Saturday 19 December: Frustration Britain – no post, no customer service, no phones answered

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/12/19/lettersfrustration-britain-no-post-no-customer-service-no-phones/

882 thoughts on “Saturday 19 December: Frustration Britain – no post, no customer service, no phones answered”

  1. Prayer for today:

    In a Tottenham church on Sunday morning a preacher said, “Anyone with ‘special needs’ who wants to be prayed over, please come forward in front of the altar.”

    With that, Leroy got in line, and when it was his turn, the Preacher asked, “Leroy, what do you want me to pray about for you?”

    Leroy replied, “Preacher, I need you to pray for help with my hearing.” The preacher put one of his fingers in Leroy’s ear, then he took his other hand and placed it on top of Leroy’s head; and then he prayed and prayed and eventually the whole congregation joined in with great enthusiasm.

    After a few minutes, the preacher removed his hands, stood back and asked, “Leroy, how is your hearing now?”

    Leroy answered, “I don’t know. It ain’t ’til Thursday.”

      1. ‘Morning, Elsie. Just back from w/rose – no more ox cheek this side of the New Year! 🙁

          1. Too inconvenient, Tom, & the parking there for the disabled is atrocious. I solved the problem by buying a rib joint of beef for the 25th.

          1. Yes, but they’re a bit strange.

            I resolved the situation by buying a rib joint 0f beef instead. It will give Missy & me more than one meal.

          2. When aah wez a bairn, in Newbiggin by the Sea aah used te gan past “Strange, Family Butchers” on Gibson Street.

  3. The simple truth is that lockdowns do not work. 19 December 2020.

    The pandemic perfectly illustrates this dilemma. Covid-19 is a serious threat to life and health for certain people: those over 65 and/or with identifiable clinical vulnerabilities.

    Encouraging the vulnerable to isolate themselves speaks to their instinct for self-preservation. It goes with the grain of human nature. It is also rational – the onus should surely be on those most at risk to modify their way of life so as to limit that risk.

    Ordering the young and healthy to isolate so as to avoid infecting the vulnerable, when the great majority of the vulnerable can keep themselves out of harm’s way if they wish, is not rational, conflicts with every instinct of social animals and defies human nature. Worse than that, it is morally disreputable. If you doubt me, then pause to think about the damage all this is inflicting on the young.

    They are at virtually no risk of dying or even becoming seriously ill. “Long Covid” affects a small number and is not mortal. Yet the young and economically active are bearing the brunt of the Government’s measures. They are seeing their careers and job prospects destroyed before their eyes. We will get over Covid-19 eventually. Many of them will never get over the long-term effects of the countermeasures.

    Morning everyone. Sumption’s logic is irrefutable. Isolating the vulnerable is easily the most beneficial outcome on almost every parameter you can think of!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/12/19/simple-truth-lockdowns-do-not-work/

    2. While one cannot but admire Sumption’s logic on the issue of lockdown (others have come to the same conclusion and been summarily ignored by the government and its advisors) there is of course another side to what is going on viz. the government has an agenda dictated to it by/via the World Economic Forum i.e. The Great Reset/4th Industrial Revolution. Is Sumption not aware of these plans, or if he is, dare he not speak their name?

      2. I think it’s better to stick to the irrefutable facts. If he starts pointing out the WEF plans, people would just call him a conspiracy theorist – even though the WEF have openly said what they intend to do!

      3. Morning, dorky edit: Korky..
        That would make for a rambling article. Stick to the point and hammer it home.
        I agree that it is very easy to go off piste and bung in all the points you’d like to make.
        “And another thing…..”

        1. “Morning, dorky.”
          Morning, Anne. Finger trouble?

          You and Araminta are correct in what you say, however, Sumption isn’t, by a long way, the first person to say this. All the others have been ignored and Johnson is following his own choice of ‘the science’ and will not be swayed. We are now at Einstein’s position re insanity with the approach of isolating the vulnerable etc. Johnson et al will not listen, let alone act. Another angle of attack is required.

  4. It’s a bit lonely here, though I see that today’s story is only shewing 1 upvote despite both BoB and Peddy upvoting it.

    Disqus having a Saturday off to go Christmas Shopping?

  5. Half 7 and it’s pitch black outside. Sobering to think that had we stayed on BST this would be 8:30!

    We had an absolute downpour earlier but the rain seems to have stopped, at least for now!

      1. Yes, as nearly everyone who remembers the early ’70s and lived West of Greenwich & North of London will agree.

  8. Why Africans fought alongside British soldiers

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/opinion/2020/12/18/TELEMMGLPICT000247038511_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqj1auXmlGXSmhHAGGim-SoplBI6pv1smTu-YDwyHgwg8.jpeg?imwidth=680
    An incident of the Anglo-Zulu War, 1879: Death of the Prince Imperial by Paul Jamin

    SIR – It is interesting to see that, as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement, a painting depicting the defence of Rorke’s Drift has been relabelled to reflect “connections to violence and colonialism” (report, December 17).

    The BLM movement has obviously not bothered to look into the violent, cruel and expansionist behaviour of successive Zulu kings in the 19th century. It might be surprised to learn that more than half the 17,000 soldiers fighting under the British flag in the Zulu War were black; more than 1,000 of them were Zulu. Why would they choose to fight for the wicked British imperialists?

    The following statement from a community leader from Edendale near Pietermaritzburg provides the answer: “We have sat under the shadow of the Great White Queen for many years in security and peace… We are her children and in this time of great peril she sends to us to help her against our common foe. We all know the cruelty and the power of the Zulu king, and if he should subdue the Queen’s soldiers and overrun this land he will wipe out all the native people who have dwelt so long in safety under the shadow of the Great White Queen. Shall we not gladly obey her when she calls for the services of her dark children?”

    To a man, they did.

    Nicholas Young
    London W13

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

    SIR – With regard to the silly new “woke” caption to the painting of the defence of Rorke’s Drift belonging to the Queen, why is it that such politically motivated labels are never (so far as I am aware) provided by historians competent in the relevant field of study?

    Nikolai Tolstoy
    Southmoor, Berkshire

    2. The background comments are far too distracting.
      It would have been more amusing had it been delivered as a serious monologue.

  11. We need more Rees-Moggs, to tell the truth about shameless Leftist posturing
    Unicef’s donation of thousands of pounds to tackle hunger in Britain is a shallow political gesture

    ANDREW ROBERTS – 18 December 2020 • 9:30pm

    Jacob Rees-Mogg has done it again, this time attacking the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) for having included Britain on its roster of countries where it needs to help children who are going hungry. “They make cheap political points of this kind,” he said. “It is a political stunt of the lowest order,” before adding that Unicef should “be ashamed of itself”.

    Rees-Mogg really cannot go on being so truthful about organisations that have been accorded sainthood status by the Left. It simply isn’t done. Unicef, an organisation that has been institutionally anti-capitalist and anti-Western for many years now, must have thought its little wheeze was going to show how evil the Johnson government was. Instead, with Rees-Mogg’s intervention, the spotlight has fallen on itself.

    So the £25,000 Unicef has given to Southwark Council to fight supposed food deprivation in the borough (where child obesity is a serious issue, but child starvation simply is not) is now being seen in terms of the hundreds of millions the NGO received in 2019 (in part from British taxpayers). In all, Unicef is spending £700,000 on this stunt, yet if it were really concerned about children suffering from malnutrition in Britain, why is it only putting such a tiny percentage of its budget towards alleviating this apparent humanitarian disaster?

    Is it not concerned with the other aspects of health that come with the mass-starvation that Unicef deals with in genuine crisis areas like Chad, Ethiopia and Sudan? Has it directed its doctors to deal with the surely-expected outbreaks of beri-beri and dysentery in Southwark, indeed probably across the whole of the SE1 postcode? Or is it – as Rees-Mogg has spotted and bravely pointed out – just yet another politically-inspired jape from a Leftist NGO to try to put the British Government in a bad light?

    As well as the miserliness of the Unicef contribution, the other way that we can tell that this is a political gesture are the words used by Anna Kettley, Unicef’s head of operations in the UK, to justify the donation. “We believe that every child is important and deserves to survive and thrive, no matter where they were born,” she said.

    There you have a classic example of the Political Opposite Statement Test. “If no-one on earth can possibly disagree with a statement,” the Test states, “then the statement itself is utterly worthless, and possibly moronic.” Kettley’s statement utterly fails the test. By making it, she appears to imply that this Tory Government does not believe that every child is important and that some deserve not to survive and thrive, and that it does matter where they were born.

    It is a political trick as old as time – used with particular skill by the likes of Tony Blair and Barack Obama. But when literally no-one short of Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin (and possibly not even the latter) would fail to subscribe to Kettley’s statement, its triteness is starkly revealed. An avowal of principle in politics only means something if someone, somewhere, might disagree with it.

    As a UN official, Ms Kettley is meant to be apolitical, yet instead she writes articles for the Independent demanding Government support for her pet projects, such as special winter relief, little realising how much it damages the Unicef brand in the UK to be quite so closely aligned to Labour Party policy. Her claim that one in five households in the UK are struggling to find food this Christmas – i.e. households containing 13.2 million of us – is demonstrably untrue. And if it were true, why is Unicef dedicating a mere 5.28p to each person to deal with the issue?

    A much more reasonable use of Unicef’s time than inventing scare stories and suggesting that Tories want to starve children might be for the NGO to tell us what it is doing to prevent future Guardian headlines such as that of 2018: “Unicef admits failings with child victims of alleged sex abuse by peacekeepers.” Or whether it has finally got over its positively Corbynesque bias against Israel and its work with dictatorships. For years, Unicef provided funding for Palestinian “summer camps” which have been accused of encouraging children to become suicide bombers. One was even named after Wafa Idris, a female suicide bomber. In the late 1990s, meanwhile, Unicef and the Saddam Hussein government collaborated on a report stating that hundreds of thousands of children in Iraq died because of the sanctions regime. More recent analysis has found that these figures were completely untrue.

    Unicef appears to believe that the major cause of child poverty in the world is the free market, despite the fact that countries that adopt free enterprise have vastly lower levels of child poverty than do the corrupt statist economies that Unicef occasionally praises in its reports. It was not so long ago that Unicef reported of the North Korean dictatorship that “the particular strength of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s policy framework lies in its comprehensiveness, integration and consistency in addressing the interests of children and women … The government has proactively broadened and updated its laws and policies on an ongoing basis, also making an effort to harmonise with international innovations and standards”. Would that Boris’s government ever received such praise as meted out to the Kim family.

