an English girl pregnant so can quote Right to family life” – – JACKPOT. The newly arrived one doesn’t look like hes had a bad life back home does he.

      1. “get an English girl pregnant so can quote Right to family life”
        I think you just have to buy a cat now.

        1. Desperate English girl will sleep with and believe anything they say – the cat may walk away – and not leave kids for us to pay for.

          2. or Kristal or any other concocted name a stupid mother gave her. Honestlt – I am glad i’m old – because this island is going to be a 3rd world ****hole VERY quickly.
            If a country full of those coming here was so successful, why isn’t Africa the world hub of industry?

          3. Because, Walter they are all pig-ignorant, thick, tribal shites who couldn’t work out where the rain came from.

            We need a good, hard British winter with temperatures down to -12° C for months on end, to freeze the bastards to death.

          5. What a shame, what a pity, never mind, Peddy, I just want them to understand that we do not operate centrally heated Silver and Gold Circles, a la Norrköping. If it’s cold here, put on another jumper.

      1. 336792+ up ticks,
        Evening Boc via Bob,
        Ans. Boc, successfully screwing the electorate as they have been doing for decades, with the electorates consent.

          1. 336792+ up ticks,
            Evening NtN,
            “There”is always an alternative as in, independents, or NOTA in this case, what you are really saying is peoples MUST vote tory (ino) to keep out lab (ino) the very voting pattern that has kept us in the sh!te, deteriorating as a nation year on year.
            Take a peripheral party and build on it, we did with UKIP Gerard Batten a proven success in ONE year.

            Treachery via the party nec / vote splitting via pro johnson farage brought all our efforts down.

            To many peoples malign the real UKIP whilst continuing to be members , support , vote lab/lib/con the very coalition that is out to destroy the Country.

            If, as you say in your post “there is little” then use the little in preference to continuing to promote the sh!te creators.

          2. Please don’t tell me what I’m REALLY saying. I make my posts very clear to try and avoid any ambiguity.

          3. 336825+ up ticks,
            Morning NtN,
            You cannot be faulted there,as clear as day.

            NoToNanny a day ago
            Complete and utter BS – for all their membership and pontificating, how many seats in Westminster, did UKIP gain – I do believe it was ⅞ of ⅔ of eff all.

    3. Perhaps we should start referring to these single male illegal immigrants as ‘pathfinders’, on the basis that they lead the way for destruction of the target by dozens of others.

        1. OK. Was going to write to MP about it, but he – I think – will want to know source.

  80. 336792+ up ticks,
    There really is extracting the urine & extracting the urine big time, could it be that the actual people smugglers working in conjunction with the UK political overseers in regards to return loads, as in using the boats in store from incoming for outgoing.

    British Jihadis Going to Afghanistan to Fight for the Taliban: Report

      2. 336792+ up ticks,
        Evening TB,
        It might be rhetorically unacceptable but via the polling booth these odious actions have found peoples acceptance / consent for years, lest we forget, party before patriotic decency.

    1. If she has had it should she not have had the jab some time ago? Why the delay?

      Smells of rotten fish.

    2. No. Emphatically No!

      None of the politicos and their SAGE advisors will have had any of the experimental jabs. It is pure ham acting theatre and a total fraud.

    3. It isn’t clear at what stage of her pregnancy she had the two jabs. It is said that the jabs can cause a miscarriage if taken in the first trimester and there are of course unknown risks to the development of the baby.

  82. Apropros nothing at all, one of the pleasures I enjoy is re-reading books I’ve not read for several years. I’ve spent the afternoon sitting in the garden, quaffing a bottle of chablis reading a book called Fishing a Highland Stream by John Inglis Hall. It is a delightful read and even if you are not an angler it has wonderful descriptive language. Hall was in SOE during the war and used to go fishing as recuperation, it seems he carried some injuries. Anyway, if anyone would like a gentle, short, readable book to while away a couple of evenings I can recommend it.

  83. Utterly off topic.

    Our French cottage guests have departed.
    They left the cottage as anyone would hope to find it.
    Yes, we went through everything cleaning as normal, but one could not fault their effort.

    I wish the damned Brits left it similarly.

    1. Don’t they? The idea of leaving soemthing not mine in any state except that as I found it or better is absurd. The worst might be leaving washed plates to dry if I was in a hurry.