    Standing against all that is Rees-Mogg, who joins the all too small list of MPs who still consider the truth to be an excuse for saying something important, and who almost never indulge in the meaningless kumbaya political bromides of the “Kiddies mustn’t be forced to starve” variety. It was he who pointed out the obvious truth that, despite what local government officials are telling you, if you are in a burning building like Grenfell Tower you should obey your instincts and do everything to try to get out. It fell precisely into the category of a statement that everyone knew was true, but for which he got castigated just the same.

    When the House of Commons was full of people who entered politics out of a sense of public service, and who had achieved things outside politics beforehand, there were plenty of MPs who were willing to say things because they were true, regardless of whether people wanted to hear them. Parliamentarians of the kind of William Plimsoll, Keith Speed, Peter Shore, Eric Forth, Robin Cook, Sarah Champion and Frank Field are fewer and farer between, and British politics is the weaker for it. The very fact that you might not even have heard of all of them is testament to the way that they were willing to put their principles before their careers.

    The deluge of ad hominem criticism of Rees-Mogg for daring to criticise Unicef will scare off politicians in the future, inevitably emboldening the Left and its network of supporters to conduct further stunts of this kind. The saddest thing of all, however, is that there are genuinely starving children in Chad and Somalia and Yemen at this time of year who are now going without £700,000 worth of desperately needed food. But at least Unicef will have made its egregious political statement.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/18/need-rees-moggs-tell-thetruth-shameless-leftist-posturing/

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

    BTL:

    Pip Squeak – 18 Dec 2020 9:59PM

    Well said and Well done Rees Mogg. UNICEF, Oxscam, Save the Children and all the other “charities” are inherently Leftwing and are political mouthpieces run by Marxists. Never give money to any of them when they can afford to run brothels for their employees and siphon off money for themselves.

    Britain doesn’t have anybody in real poverty – it’s a myth encouraged by Labour, multi-millionaire footballers and bleeding heart liberals. Taxpayers provide adequate funds for benefits and if parents choose to spend it on booze, flat screen TVs and drugs that’s their fault.

    R Gregory – 18 Dec 2020 9:51PM

    This article is wholly true Andrew and I saw the vid’ clip of JR-M in the Commons at the dispatch box, nailing this nonsense for what it was and is.

    But – as you say – too few are prepared to stand up and be counted. One who did was the late Sir. Roger Scruton. When he gave an interview to the odious new Statesman Magazine, he spoke openly about several topics including the appalling way the Chinese Communist Party is turning out cyphers to parrot propaganda, on its behalf.

    When the NS published this, it rewrote the piece to make Scruton’s words an attack on Chinese people per se. When this was published – an array of so called ‘Conservative’ figures including Tobias Ellwood and George Osborne denounced him and called for his head.

    It was only thanks to the excellent Douglas Murray, who revealed the truth, that the New Statesman and its hacks were exposed for the liars they are.

    As well as Scruton, the even more reviled Donald Trump (see this sorry apology for a paper) and Nigel Farage, repeatedly stand their ground and give as good as they get.

    But whilst the Conservative party (?) continues to be represented by the likes of William Hague and Osborne and Ellwood, the Left will continue to triumph.

    Honesty and Courage have never been more needed amongst Conservatives and never in shorter supply.

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

    Brookes in the Times is an insufferable lefty

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/methode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Faf76e0c0-4169-11eb-83a7-25db7141c256.jpg?crop=2847%2C1898%2C562%2C150&resize=1027.5

    1. ‘Morning, C1. Thanks for this. I particularly liked Pip Squeak’s comment. This needs saying over and over again.

    3. An apology for womanhood, one Angela Rayner, said this: “Government Ministers letting children go hungry over Christmas should be ashamed of themselves.”

      Do children not have parents these days? Anyway, I thought that the government, (i.e. the ever-suffering taxpayers) already make sure that children don’t go hungry by paying £21.05 per week for the eldest or only child and £13.95 for each additional child, with no limit.

      Does this mean that Rayner is an outright liar?

    4. “Unicef and the Saddam Hussein government collaborated on a report stating that hundreds of thousands of children in Iraq died because of the sanctions regime. More recent analysis has found that these figures were completely untrue.”
      I’d like to see some confirmation of that. I was under the impression that the only people hurt by our sanctions against Iraq were the poor people in that country.
      I seem to recall that George Galloway* went some way to demonstrate that sanctions only worked against the little people.

      * I am no supporter of GG. Yet his interview with the US Senate in 2005 is a tour-de-force. Not bad for a man who fled Dundee a few paces ahead of the police.

      1. That was why Maggie was against sanctions; she knew the fat cats would be OK, it was the little people who starved.

      2. “…sanctions only worked against the little people” – of course they do! The Wabenzi have enough influence and money to divert the few remaining resources to them, and screw the others.

      3. “…sanctions only worked against the little people” – of course they do! The Wabenzi have enough influence and money to divert the few remaining resources to them, and screw the others.

  12. Good morning, all. Dark, still. But only three days till it starts to change….

    No news again.

    I did see Toy Boy on telly last night – he is sending a message to the enslaved French nation each day explaining how he is getting on.
    He looked very unwell…… Oh, how sad.

    2. ‘Morning, Bill. My heart bleeds for the little chap. We haven’t seen anything of his granny recently, wonder why?

      Yes, the longest night is almost upon us, we shouldn’t be wishing our lives away but spring and summer cannot come soon enough.

  14. I wonder what the real reason for sacking the Manchester Police Chief was, nothing to do with the Manchester arena bombing I suppose, nobody is mentioning that.

  15. 327543+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    ” Frustration Britain – no post, no customer service, no phones answered”
    Could very well be a prelude to the the future as in,

    Retain prior to retrain with re-set in mind.

    No doubt about it the peoples have certainly built a self harming political
    syndicate as shown by the last three decades and immediate actions, but could very well continue well into the future.

    It is no mean feat when we consider it that we have the Charlie Chan’s puzzled & they are top devious b@stards, with our voting pattern as in,
    nasal gripping, best of the worst, party first regardless of consequence.

    People power CAN ALSO work for the benefit of the Nation.

    2. Sorry to hear that, Bill. Hope your back improves in time for Christmas – if not sooner.

    5. Oh so sorry to hear this, so close to Christmas, too. You didn’t do it scampering around after those two little ginger rascals of yours, did you? Detaching them from the curtains, perhaps?

      Good morning, Bill.

        3. My one-time boss’ wife sneezed whist twisting round. “Shattered” a vertebra that she subsequently had to have fused. Painful was apparently not the right description.
          Take care, Bill!

          2. One of my friends from university once did something similar tripping over a root while out for a walk. Not good.

          1. Surely you don’t need to climb into the fridge to get the milk, which should be in the door.

          3. If I open the fridge or freezer doors & close them, they ‘lock’ themselves for a while & it takes quite a tug to open them again, so when I’m fixing my G&T, I leave the doors ajar until I’ve finished with the ice & tonic (30 seconds) to avoid the tug. I guess that’s what happened to you.

          4. It’s not that modern a fridge! I just bent awkwardly. I’ve had a weakness in my lower back since I was a teenager.

    7. Sciatica ouch. If any numbness occurs, call the medics because they will want to ascertain that you have not had a TIA*.

      (* transient ischaemic attack, as any nottler knows)

      1. Nah – just a “bad back”. I have had it since my 20s. But I haven’t put it out since early March.

  17. The Eton mess continues unabated. This is Episode 39 from the Tellygraff…what a tangled web!

    A dispute between Eton’s Head Master and the “beaks” led to one of the country’s most senior bishops intervening under a 600-year-old rule, The Telegraph has learned.

    A housemaster at the famous school wrote to the Bishop of Lincoln, Eton’s “Visitor” under rules dating back to its foundation in 1440, in a plea for help.

    Bishop Christopher Lowson descended on the famous school in 2018, to act as a mediator over teachers’ concerns over Simon Henderson, the youngest headmaster in Eton’s history.

    The disclosure that the bishop was called upon suggests that relations between Mr Henderson and at least some of his staff were already in difficulty, long before the latest row over the sacking of a teacher Will Knowland in a row over free speech.

    It is thought to be the first time a teacher has ‘instigated’ a visit from the bishop to settle a dispute at Eton in 200 years. In a bizarre twist, Bishop Lowson was suspended from his post a year after he travelled to Eton from his diocese to meet with the teachers and headmaster.

    His suspension was ordered by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, himself an Old Etonian. Well-placed sources said the problems at Eton and Bishop Lowson’s suspension, which remains in place, are not connected. Bishop Lowson has said in the past he is “bewildered” by his suspension.

    The visit by the Bishop of Lincoln followed a request for help from Ralph Oliphant-Callum, who was then a housemaster and still teaches at the school.

    The role of Vistior at Eton was established by Henry VI when he founded the school in 1440 as an independent mediator in disputes. The role was given to the Bishop of Lincoln and remains part of the remit.

    According to sources, at the time of the Visitor’s intervention, teachers – known as “beaks” – had been alarmed by Mr Henderson’s “concerted effort” to “shift the culture” of the school amid claims he was eroding the traditional powerbase of housemasters in favour of a centralised senior leadership team, based in the so-called “bunker”.

    Mr Henderson had eschewed the traditional headmaster’s office for what staff nicknamed the ’bunker’ in a modern office building in the school’s extensive grounds.

    Mr Oliphant-Callum has confirmed he called in the Bishop over “various concerns” but said the issues were resolved and that Mr Henderson had his full support.

    Mr Oliphant-Callum said in an emailed response: “It is true that in April 2018 I wrote to the Bishop of Lincoln in his capacity as ‘Visitor’ of Eton College about various concerns; it was certainly NOT a personal attack on the Head Master or a challenge to his position.”

    He said the Bishop’s visit triggered an “internal procedure” and that Bishop Lowson worked with Eton’s Provost Lord Waldegrave and its Fellows – the school’s governors and chairman – who “took various actions” that “reached a conclusion” several months later in 2019.

    Mr Oliphant-Callum added: “All involved were remarkably open and magnanimous throughout. The Head Master was particularly impressive in his generous and honest response and in his desire to engage and learn from the various discussions. Since this time his continued support of me personally and professionally has been remarkable.”

    He said he had “great admiration for his character and integrity”. A number of sources have complained about the headteacher’s leadership after arriving at the school in 2015.

    One former teacher said: “Very soon after Simon Henderson arrived he became very unpopular for a variety of reasons. Some were internal, such as overhauling the school’s governance by introducing a new, corporate style executive leadership team.

    “He was involved in demoting some very well established and well regarded senior staff. He started interfering with the independence of housemasters, to whom Eton traditionally gives a lot of independence. A running theme was the sense that the headmaster was acting dictatorially rather than making changes in a collegiate fashion.”

    The former teacher said some staff believed that Mr Henderson had “elevated gender sensitivity training to the top of the agenda” and even invited in a feminist activist to “lecture the staff on toxic masculinity, the patriarchy and unconscious bias as though these were mere fact”. The source alleged that “there was a widespread sense of low morale”.

    Eton College declined to comment.

    A leading BTL comment which is typical of many others:

    Daniel Westin
    18 Dec 2020 10:02PM

    Imagine paying 43K a year for your son to be force-fed the same “toxic masculinity, patriarchy and unconscious bias” drivel he can get at any state run comp (or read in the Guardian) for free. You’d have to be mad.

    1. I had reason to visit part of the School Library a couple of years ago, and some rather shiny & posh new boys (being shown around) casually asked me why Etonians were so willing to volunteer to fight and die during the Great War. I was flummoxed.
      One answer is that the flip side of privilege is duty.
      Sadly, the latest generation of peaceniks just whinge about ‘toxic masculinity’.

  21. Deradicalisation of jihadis does NOT work, warns terror watchdog in call for offenders to be closely monitored and given regular lie-detector tests. 19 December 2020.

    Attempts to deradicalise jihadis using mentoring and theological programmes do not work, the head of the terrorism watchdog has warned.
    Jonathan Hall QC said there is ‘no magic bullet, no special pill’ that could successfully deradicalise someone whether they were coming back from Syria or being released from a prison.

    Instead, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation suggested said that extremists being released onto the streets of Britain should be closely monitored and made to take lie-detector tests.

    Lol! He started well anyway! You cannot deradicalise anyone since there is no process of radicalisation in the first place. The whole concept was dreamed up by the UK Government to divert public attention away from the jihadist threat! The less said about lie-detectors the better!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9050665/Deradicalisation-jihadis-does-NOT-work-warns-terror-watchdog.html

    1. I agree that these programmes are going to be ineffective – it would be like government sponsored religion. A complete non-starter.
      I’m aware of two who deradicalised themselves – Majid Nawaz and ‘Ed’ Hussain who’s book I read The Islamist. It seems to be that there can be an awakening among people who suddenly realise that what they are doing is nuts. Whether that can be process is moot. I suspect that a 12 Stage Programme might be more to the point, but you need to be willing for those to work.

    2. “Jonathan Hall QC said there is ‘no magic bullet’,…”. No, Mr Hall, but there are lead bullets.

    3. ‘Morning, Minty, “… ‘no magic bullet, no special pill’…”

      A rifle bullet and/or a cyanide pill would both be very effective.

      1. Sure-fire de-radicalisation. 100% success rate.
        I see from the DT that your beloved plays the bagpipes! 🙂

    1. Just a picture of a video camera view-finder – where’s the rest in the vast open white space, Bob?

      1. It’s a Faceache link.
        Do a right click & open in a new tab.
        It’s some shepherds doing silly things with sheep.

        1. The year before, we were shown some “artists” using sheep with LED collars to produce “art” – they weren’t anything like as good as this lot.

  24. Good morning all

    Old son of mine who had the Covid test last week .. as a passport to have dental treatment , which of course was negative thank goodness.

    Yesterday he looked like Rudolph the Red Nosed reindeer.. he has a very painful nostril and the tip of his nose is red and inflamed .

    I suggested he should pay a trip to A+E , am I being too cautious.

    This is not a wind up , nor a published DT letter.

    3. Sounds painful – but not worth catching covid in A& E. A couple of painkillers and a bit of Savlon round the nostril should sort it.

  25. Saw this in window of nearby house. Thought it might be some sort of ‘advent calendar’ arrangement where a new word would appear each day until Christmas to help it make sense, but no. Any thoughts?

    I am easily confused though. During the summer someone had chalked ‘SHN’ on the pavement, together with a multi-coloured ‘U’
    shape. Was perplexed for a few moments until I realised it was upside down. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a1490b2fcd8b40978cc886c04c93c005983de1c69dcf2788b22d13ac11c7054.jpg

    1. In tat shops, there’s often the word “love” set up on a shelf. I’m afraid we always edit it to “vole”.

      2. Do the Norwegians use the same word?
        The other international word is F***. I know this from watching the Swedish Wallender.

        3. The Swedish swear-words are very mild. ‘Helvetia’ doesn’t mean Switzerland it just their way of saying, “Go to Hell.” ‘Skit’ is probably the worst, otherwise they rely upon good old English.

          1. The expression is drå åt helvete! – go to Hell!

            What about skitstövel, för fann!, och din Röv! ?

          2. We have a few more in Norway, but the range is pretty limited.
            Swedish always cracks me up, when skit! is pronounced Hweet! How can you shout that with the right level of volume when you just dropped your car keys down the road drain?

          3. Skit is pronounced ‘shit’. ‘Sj’ is the ‘hw’ sound, as in sjo (lake), sjuck (ill) & sjutusensjuhundrasjuttisju (7,777).

            As for volume, no problem with a bit of practice.

          5. The expression is drå åt helvete! – go to Hell!

            What about skitstövel, för fann!, och din Röv! ?

          6. I’d forgotten fann though I thought it was faan ‘cos that’s how it sounds “Far arn”.

        4. Everyone speaks Merkin here, as well as one or other forms of Weegie. So, yes and no, Anne.

    1. 327 543+ up ticks,
      Morning JN,
      With the same governance overseers in action tiers will be their future enforced recommendation, resulting in tears of frustration among the ovis.

  27. 327543+ up ticks,

    Does this apply only to the genuine indigenous peoples ?
    How about the countrywide ” guest’s” ?

    breitbart,

    Home Secretary Tells Britons to Inform on Neighbours Having ‘Raves’ and ‘House Parties’

    2. I wonder what her parents – who escaped Idi Amin’s nightmare – think of their daughter pushing a snitch’s charter.

      1. 327543+up ticks,
        I was there when he kicked the Asians out,the whole country stopped working.

        He didn’t bother with lock downs he went more for knock downs via club hammers.

        Even the juke box in the bush bar got jammed cutting short the musical evenings of myself another Englishman & six jocks, now jocks are as good as gold but you can stand only so many renderings of Bonny Scotland.

      1. The Longhope boat was lost in 1969. I remember the radio reports on the morning before she was found, upside down… and those later that day. That the crew of eight included two fathers, each with two sons also in the crew made it a horrendous blow to a tiny island community.

        Today’s boat is crewed by many members of the same families.

      1. My former student flat-mate reminded me the other day that it’s 49 years since we qualified. Where did the time go?

        1. I was looking a pictures of veteran Strictly contestant Bill Bailey. He’s 55. He’s considered to be the old fart long shot.
          In the pictures of him as a boy he is wearing the same sort of clothes as our sons.
          Ouch …. now where’s that photo of them at my brother’s wedding in 1968?

      3. Yo Nd

        New old ones

        The Observers Book of BLM
        The Observers Book of Wokeism
        The Observers Book of Whitey Is Never Righty

        3. I still have my old Observer’s books – along with those which were OH’s, we have quite a collection.

    3. Rockpooling was something that I dreamt of doing throughout my childhood but I was never taken to any coastal location where I could partake in it. I was actually 33 before I managed to get to a location (Blackstone Rocks, Wembury Bay, South Devon) to indulge in my childhood dream.

      1. Rock pooling………One of my all time favourite past times.
        I once had a bag of fossil’s from Chesil beach, i was working at a school in Chiswick just before my wife and i left for Australia 1976. And passed the heavy bag full on to one of the teachers to show the children the many Ammonites and Belemnites. I wonder if the school still has the fossil’s. I still have some at home.

  32. Does your watch keep time accurately? If mine loses or gains one minute per year, I would regard it as reasonably accurate.

    But a new clock has been invented that would lose or gain no more than 1/10th of a second since the beginning of the universe!
    https://www.universetoday.com/149303/a-new-type-of-atomic-clock-uses-entangled-atoms-at-most-it-would-be-off-by-100-milliseconds-since-the-beginning-of-the-universe/

    How’s that for a piece of otherworldly information?

    2. “The clock is so precise that it could test whether universal physical constants change over time.”
      But if they’re using light to measure time, what if the speed of light has changed. Wouldn’t that mean time itself had changed?

    3. Mrs VVOF and myself earlier agreed to leave home this afternoon about 2pm to do some shopping.
      I then read out the comment regarding this new clock and it’s accuracy. Mrs VVOF’s question was “do we need this degree of accuracy” I replied no, we will still leave about 2pm. 🕰

        1. They asked the speaking clock:

          “At the Big Bang, it will be zero hours and one tenth of a second …… “

    3. If the lock ups worked.
      If the masks worked
      If the distancing nonsense worked….

      Why is the R number still rising?

    4. Still amazed at the MSM wall of silence regarding the Danish study that proved that wearing non-N95 facemasks, especially by the public (with no control over their usage – use in hospitals by staff means they don’t touch them once on, etc) provides negligable benefit, and that’s if they’re worn correctly and not fingered every few seconds, or, most importantly, re-used day after day.

      Similarly that as regards governments indemnifying the pharma giants against all lawsuits regarding adverse / significant side effects from the ‘vaccines’ over the short and especially longer term. They did the same during the previous pandemic (that wasn’t) – Swine flu in 2010 or so, with many NHS workers who initial got the jab now suffering from acute narcolepsy.

      What’s the betting that all the VIPs get a placebo jab and not the real McCoy? Especially Bill Gates. If I HAVE to (by law) take the jab, I’ll have whatever he and his kids are having – from the same vial. The safest ‘vaccine’ is the one those who REALLY know what’s in it will be ‘taking’.

        1. If we survive through this (including preventing the Great Reset/Fourth Industrial Revolution/China takeover) and the truth actually comes out, then a LOT of previously well thought of institutions and professions will have their reputations in tatters.