    3. I bought a couple of blindfolds yesterday. Can’t see myself wearing them though.

    1. Its their culture – so let the violence continue – same as the replacements – arrive, form grooming gangs – and the govt wave in yet more. every one of the migrants who are convicted of rape etc, should face a choice, penisectomy – or deportation after being micro chipped enough times to set off ANY scanner. If they did try to re-enter – forced penisectomy.

  86. OT

    Nigel Farage – on GBN – is the only politician dealing with the major political issues:

    ‘Global warming’/ Green energy/ Carbon neutral nonsense;
    The incessant invasion of Dover and channel beaches by (mostly men) of military age;
    The potential disaster of arbitrary withdrawal from Afghanistan.

    What is Boris Johnson’s agenda?

    1. Boris’s agenda is going perfectly – for Boris- until he realises that the people who have promised him untold wealth, luxury and power for our destruction, will throw him to the wolves once they have what they wanted.

      1. I think that we have to start kicking them out. They have a choice, leave or be put in camps to do menial, prison-like, labour.

        Start, city by city in a form of ethnic cleansing as, in their current unintegrated status they are perceived to be a danger to our culture, law and way of life

      2. It’s really nice when they all line up in those big blocks. Easier to use a dsaiy cutter on them.

        Quite simply, if they’re that enamoured with Palestine, why are they not living there? They’re either British, and abhor such behaviour or they don’t, in which case, get rid of them.

    3. Carbon neutral nonsense and the invasion are both mentioned in the famous “You will own nothing” presentation, so I think we can take it for granted that Boris’s agenda is no different from the WEF’s agenda.

      The other major political issue is vaxx passports, but we know all the news outlets have been forbidden from covering that in a less than positive light.

  87. Again off topic:
    That was odd.

    The local night market was moved down the valley for one night only. A festival of duck, salads, magrets, burgers etc.

    Masks, certificates, reservation areas and non reserved concentration areas, yet people split into behave to get in then rebel and behave to get in and still be cowed.
    All food had to be selected and paid for on entry. NO deviation whatsoever from what was on offer; that was OK, but I don’t actually want a bap with a duck burger, but refusal isn’t permitted.

    Music from the band hadn’t started by the time we left, although they did put on a few recordings.

    Altogether a relatively soulless evening and we won’t return the next time they do it, unless the whole masking, queuing, controlling has vanished.

  88. Evening, all. Been a busy, but quite relaxed day; wrote letters in response to condolences, received telephone calls and an invitation to a meal tomorrow, cut my lawns, damned the shoddy new Flymo to Hell and back every time it fell to pieces – about every three minutes – and planned some light refreshments for after the service (I wasn’t going to bother because I thought there would be very few there as MOH’s friends all live abroad, but most of my friends want to come, so I need to make an effort!).

    1. How old was your dearly beloved , Conway ..

      Glad you have had a reasonably relaxed day , and are getting organised , and I expect Oscar is a great comfort for you .

      1. 76, Maggie. Oscar has disgraced himself a couple of times recently – last night I moved my chair and woke him up; he leapt up, came across to where I was standing and nipped my ankle! We had words and his treat privileges were removed. I do know it’s one of his issues from his previous life – I think the family used to kick him when he was asleep – but I thought we’d overcome it. Today he indulged in coprophagia, the disgusting little beast. He strongly objected to having his beard cleaned up, but I persisted (wearing heavy gloves and restraining him). Then, when I needed to have a second go he didn’t object! I think the trick is to wear protective clothing and just get on with it.

        1. My Oscar also disgraces himself by eating and rolling in fox, cow and horse poo. I have a few scars from claws and teeth but only because I fight him for his treats and things just to make it more interesting for him.

      1. Not the blades – they are sturdy and secure. So much so that when I wanted to add spacers, I couldn’t budge the darned nut! The pathetic little plastic things that are supposed to hold the handles in the grooves and keep them attached to the mower keep working loose. They don’t have a split pin, so that’s no surprise – brilliant design, not. I cured the tendency for the wing nuts on the bolts that keep the two parts of the handle together to come unscrewed by removing the wimpy little things supplied with it and replacing them with the heavier duty pair and thicker bolts off the old Flymo (which won’t start).