      2. ‘Afternoon, Andy, ” If I HAVE to (by law) take the jab,...” I shall ask whoever is administering the jab, to sign this letter that they agree to accept responsibility (and subsequent compensation claims) for any adverse symptoms I may suffer.

        1. Good luck with getting anyone to sign that. All that would do is get the Old Bill to force you to take it under those circumstances.

          I hope it doesn’t come to that, nor do I want any ‘vaccine passport’ or ANY private sector equivalent that effectively forces us to either take the vaccine to be able to travel, have a holiday (even in the UK), go to a cultural event, restaurant OR the alternative is to endure living a subsistence life only.

          THAT would get me out protesting on the streets – even if I had to walk all the way to Westminster to do so.

    5. Been there, done that – try driving a Magirus truck, dressed like that and toting a rifle.

      NBC gear as worn during Tacevals and Minevals Tactical and Miniature Evaluation (of Russian Invasion readiness)

      1. Done that too Tom – loved driving that truck. I found that once on the move you could change gear smoothly without using the clutch

        1. Otherwise you had to double-declutch both up and down the box. Don’t forget to check the six dipsticks before start-up.

          1. True – I’ve still got my ignition key up in the loft – a joke as the one key fitted them all

  34. Update on cardboard box: roofers arrived with Black Bags, refused to do the job, until the box had a pitched roof

    Skip (!) two hours, more cardboard aquired forward , roof now pitched and bin linered.
    Note: Do not recycle any bin bags from Indian Take Away

  35. Independent reporting that the government is to treble the number of fruit and vegetable pickers to avoid the fruit and vegetables rotting next year.
    Sky News reporting that French fishermen say they will all take action if there is a No Deal Brexit.

    1. Treble the number of fruit and veg pickers? – -how about instead of importing yet more – make all those freeloaders already in hotels at our expense get out there and start contributing towards the financial cost to us.

      1. They are so keen to get here, they pay thousands to cross the Channel in rubber boats…..(sarc)

          1. They are free to walk out of the hotels as far as I know. But as they are warm, dry, have a bed to sleep in, tv to watch, fresh water, toilets, bath/shower, food etc – -all at NO cost to them, then they’ll probably stay there. If they are criminals/murderers or rapists escaping their country and punishment, they’ll probably leg it.

          3. Ever picked leeks or caulis Peddy? The chains would do horrendous damage to the crop.

            Then, for the caulis, there are the knives they use. I wouldn’t want to have anything to do with a gang of potential criminals carrying those – and nor would any vegetable grower.

          4. Ever picked leeks or caulis Peddy?

            Yes, I’m very choosy when selecting veg in w/rose.

            My comment was tongue in cheek.

          5. Yes, I rather thought it was… but having actually picked veg in the field I couldn’t resist responding 😉

          7. Sunny weather crops, much more fun, though 2p the pound for rasp picking felt a bit like slave labour.

            You can’t lift leeks if the ground is frozen but cabbages in negative temperatures are a challenge… the colder your fingers get the greater the risk of amputating them with the necessary weapon. I’ve known more than one farmer to remove a finger-tip when “tailing” neeps – and cutting cabbages is equally hazardous.

        1. THEY will be fighting against us. They want this country – and are determined to have it. Our govt is firmly on their side. Our govt uses our taxes to continue to pay for the migrants/invaders to be here.

        1. I agree – -but all these leftie lawyers get their deportation flights stopped, then foreign criminals are released back onto our streets. I hope these idiotic lawyers get a full personal demonstration of exactly why the criminals were going to be sent back. I would have NO sympathy for them at all.

        2. We only produce 50% of what we eat Paul. We need skilled and willing people to harvest it. We don’t have them here.

        3. Most fruit and veg pickers come over for 6 months (or anywhere from 3 to 9 months depending on the farm and the crops grown) and go home again.

  36. Good news from France.

    Toy Boy and his pals are in a bit of eau chaude because, having lectured the nation of the need to limit indoor meetings (meals etc) to six, and to observe the curfew starting at 8 pm – he threw a dinner party of 10 people which went on till very late.

    Police are investigating (I kid you not)…. Oh how sad….

      2. This was just before he became ill. Prolly where he caught it – though, more likely, from his best friend the EUSSR Hitlerine (who was/is) a doctor.

      1. Must do something about my glasses. First glance I read that as ‘he’d better keep Mum,” and I thought “he’s doing that already”.

  37. A rant. BBC Radio 3 insists on using a young woman called Jess something. She is, apparently, a brilliant saxophonist. I wouldn’t know, as that it an instrument I’d move house to avoid hearing.

    This child is now all over R3 on Saturdays (other days are available). The woke beeboid managers speak of her, “infectious enthusiasm”. I translate that as “juvenile, uninformed gushing”, particularly as the main prog she “presents” is one where music is played and talked (and giggled) over by the child and her teenage “guest”.

    Donald Macleod she is definitely NOT.

    End of rant.

    2. Every musician will be a great host, every footballer a great commentator or so it seems.

      Being good at something and being able to talk about the subject are a very rare combination – Peter Allis on golf obviously and we have retired Opera singer Ben Heppner who has a very interesting program on our radio. Both oldies, not inexperienced youth.

    3. I ranted about her yesterday. I expect you missed ‘Croissant Corner’ with dear Elizabeth this morning. Donald Macleod is in the Premier League compared to these Division 4 ‘presenters’

        1. Pru Leith said she didn’t feel a thing when she had hers.

          ‘That’s because they didn’t give you one, Pru dear’.

        2. When are our ‘really on the ball’ media going to ask the question of our political classes. “Have you taken the vaccine yet and can i see proof of this”?

  39. ‘If you’re worried about the price, you can’t f***ing afford it’: Gordon Ramsay hits back at critics of his £19 full English and insists the pricey fry-up would be his ‘last supper’ of choice
    The foul-mouthed star, 54, insisted he would have his full English fry-up as his ‘last supper’ after he was targeted by naysayers
    In September, the celebrity chef shared a picture of his new full English at the Savoy Grill
    Twitter users thought dish was too small as well as overpriced and shared pictures of bigger meals at the time
    In response to criticism, Ramsay branded one user ‘an idiot sandwich’ saying his breakfast was a ‘recipe for a heart attack’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9070155/Gordon-Ramsay-hits-fans-blasted-19-English-fry-up.html

    1. TB I doubt if you have watched that loud foul mouth cook Ramsay with that beardy French bloke and the Italian chef Gino ?? on their TV road trip.
      Talk about dangerous morons and they get paid for it, as having fun.

    3. I am proud to say that I have never watched this foul, common, vulgar litlle twerp on television apart from a moment or two when I am switching channels on the remote control.

    4. The Savoy Grill is a wad-flasher’s paradise.
      Been once and wouldn’t bother again.
      Much prefer – when feeling flush (and free) – to go to what used to be the River Room.

      1. £19 for that is a rip-off.

        Before lockdown I used to enjoy a Full English (2 eggs of choice, 2 sausages, 3 bacon rashers, 2 tomato 1/2s, toast & a pile of chopped mushrooms) + fruit juice + coffee + 2 extra rounds of toast (white or wholemeal) + butter + jam & marmalade, all for £10 at Côte.

        1. We could get that but not quite so big at our local garden centre who did an ‘all day breakfast’ for £5.25

          1. Waiter service?

            Café Rouge, next door to Côte in Cambridge, did a cheaper breakfast before they went tits up.

          2. Yes Peddy, they also asked how you liked your egg and grilled my bacon crispy the way I like it – no juice though but a big pot of tea

      2. Don’t want to pay £19 for a fry-up? Don’t eat at Gordon’s place. No stress, no problems.

        1. I wouldn’t dream of eating at any of Gordon’s places; I don’t want to have my ears set bleeding by the language being bellowed from the kitchen.

    6. When he was younger, he was punched in the mouth by Marco Pierre White, which left him weeping. I’m surprised that no one has punched his lights out since then.

      3. You lower your face covering to insert food into mouth on the end of fork, replace face covering. Chew. Repeat. I kid you not, this was requested by a restaurant in the US. I wonder how many clients they got. The conversation must have been nil.

        1. Iwas having an outdoor coffee and bacon sarnie on Thursday with a friend and someone we knew came by and stopped for a chat. She was wearing a mask – out in the street. I couldn’t understand a word she was saying. It wasn’t until all this nonsense started that I realised how much I rely on lip reading.

          2. I’ve noticed that people are doing that increasingly around where I live too. They just don’t bother to take the wretched things off when exiting a shop.
            I fear that we are raising a generation of socially isolated babies and toddlers who will have a diminished vocabulary for reading people’s faces.

          3. They’ll learn to read eyes instead. Eye expressions are often overlooked. e.g. you can tell if a person is lying or really smiling.

          4. I’ve always used my eyebrows a lot – one or both – and I find as I go reound the shelves and people approach I raise my eyebrows more instead of smiling.

  41. Just been watching on PBS America ( on Freeview ) a prog called Opioids Inc. It is on again later so will probably watch it again. Worth it.

      2. Get the MR to get you some co-codamol. Boots Pharmacy sell it. It’s quite good washed down with a shot of vodka before bedtime.

  42. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Some letters about the service – or lack of – we receive. As it happens, couple of weeks ago I had cause to phone BT. It took 44 minutes for the call to be answered by one of their staff, and no ‘queue number’ system is currently operated by what is supposed to be our leading telecoms company. Very foolishly they sent me a feedback request afterwards…oh boy, my spleen was thoroughly vented when I filled at in. Even my GP surgery operates a ‘number in the queue’ system, so why not BT with all its vast resources and sophisticated systems?

    SIR – My neighbours and I in this part of London have gone days without a delivery of letters. It is unacceptable for any sorting office to decide which of its customers will be permitted a service on any particular day. But is it not also of dubious legality?

    Non-arrival of Christmas cards may not be all that serious, though perhaps distressing, but people are likely to be looking for letters about important legal, commercial or health matters.

    My time-consuming attempt to find any information proved frustrating. Only one number is available for the whole country and, on ringing it, I was simply told to call back, and cut off.

    An alternative offered was to go online. This just led me back to the phone number that I had already called, with the same inevitable result.

    In other words, customer service at Royal Mail is a farce, and the postal service on offer is rather less than serviceable. And from January 1, the cost of postage is going up.

    Keith Perry
    London SW13

    SIR – I have been a blood donor for 55 years, but for about two years I have been unable to make an appointment. My nearest location is permanently booked up. I still get emails telling me how important I am to them and asking me to donate. I’d dearly love to.

    I have emailed the NHS blood-donor site several times stating the problem. I did get one answer, apologising and asking me to try for a cancellation. I have; there never has been one.

    Patricia Beard
    Leominster, Herefordshire

    SIR – I have always supported private enterprise, but have recently come to the view that utilities would be as well re-nationalised. The average customer finds it impossible to speak to anyone.

    My latest encounter was getting through to Scottish Water. I hung on for close to quarter of an hour, only to hear the recorded voice tell me that they were very busy and that I should try again later.

    Meanwhile my wife had almost finished a robotic interrogation by Scottish Gas when an abrupt announcement said that the office had now closed, and the line went dead.

    Michael S R Bruce
    Edinburgh

    SIR – Our internet connection failed overnight on Tuesday. After going through fault checks we rang BT. We got through with no delay and an operator spent 30 minutes trying to restore our service. He promised a temporary hub, next day. By 1pm on Wednesday our service was restored.

    My smart meter failed two weeks ago. I rang the service number, saying I was over 80. They said their contract allowed 90 days for a response.

    J E Harlow
    Woodborough, Nottinghamshire

    SIR – Some institutions have installed software that informs you what number you are in the queue. This is so helpful. Why don’t all organisations do this?

    John Harvey
    Haslemere, Surrey

    1. Last Sunday, my newish (4 months) printer played up.
      I contacted Amazon, they suggested a couple of actions that I already knew wouldn’t work, but did them out of politeness to the helpful chap.
      After that, helpful chap decided to replace the printer. It arrives on Tuesday.

        3. Epson XP-8600 wifi. However, given the thickness of Victorian house walls and the fact that I was printing on card, not paper, I sit up in my playroom right next to the machine and watch proceeding like a hawk.
          Luckily I had printed my Christmas cards. It was putting in new cartridges that highlighted the problem; and, no, they were not substitutes but the real thing.

          2. I’ve had an Epson before. Must have lasted a good 10 + years.
            The print quality is good and it was fine until some little worm entered its brain.

          3. Back in the days when standard computer reports required wide paper I spent a lot of time using an Epson dot matrix printer with a tractor feed for continuous paper. It could chug on for hours and (provided one replaced the ribbons regularly) the print quality was excellent. Sadly, after the office was burgled we found it upside down on the floor and though we couldn’t find anything broken it became very temperamental and as the firm had updated its software we moved on to single-sheet printers with ink cartridges.

            I currently have two Canon printers (one is my portable “baby” which travels with me) and find them pretty reliable. The portable is about 9 years old.

          1. ‘Morning, Paul, I won’t have HP in the house – cheap to buy but bluddy expensive to run. Their ink is among the costliest.

          4. Ketchup at breakfast is the work of the Devil. Especially if used to pollute bacon sarnies, which shall remain sauce-free.

          6. Ketchup anywhere is the work of the Devil, except for cleaning pots, pans & brass-ware, etc.

          7. If the bacon is worth eating it doesn’t need additives. If it needs additives… why on earth are you eating it?

            Bacon sarnies, pollution free, it’s the only way to eat them 😉

          8. You get a down vote for that, I’m afraid!
            Ever since Heinz moved the production to Holland, it’s been very vinegary and there are much better sauces on the market.

            In fact even ALDI’s brown sauce tastes better!

          9. I disagree, Bob. The composition of HP sauce has changed dozens of times over the decades (I’m an avid label reader) but it still tastes authentic to me.

            Same with Heinz salad cream: still the yummiest on the market and nothing better to accompany a decent home made pork pie.

          10. I have always had Epsons – the compatible cartridges are much cheaper than the originals.

          11. HP asked Apple to cancel the certificates for a range of printers as a result my a perfectly good non-wifi printer stopped working. I’ve replaced it with a Cannon printer and will be donating the HP one to a university student running Microsoft…..

    3. I hope the smugglers are abiding by the sale rules e.g. the crossing price was higher than £300 for a stipulated period before the sale offer. Otherwise they could be prosecuted.

  45. SIR – This year I am giving my children litter pickers for Christmas. How do you think they will be received?

    Peter Dobson
    Poole, Dorset

    Personally I admire your initiative, Peter Dobson, although you may find yourself walking rather awkwardly once they have been opened…

  46. Good Morning Folks,

    Raining here, so no Saturday morning tennis, in their wisdom the government have closed all the indoor courts except for people who live in the same bubble.
    Not sure what all this rubbish is doing to the general fitness of the country, the less we do the less we want to do, the longer the lay off the harder it is to get back to former fitness especially as people get older.

    1. I have noticed that. I struggle to run up the hills the way I did. I’m glad I had Covid in February when I was fit – if I’d gone down with it in June after three months doing nothing, I would probably have succumbed!

  47. Curious Questions: How did curry become Britain’s national dish?

    Martin Fone takes a look at the first Indian restaurant in Britain, discovering what was on its first menu, and finding out how lager became the traditional accompaniment to curry dishes.

    Steak and kidney pie? Sunday Roast? Fish and chips? Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding? It’s impossible to define what is Britain’s national dish, but curry has as good a claim as anything.

    As of 2015 there were around 12,000 Indian restaurants in the country, employing 100,000 people and generating revenues of £4.2 billion. That said, the word ‘Indian’ is a misnomer: most of the traditional curries served in Britain area actually Bangladeshi, and many of the restaurant owners can trace their roots directly to the eastern Bangladeshi city of Sylhet.
    Continue………..

    https://www.countrylife.co.uk/food-drink/curious-questions-how-did-curry-become-britains-national-dish-221007?lazyload=0&utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=app&utm_campaign=flipboard_rss_feed&utm_content=countrylife

    4. Lager will never be a ‘traditional’ British beverage. The disgusting filth is worse than the effluent you produce after drinking four or five pints of a superior English cask-conditioned ale.

      1. Lager got all the dvertising budgets back in the day because it was new & “cool”. The publicans liked it because it didn’t need managed in tha same way as a traditional ale, and because it was dead, it lasted forever. Also, a lot of publicans didn’t give a toot about the quality of what they sold, and who wants to drink warm vinegar? Admittedly, the rest of the UK, by and large, had the same attitude – witness those automotive jokes, the British car.
        Things are better now, there’s more pride in what you do – so, better, fresher food, huge choice of real ales, also quality pilsners, and even the cars are good.

        1. It wasn’t just lager in the UK. Countless megakeggeries (certainly not breweries) worked out how to filter a brown liquid after it had fermented to remove every bit of yeast and then store the inert liquid for as long as they wanted. It was then indoctrinated with numerous chemicals to preserve it. No cellar necessary. When required, this inert keg liquid was pumped with CO₂ to give it a ‘head’ and then served to those clueless (and tastebudless) morons who thought it was real beer.

          Thank goodness for CAMRA.

          2. I was proud to promote it. (Although I personally drank McEwan’s 80/-, a cask conditioned beer.)

          3. I used to like Watney’s Stag bitter. Difficult to find, but well worth it.
            Anyhow, if people didn’t like what was offered, the brewers would have brewed something else, or go out of business.

  48. 327543+ up ticks,
    Surely this could be considered for the lab/lib/con coalition party politico’s ?
    Get Prince Philip to head up a campaign.
    breitbart,

    Greek Police Arrest Three Pakistanis for Holding People Hostage for Ransom

  50. “Parcels taking up to a month to arrive as Christmas delivery chaos described as a ‘nightmare” runs the headline in the DT, following the foul-up that Royal Mail calls its parcel service.

    We have been using for some time now the ‘Greek god of trade’ for ours, with excellent results – and generally cheaper too. Other providers are available of course, but these days it is never the RM.

    1. Hermes “lost” an item that the MR sold on e-bay. Lost, my foot – they stole it.

      Never to be used again.

      1. PO “lost” my welding machine way back in the 1980s. Since it weighed as much as small car, I reckon they drove off in it.

    2. Hermes? They* delivered into our council wheelie bin. They delivered to a house in the next village. They delivered to the front doorstep, underneath the mat, just below the big notice on the door that says,”If out please leave round the back in the kennel”.
      They delivered to us stuff for a man in the next village . (Everything was clearly labelled.)
      We now routinely ask people to only use Royal Mail, and if it costs more we will pay.

      *Here, Hermes is a wild-haired middle-aged bloke with skewed glasses and a permanent gawping expression.

  51. From the Tellygraff…anyone trying to burn other than seasoned wood is just plain daft. And note the occupation of the co-author of this ‘everything is dangerous’ report – an assistant professor of criminology…obviously very well qualified! Stand by for a ban on all domestic stoves before long:

    Wood burners triple harmful indoor air pollution and should carry a health warning for children and elderly people, a study has found.

    Researchers at the University of Sheffield monitored air quality in 20 local homes, with sensors placed in the same room as the stoves and outside the house for comparison.

    They measured levels of fine particulate matter, a pollutant known to be harmful to people’s health, and found that it “flooded” into the room when the door of the stove was opened to add more fuel.

    Average levels were two-thirds higher than when stoves were not being used, and rose by between 250 and 400 per cent when stove doors were repeatedly opened to refuel, levels that lingered for around an hour.

    Lead author Rohit Chakraborty said the findings were “a cause for concern”.

    “It is recommended that people living with those particularly susceptible to air pollution, such as children, the elderly or vulnerable, avoid using wood burning stoves.

    “If people want to use wood burners we would recommend minimising the time in which the stove is open during lighting or refuelling as that will help in reducing the exposure to the emissions released indoors,” he said.

    All of the stoves used in the study, published in the journal Atmosphere, met air quality standards enforced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, but these standards do not take account pollution indoors, focusing instead on outdoor emissions.

    Newer, compliant wood-burning stoves are classed as “smoke exempt appliances”, meaning they can be used in “smoke control areas”, where emitting smoke from a chimney is banned and rule-breakers can be fined £1,000.

    Earlier this year the government announced that people with stoves and fireplaces would no longer be allowed to burn coal and wet wood under a ban to be rolled out from next year. All of the participants in this study used dry, seasoned wood, which is not expected to be banned.