    4. Hi Conway! Have been thinking of you these last couple of days and I am quite certain that I’m not the only one, from here, who has had you in their thoughts. Good to see you up and active and I hope that you realize that you are amongst friends on here that are only to happy to support you. So, Hi again and keep posting. 🙂

      1. Thank you, johnathan. So many people here have sent me good wishes, I’m quite spoiled!

        1. No, not spoiled at all. Since I have been on here I realize that this is a community in which all care about each other. It is something precious and you, at the moment, deserve our attention.

    5. KBO, Old troop, and keep the chin up and get Oscar to take you for long walks.

      You well know that any help you might need, will be forthcoming from those on these pages.

    6. You are doing great mate, all things considered and I am sure your mate Oscar is helping

      Today we went to RAF East Kirkby to see the Lancaster taxi……….. still looks good.

      1. Just Jane. MOH and I went to the museum some years ago. They were running the Lanc’s engines up and nearly blew us away!

    7. Oh well done – I’m glad you’ve been able to get on with things. You sound very calm, apart from with the lawnmower.

      1. I think that the resolution of so much that had been weighing on my mind has helped and I feel more energised, so more able to get on with things.

        1. I hope you won’t think I sound callous – but you may come to feel that your wife’s sudden demise might have been the best outcome for you both. You’ve had such a lot of stress dealing with her illness, and the thought of the care home fees, and everything else………….but all that has now been resolved.

          1. Agreed – – it was for the best – pity others suffer for years. That destroys everyone.

          2. I had already come to that conclusion, callous or not. You are correct that most of my worries are now behind me; the cost of care, the struggle for funding and above all, MOH’s distress at the effects of dementia. All for the best.

    9. Are you going to have a eulogy at the service? If you do write an obituary, we would love to read it.

  89. Sorry to keep posting stuff about faraway places , but have you heard about this?

    Indonesian army scraps ‘virginity tests’ for female recruits after backlash over ‘discriminatory’ and intrusive’ exams
    So-called two-finger test would see would-be recruits have hymens assessed
    If they were deemed to have had sex they were forbidden from joining the army
    Archaic and ‘discriminatory’ practice still used in India, Egypt and Afghanistan
    By LAURENCE DOLLIM

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9893645/Indonesian-army-scraps-virginity-tests-female-recruits-backlash-intrusive-exams.html?ito=social-twitter_mailonline

    1. Saw it a few days ago – wondered why the screaming harpies here weren’t flying out to voice their demands and hatred out there.

    1. Sounds like a plan to me, Maggie, please order 20 to be moored at strategic points around OUR UK.

        1. Na, too far inland OLT – I understand the wish but they must NEVER be allowed within British waters.

          2. Ah, well now, there’s another plan. I don’t think they’ll look so good after hanging from a lamp-post by piano wire.

        2. They were looking for alternative offices weren’t they, while the House of Commons is refurbished?

    2. A simpler approach is to moore it over in France and have Immigrants go to it where their claims are processed over a one way radio. Attempting escape has you returned to it. Attempting to reach shore has you returned. You stay in France, or on the ship.

      No food exists on the ship, no heat, no light, no fuel, no electronics. It’s just metal cubes. They’ll eat themselves. It is the nature of such characters.

    1. What a complete and utter demonstration of bluddy ‘virtue-signalling’ by the Biased Bastards Corporation. They should be closed down, forthwith and all their ex-employees have their pension rights taken away.

      They only earned them by deceit and calumny.

      Sorry, Sue Edison – we care for you and will do all that we can, but this travesty must stop – now.

      1. The worst of this is that when Queen Elizabeth departs we will be stuck with three woke arseholes named Princes but each with a collective IQ of about 75.

        I have given up on Royalty. Any human decency appears to have been bred out of them.

        1. I could forgive them a lot, but I cannot forgive them pledging their loyalty to a group of foreign billionaires (which they clearly have). Royalty can only be justified if they are completely, utterly loyal to their country.

      2. The worst of this is that when Queen Elizabeth departs we will be stuck with three woke arseholes named Princes but each with a collective IQ of about 75.

        I have given up on Royalty. Any human decency appears to have been bred out of them.

    2. BBC in talks to pay £1.5million guilt money of licence payers’ money to a charity chosen by Princes Charles, William and Harry to make amends for Martin Bashir’s ‘deceitful’ Diana interview.

      There. Fixed it.

    3. BBC in talks to pay £1.5million guilt money of licence payers’ money to a charity chosen by Princes Charles, William and Harry to make amends for Martin Bashir’s ‘deceitful’ Diana interview.

      There. Fixed it.

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