    The scientists said their results suggested that these standards should be changed to account for health risks to people inside homes where the stoves were used.

    Stove designs which don’t require the door to be opened for more fuel to be added could also be encouraged by regulators, the scientists said.

    “It is also recommended that new residential stoves be accompanied by a health warning at the point of sale,” the study concluded.

    Wood and coal burning in homes is the largest single source of fine particulate matter, which enters the bloodstream via the lungs and can cause and exacerbate health problems including asthma and lung conditions.

    Co-author Dr James Heydon, assistant professor in criminology at the University of Nottingham, said the results showed that wood-burning stoves were not a “harmless appliance”.

    “These particles are so small the body struggles to filter them out, making them particularly harmful to children, the elderly and those with respiratory issues.

    “Most of our participants were unaware of this as a possibility. More needs to be done to raise awareness of the risks wood burning stoves pose through normal use. People can then make an informed decision on using them,” he said.

    A Defra spokeswoman said: “Air pollution has reduced significantly in recent years, with emissions of fine particulate matter falling 9 per cent in the last decade. But we know there is more to do, and domestic burning is a major contributor.

    “Our Environment Bill will make it easier for local authorities to tackle emissions from domestic burning to improve air quality. Alongside this, we are phasing out the sale of coal and wet wood for domestic burning – encouraging the use of cleaner fuels in the home.”

    1. Morning all! Like HJ the thing that really stood out in this “article” was to wonder why on earth “Dr James Heydon, assistant professor in criminology” is the co-author of a paper on air quality and pollution?

      1. To let you know that – as a law-abiding, white, middle-class person – the plod will be around to arrest you for poisoning piccaninnies.

        1. Good morning Bill

          Many of which are poisoned by paraffin or wood smoke in the land of their relatives.
          How do we know that children are not becoming overcome with cigarette smoke or the smoke from spliff addiction.

          1. Don’t forget the tipped over stove that wipes out daughters-in-law; especially if their families don’t come up with the readies quickly enough.

      2. Watch out Bleau – James is going to slap a deviancy label on you

        “Expertise Summary
        James’ research interests focus on crimes of the powerful more broadly and environmental harm more specifically. In particular, he is interested in the effectiveness of formal and informal social controls on the behaviour of individuals, states and corporate actors. This includes the more traditional ‘top-down’ elements, such as law and regulation, but also those deemed ‘bottom-up’, such as the application of deviancy labels by ‘non-elite’ groups.”

        What a dork. He’s truly spooky

    2. What a load of bollox – when I open the door to my woodburner to put on another log the draught sucks air out of the room and up the flue, nothing comes into the room.

    3. Oh well. When our wind/solar powered electricity fails, we’ll all just have to die of hypothermia – or Covid-19 as it’s spelt on death certificates.

      1. “… we’ll all just have to die of hypothermia…”

        Rubbish, Nursey. Just chuck another coat on the bed! :•)

      2. Spread the Sunday Times out between your bedcovers, there is enough newspaper to be warm and insulating .

        During our early married days when there were no such thing as duvets , just blankets and eiderdowns and no double glazing , we used the Times as insulation .. We were in Scotland during a harsh winter.

        1. Nothing – She has a medical condition that makes her prone to fainting when she experiences pain.

          1. You mean, it was reported on the media that she has a medical condition that makes her prone to fainting when she experiences pain. This rather begs the question, why did they choose her to film, rather than one of her colleagues for example, who is not prone to fainting?

            Note that I am not making any claims about what the vaccine might or might not have done, however, I do think it is poor logic to lay into someone, citing as evidence what was said on the mainstream media in support of an agenda that they are not allowed to criticise.

          2. The question you beg is one that some of the media sources that have reported the incident have also made. I agree that it does seem odd but a potential explanation is that the nurse in question wanted her moment of fame and failed to tell anyone that she had the medical condition. When I joined the RAF many years ago, jabs were often made en masse to junior personnel and it was very common for a few to faint, often the very toughest individuals. My ire is that a few moments of research would have found that there was absolutely nothing in the incident to suggest anything more than a rather unfortunate faint that was everything to do with a sharp needle and not the vaccine. There are legitimate concerns about any vaccine but claims that they are unsafe made by unqualified people should at least have some element of credible evidence.

          3. My feeling is that she probably just fainted which can happen to anyone, and then they thought “oh no, this will be used as anti-vaccine propaganda” so the easily fainting story was concocted.
            We can’t take anything at face value nowadays!

          4. “then they thought “oh no, this will be used as anti-vaccine propaganda” – well, they weren’t wrong there, were they? It is indeed quite possible that the “easily fainting” story was used to obscure the episode. I have some sympathy with your view that we can’t take anything at face value nowadays but then what do we take things on – the totally unsubstantiated, inexpert and biassed claims that simply repeat something they have read on-line or have heard ol’ Bill at the pub remark? Something that I have read on-line is that Chris Whitty is more popular than Britany Spears which, if true, suggest that the anti-vaccine protagonists are in the minority. But that is soemthing I do not take on face value!

          5. I’m not disagreeing with you, but sometimes the totally unsubstantiated, inexpert and biased claims are in the mainstream media!

          6. That’s true but when there’s a lot of them saying much the same thing it suggests that there is some truth in it. One has to weigh up the probabilities. In the case in question, what is more likely: 1. That the nurse did faint after getting an injection or 2. she collapsed through some effect of a vaccine that acted even faster than novichok?

          7. “That’s true but when there’s a lot of them saying much the same thing it suggests that there is some truth in it.” Or that they are all signed up to the same lie. If you tell a lie often enough it becomes accepted as truth, as we know and if you are going to lie, you might as well make it a big one.

          8. Oh come on, Conway, you are getting into the territory of wild conspiracy theories. In the grand scheme of things, this is hardly a big story. The woman fainted after she was the first one of a number of staff being given the vaccine yet neither she nor any other of those staff members expressed concerns at the time nor afterwards.

          9. Sorry, Enri, the events of the last four years or so have made me so cynical that if I were told it was raining I’d have to look out of the window to check 🙂

          10. I share your concerns about the last 4 years – they have certainly given cause for skepticism but I try to avoid cynicism which believes the worst of people. By the way, it is not raining! 🙂 On reflection, perhaps I do believe the worst of people in that I simply do not believe that any of the supposed conspirators in all modern conspiracy theories have the wit, wisdom and competence to plan, organise and carry out much more than lighting a match. That’s why there is no such thing as a government conspiracy.

          13. The Covid vaccines are all untested. Even the placebo contains potentially harmful meningitis. There are many epidemiologists around the world who would advise against taking these vaccines.

            Regrettably the MSM and the likes of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram are actively suppressing information in much the same way as they fail to report on the fraudulent Biden and elections in America.

          14. Agree. There are a lot of things happening that are clearly illogical, and the decision to go for vaccines – for a coronavirus – rather than cheap, easily available drug treatments, is just one of them.
            Sometimes looking at what the mainstream media doesn’t report is as informative as looking at what they do report. They would be all over Belarus and Brazil if those two countries had catastrophically high death rates, for example.

          15. Our son suffers from vasovagal syncope, he reacts immediately, not minutes later, as the needle is forced through his skin. He is out for the count, but he does come round quickly. Graphic description of blood and injury also make him collapse instantly but as he has got older he is not quite so badly affected (he has spent 10 years with the RAF). However, knowing that he suffers thus, nothing would have induced him to perform his party trick for the cameras.

    3. Why do you say that it was a nurse in Belgium? The microphone stuck in front of her is clearly labelled “WRCBtv” which is station serving Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. Their web site makes no mention of this incident although other networks have reported it and quoted the nurse in question as saying that she has a medical condition that makes her prone to fainting when she experiences pain, and that she is not at all concerned about having had the vaccine. Your saying sarcastically that this shows how safe the vaccine is irresponsible scare-mongering. By your ludicrous logic, VC Pence has had the vaccine and suffered no ill-effects so that must prove that it is safe.

      1. That’s two separate subjects separated by a solidus (forward oblique or ‘slash’), John.

        The collapsing nurse is the first subject. The Panic in Brussels is the second subject.

    2. “While no further action will taken, the FA says it will continue to
      support anyone who chooses to take the knee, and added that it does not
      view the anti-racism gesture as a political symbol      ” What utter carp!

      1. Very nice. I’ve bookmarked it. Afternoon Tea looks reasonably priced. Supplied from Bournemouth too.

  57. Hands up all those who expected a “New Strain” just as the narrative is crumbling?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6ff2bf045e439706425a50ea105f49f43f5220e4e7b39f7cda423e0f01b076a5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c67828cc406707dc4b418407c56b5e2330eee4b542b1714933c7400f1ab10b48.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f080d7528da57ac552967d114b0b30843bfa69a6236c385883131bbb6061a760.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cd0f8f5c42d025d7f3c9164b1db987b4d1c050fa02b038c48ed1f250791bb970.jpg

    1. I forget – are surgical masks designed to not pass infection from the medical professional to the patient or ‘to both’? As obviously they’ll stop blood and other fluids but still.

  58. Hands up all those who expected a “New Strain” just as the narrative is crumbling?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6ff2bf045e439706425a50ea105f49f43f5220e4e7b39f7cda423e0f01b076a5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c67828cc406707dc4b418407c56b5e2330eee4b542b1714933c7400f1ab10b48.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f080d7528da57ac552967d114b0b30843bfa69a6236c385883131bbb6061a760.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cd0f8f5c42d025d7f3c9164b1db987b4d1c050fa02b038c48ed1f250791bb970.jpg

  59. If there is a new strain of Covid-19, (Covid-21?), where did it come from?
    Epidemiologists are supposed to be experts at tracing the source of outbreaks. So what is the answer?
    Could it be a Chinese visitor from Wuhan?

    Should there not be some real factual information on this, before the authorities use it as another weapon against the freedom of the people of the UK?

    1. A few days after this hit the headlines early this year it was said that ” even someone in a remote tribe in the amazon has tested positive”. Alarm bells on lying straight away.

  62. Well, I was just getting used to the restriction of Tier 3 on Thursday and now we have Tier 4 on Sunday. What next – daily permission to breathe? This convenient ‘new strain’ is apparently no more dangerous than good old-fashioned Covid, and of course we should still have our exciting new vaccine, even though that was developed for the old strain.

    Any vote or discussion in Parliament before more of a our rights and freedoms are taken away? Thought not.

    1. Given that there seems to be considerable doubt about the efficacy of the PCR test, how do they manage to identify the new strain, presumably using the same test? Or is there a more discriminating test around??

      1. By all accounts, they have yet to isolate the original strain, let alone any new mutation. I’m afraid that today’s announcement is more likely intended to keep us indoors when Boris agrees BrINO.

        1. Quite agree Geoff. Conveniently nobody will be protesting outside Downing Street or anywhere else in London thanks to this latest piece of chicanery.

          How have you settled in to your new abode, are you all unpacked and tidy now? Hope the shops are a bit nearer for you!

          2. Hi Maggie. All settled in now. Not as tidy as I would like, but getting there. Being across the road from the station is a game-changer. Plus occasional buses (even one a week which goes to Woking), and Uber will pick up from here.

            Got rid of a truckload of surplus furniture last Friday, and left for the last time. The parish now says it’s going to rent it out for a year, rather than sell it. I’m past caring; I’ve moved on…

          3. Sounds like luxury compared to before, good news. Can’t imagine you’d ever come to Woking- nightmare. And probably for the next 15 years + with more and more tower blocks and widening the railway bridge.

            Good job you had time to dispose of your furniture and you must be thankful it’s all done now. Neighbours nice?

    2. How many new strains will it take to wake enough people up to the realisation that this NOTHING to do with a virus? Only the people can stop this nonsense, Johnson & Co have to keep going on this theme as they are in too deep to merely back out and say it was all a mistake. Blaming the ‘science’ won’t cut it either. Where will they run to?

        1. I am pleased you left those
          spaces blank. I have struggled
          to find anything sufficiently
          insulting to say of this Moron …

          Hopefully, other NoTTLers will
          provide a response ..or three!

      3. 327543+ up ticks,
        Evening G,
        The Zatopec of the politico’s,his input / actions treacherously closed out decent people,
        when aiding & abetting johnson.

    1. I suggest we all abandon Christmas this year and celebrate Yule instead (but don’t tell the PTB until Dec 25th or they will ban that too!)

  68. BBC Radio 4 News is that fishing is still a block on the deal being agreed. No mention of any other block. It is up to Boris to make the decision. Can we trust him? Mind you the French could still be our back up.

  69. Any politician, civil servant, or anyone in the public sector on full pay who breaks the rules should be sacked on the spot and be placed in one of the Asylum seekers camps until this farce is over.

    And any “celebrity”, television presenter, or wealthy member of the so called elites who tells us what we must be doing and then acts as if the rules do not apply to them should be treated similarly.

    This idiocy is going to kill far more people than it saves.

        1. some of ours are just learning that a nice summer cottage is not quite so cozy when the temperature dips to minus twenty, the roaring log fire is not as efficient as central heating.

      3. Our big city folk have already arrived, shops are a lot more crowded than normal.

        Just wait until Monday when a big lockdown expansion is due to be announced over here, we will be swamped.

    2. Some civil servants must be loving it, stay at home and do even less work than normal. On top of that, no travel or lunchtime expenses and many have been given cash to equip their home office.

      As for the elites, I am surprised how many of these celebs I have never heard of (not really). Elites in California are now apparently trying to bribe their way to the top of the vaccination list by offering donations to the hospitals that manage vaccine allocation – celebs, don’t you just love em.

      2. If you care to check the regulations you will see that important people returning from some Caribbean tax havens are not required to self isolate.

        So after a little light money laundering you can return to your normal life.

        I wonder which politician invented this?

      3. I’ve got some vax doses they can have at $10,000 a bottle. I’ll just go to the loo to top them up.

  70. My area – now Tier 4 – 175 cases per 100k

    Area 50-75 miles away – still Tier 2 – 169 cases per 100k.
    Approximately the same infection growth rate in both, and very little deaths since ealry summer.

    How does this make any sense?

    1. I think that sense no longer applies, they are just grasping at any option that makes it look like they are taking action.

      1. I think Boris just doomed the Tories to defeat at the next General Election, which come sooner than he (and many of us) think. Starmer must be laughing his arse off – all he needs to do is sit back and relax.

        1. There have been votes on the previous lockdowns haven’t there? As this is a lockdown in all but name I presume it won’t get put to parliament. Even so, Starmer’s lot have backed it all so far.

          1. 327543+ up ticks,
            Evening M,
            Acting as a coalition would, by the by I truly believe starmers lot is in reality the political cloak for the islamic ideology brigade & with the instruction manual
            in a prominent position in parliament & halal on the parliamentary canteen menu.

            Past time very LOUD klaxons, sirens & honking horns should have been heard, not a peep, to busy with party before Country.

          3. Yes indeed, Paul. I attended a UKIP meeting a few years back, to discuss the future of the Guildford branch. No-one else from Guildford turned up. Forest Heath branch took over the admin, and that was the last I heard from the party. I had stood in the Borough election; I would never had won, but at least I beat the Lib Dem. I joined the “conservatives in name only”, when it seemed that Johnson was the way forward. I voted for his leadership, and – since there was no Brexit Party candidate, again in the General Election. Frankly, if we’re ever allowed to vote again, I’ll prolly spoil my ballot paper.

          6. Despite all his flaws, he was still the better choice over Hunt. If Hunt had got the leadership, we’d either be in perpetual lockdown like California and/or with a Corbyn-lead government. The lesser of two evils via Boris.

          7. You do know that Boris manipulated the ballot so that he was facing Hunt in the last round for precisely that reason, don’t you? He used his solid fan base to weed out the real opposition as early as possible.

      1. I know it isn’t, but my point is why has no-one asked these questions of ministers and especially the civil servants and shadowy business owners behind the lockdowns and other draconian measures? It seems that they are in charge and not the politicians.

        1. Maybe that’s why Cummings got the push? He may have been asking these questions. They have only got worse since he went.

          1. And probably why the questions from the public at the press confereneces aren’t the ones were asking. Notice that no such questions are getting through to the DT Letters Page – more censorship? I waiting for local Plod to come-a-knocking soon for me being a ‘troublemaker’ for asking such questions via the local paper. Or being stopped and turned back on Christmas when travelling to my parents’ house, which I can actually do despite being in a Tioer 4 area because they are my support bubble.

            In the US, the GoP is getting hammered now as well as the Dems for most of them capitulating on COVID and especially on the election steal. This could be a HUGE turning point in Western democracies (lots of dissent in Europe, even Germany) – the question is whether most people have the courage to do something about what has been going on, and whether the Chinese government will try and take advantage of the situation (more than they already have) by making some big military and/or economic move to oust the US and Western Europe from being the World’s decision-makers.

            If everything thinks 2020 was bad, I think that 2021 will be FAR worse, because the social, economic and geopolitical impacts of the COVID response and the moves by those behind it all will be made clear, plus the divide in societies between the working/lower middle class/proper country folk and those above (main well off townies and city dwellers) – as is happening in the US (more than just GoP/Dems) and in the UK (Brexit-supporting, freedom-loving people and the snowflake, woke metropolitans / leafy suburbanite remoaners) is going to come to a head.

            I can see mass riots and far more draconian laws on restricting freedoms being enacted. Note that there are more than enough ‘Tory’ MPs who are remoaners/establishment types wedded to The Great Reset etc (including the Heath Sec) who may try and oust Boris and then we’ll be stuck with a remoaner coalition wanting back in to the EU (assuming the transition period isn’t extended) and the civil service going full-on lefty US Dems style in rigging any future elections.

          3. Cummings was acting to give Boris some backbone. Now there is no one with any gumption, or sense.

        2. 327543+ up ticks,
          Evening EA,
          The real battle that very few would admit to is for the seat of power, ie number 10.
          Vote lab keep out con, vote con keep out lab, the lab/lib/con close shop MUST be maintained at all times & at any costs.

          We would NOT be witnessing what we are witnessing currently without decade
          of their continuing input.

    3. As it said in the article – rates rose during lockdown, so… lockdown some more. Einsten comes to mind!

      1. These devils do not mind being ridiculed for their apparent stupidity. They are on a mission to destroy small businesses, the hospitality sector etc, anything that doesn’t suit their NWO agenda. It’s clear that only the people can stop this slide into despotism and it will not be through the ballot box, that will be denied them.

        1. What galls is that there is no coherence in the outpourings. It is rational as to why we have ot behave in one way but not in another.

          Masks don’t work. Distancing doesn’t work. The vaccine only assists 90% of a 5% infection ratio.

          I know the health service is frightened and worried but I do not know how much is paranoia and how much following the line. After all, the nurse who said she had done nothing throughout was sacked: it seems to be simply – obey, obey do as you are told, do not think, do not question.

    4. No active cases in our little community of 25,000, look a bit further and there are maybe thirty to forty in the health district (about 100 miles north to south, 50 if you go east west). We are being threatened with a lock down as well.

    6. Why did it make sense that the 8,000 rubber boat immigrants who arrived in Kent this summer were allowed to stay without being quarantined.

      It’s no good for Government doctors to state on BBC TV “we don’t know why it’s so serious in Kent”.

  71. Effective leadership is the ultimate vaccine against coronavirus. Indy 19 December 2020.

    As Dr Tedros said, “Leadership has been severely tested by the Covid-19 pandemic. And it’s fair to say that, too often, it has been found wanting.” But it’s never too late for leaders to step up – rather than give up – and to take the decisions that put their countries on the road to defeating Covid-19.

    The big reveal of the pandemic is that trust is essential to health. Leadership builds (or destroys) trust, and the return (or cost) of leadership is measured in citizens’ lives and livelihoods, often those most vulnerable and marginalised.

    That’s us finished then!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/covid-government-leaders-politicians-prime-minister-b1776095.html

    1. May I reword the headline Minty?

      Effective coronavirus is the ultimate vaccine against leadership…..

    1. Aren’t the Police like London buses – when you REALLY need them, they’re nowhere to be found. When you don’t, loads turn up all at the same time!

    2. The Police Force or service is now broken. What does our good friend Grizzly think about this video?

      1. Your good friend, Grizzly, has no intention of watching the video, Rastus.

        I don’t know what these uniformed clowns represent but it certainly isn’t protecting life and property, preserving order, or prosecuting offenders against the peace. I used to get a buzz from feeling the collars of criminals — real criminals — but I lived in a far saner world back then.

  73. What odds might one get that we’re under martial law in the early part of the New Year?

    I would certainly think worse than evens.

    Ditto, that vaccination will become compulsory and ID cards showing one has been vaccinated will need to be carried at all times.

    1. Martial law would be easy to justify – we need to follow the rules.

      Sorry that should read you not we.

      2. I hope that every politician, member of Sage and pro lockdown academic and member of the public wakes up to this. If they don’t we’re stuffed.

    3. Good evening, Sos.

      To add fuel to the fire:

      I have two elderly friends
      [he and she are both 81] he has been successfully
      treated for prostate cancer for coming up to
      eighteen years, an injection at the local Surgery
      every three months keeps him, nearly, hale and
      hearty.
      Just recently he has developed a slightly scabby
      sore on the side of his left eye, … after three
      months of severe agitation by Church members,
      friends, his son et al … the Doctor saw him this last
      Tuesday … and referred him to NGH as an
      emergency ..his son took him this morning for an
      appointment, the Consultant has ordered further tests but
      suspects severe skin cancer!

      F.., F…, F… !!!

      I await results.

      Edited.

      1. Crap! It never gives up, does it? Hope it goes well for him, sounds like he deserves a break.

      2. So sorry to hear that Garlands. I am so full of rage against the bast..ds I think I could punch somebody’s face quite easily. The National Covid Service has let and is letting so many people down, as are GPs hunkered down in their bunkers doing their best to avoid talking to or seeing patients. I am so glad I didn’t go outside on those Thursdays to clap the NHS, they didn’t deserve it.

        Hope you are keeping well yourself. We all have to KBO.

        1. Clapping was a propaganda tool worthy of Goebbels.

          Older nurses are leaving their profession because they are disgusted by the scam. We have half empty hospitals and daily pizza deliveries for the remaining fatty nurses.

          A lie repeated over and over is becoming the truth to the idiots sucking it up.

          1. If that’s all you see & hear on TV and in the news, it’s difficult to get a second opinion.

          2. We were out shopping today and I said to Alf I can’t believe how so few people are walking around without a mask on. We’ve seen fewer than half a dozen people shopping without a mask. I saw a clip the other day of the HoC where an MP was spouting forth and the female MP behind him was cleaning her glasses with her mask! If it weren’t so serious it would be funny.

          3. Masks of the type generally worn are useless and a danger to those wearing them.

            They also contribute to the litter problem as I see many masks discarded by the sides of the road even in my depopulated rural area.

          4. Quite agree cori. But still, people are washing their hands lots – can’t expect them to dispose of their germ ridden masks at home!

  77. DT headline. Coronavirus latest news: Christmas cancelled as London and South East plunged into Tier 4 lockdown

    Diversion, (noun)
    an activity that diverts the mind from tedious or serious concerns.

    Now just watch what is about to happen with Brexit.

    1. Agreed. Will he suddenly have to go into hospital – -and delay the final final final brexit talks? Will he suddenly resign like Cameron and his promise to start the leave process if it was a Leave vote?

    1. New York has had bad snow, more in one day than the whole of last winter. I’ve noticed over the years we here tend to get similar 2-3 week later. If right, Mid January should be fun.

    2. Are you on an artesian line?
      When we lived out in the boondocks, we used to get hail storms and literally rivers of ice rolling across the lawn. Apparently we lived on an artesian line and that altered the atmosphere.
      A friend of ours found that if he bought an orchard several miles away, his insurance was much lower because our area was known for its damaging hailstorms.

    3. Been sunny all day here, apart from a shower during the morning. Put the bedding in the machine and it promptly came over dark and wet – but cleared up and we got it dry.

        1. I knew you’d pick up on that ambiguity! Actually it’s a white set, so they didn’t – and I didn’t hang them out till the sun came out again………so there! :0)))

    6. Hi Maggie. I was out with the Springer in that hailstorm. The hail was obviously hurting her and she was racing round not knowing what to do. I put her between my legs and bent over her taking the hail on my back. The hailstones were very large!

      1. Evening Del,

        I was just about to go out with mine, Moh was settling down to watch some football, the sky really looked dark and orange .. I heard thunder and saw lightning , and thought .. no not a good idea . The thunderclaps startled the dogs .. So we stayed put.

        It pelted down didn’t it , and was very heavy , white out in the garden for a while .

        Your woofle would have been very grateful that you sheltered her. The hail probably made your eyes sting .

        The dogs paddled around the garden doing their usual ablutions ..

        R has golf tomorrow , he hopes the weather will be brighter.

    1. The really sad thing is that he is doing the best that he can. Which makes it all the more catastrophic that he is our Prime Minister.

      1. Agreed to a certain extent.
        Boris’s performance has been extremely disappointing and I think he is being badly advised.
        HOWEVER, not only is he trying to sort out BREXIT against an intransigent EU, he is also having to cope with the C-19 Wuhan virus whilst Black Lies Matter & Extinction Rebellion are snapping round his heels.

        How much of his poor performance is deliberate and how much incompetence, remains to be seen.

        1. He has never shown himself to be competent in the past. He wanted the job, he deserves no sympathy. Why the f*** did he think it was going to be easy?

        2. He’s always been incompetent.

          He makes an OK TV presenter for something like HIGNFY, but in politics he’s been a constant failure in every department he’s been in.

        3. He could have sorted Brexit ages ago by actually ending the negotiations and saying we’ll trade on WTO rules. That would have left him time to concentrate on the virus.

        4. As regards Brexit, Boris has shown the country that he is still incapable of pulling out in time.
          We will see how much incompetence he has left for the other issues you mentioned.

        5. They are as rabbits caught in the headlights of the oncoming vehicle. They are taking the money and will scram at the first opportunity. Lake Como here we come!

    2. Boris and many colleagues have been manipulated by the Civil Service, MSM and big business into going full lockdown, untried vaccines and The Great Reset/4th Industrial Revolution.

      If we’d had politicians with actual experience in science/technical jobs in the private sector (I don’t mean just company Directors – actual scientists, engineers, mathematicians, clinicians, etc) who know how to spot BS and to properly interrogate technical reports and ask pertinent questions of civil servants and supposed ‘experts’.

      I occasionally got into trouble with employers for calling such BS and liars out, even if privately. What’s worse now is that the MSM aren’t doing their job as a backup to ministers to find out the truth and expose the BS/lies.

  80. So correct me if I’m wrong but I thought when the pandemic first struck and they said we needed a vaccination the consensus was that the vaccine would work because the virus couldn’t mutate like the flu virus

      1. It doesn’t mutate like the flu virus. It mutates very differently; and it seems likely that mRNA type vaccines (not the sort used for flu) will continue to be effective.

        They had isolated almost 1400 mutations coming into the UK before the end of April.

          1. Likely is the best you will ever get in life… no one has a crystal ball which actually works.

          3. Not the same “they”. The people making vaccines are real scientists, not epidemiologists and behavioural specialists.

            Up to now they’ve got about 10,000 mutations/strains, all of which have the same mechanism – hence the fact that mRNA will work.

          5. His fans will tell you that being so wealthy means that he can afford to employ the best scientists.

            I confess I once thought he and Melinda were charitable heroes using their money to do good.

            I’ve been a prize chump at times but God forgives the truly repentant.

          7. Certainly I once chatted to a Medecins sans Frontieres employee who slagged off the B&M Gates Foundation for exaggerating the extent of their work in Africa, but I still have faith in Bill.
            It’s a tenuous connection, but an American lady who I know of (but whom I have never met and do not expect to) serves/served on a committee alongside Melinda; if Mel was up to no good, this lady would definitely not be involved.

          9. Presumably you are not old enough to have noticed Opren, Thalidomide, HIV, SARS and Swine Flu vaccination failures with devastating and long term injury.

            MMR is another disaster unfolding with the growth of autism in children given it.

            The Swine Flu vaccine caused Narcolepsy and nurses given it to fall asleep at the wheel.

            I suppose you are immured to the fall back of vaccination programmes because it is common practice in the farmyard.

          12. You can mock as much as you like. It makes no difference to anyone with any real understanding.

    3. I would have thought vaccine manufacturers would welcome a constantly mutating strain. New vaccine required every year for millions /billions of people. It is as if HP printer ink requirements or MSDoS software releases are being used as the business model….

  82. We have sent this letter to our MP.

    Is there no end to the inhumanity and mendacity of the current shower making these draconian rules/regulations/laws? For god’s sake these are infections they’re not deaths. What has changed since yesterday when Parliament was sitting? Nothing.

    Talks of another ‘wave’ are also being mooted. Putting in place more lockdowns in the future without any evidence but sowing the seed. We now know there will be more lies coming to ensure a lot of people will follow, like sheep to the slaughter’ literally.

    According to the Daily Telegraph there are 2,004,219 known infections and 67,075 deaths and most of those occurring during lockdowns. That is a death rate of 0.033% and that is based on unreliable death figures for this disease that includes every Death Certificate where COVID-19 is mentioned and including anyone dying within 28 days of a positive test e.g. involved in a car crash followed by a fire and being burned to death will be recorded as a Covid death. This government, any government, should be ashamed of such a mendacious use of such poor statistical recording. I suggest that even banana republics would be embarrassed.

    I sincerely hope MPs will soon realise that most deaths occur during lockdowns and vote down these outrageous new restrictions. I know they won’t because the majority are afraid of their shadows. You may remember it was Einstein who said that doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is a sign of madness.

    I rest my case

    Yours sincerely from a couple who are now going to have a miserable and lonely Christmas when we should be with our family. I imagine Johnson and Hancock and their ‘scientific and medical’ advisers feel exceedingly pleased with themselves.

    I suppose this is a precursor to and cover for a cave in on Brexit.

    There is more to living than not dying.

    1. There is more to living than not dying.

      That should be written above every entrance to every publicly owned building in the UK.

      EDIT For gawds sake, why won’t the damned thing post!

    2. There is more to living than not dying.

      That should be written above every entrance to every publicly owned building in the UK.

      EDIT For gawds sake, why won’t the damned thing post!

    3. There is more to living than not dying.

      That should be written above every entrance to every publicly owned building in the UK.

      EDIT For gawds sake, why won’t the damned thing post!

    6. Excellent letter. How did you keep the swearwords and abuse out of it? I’m most impressed!

          1. I have said that in the letter but I would rather keep emotions out of it otherwise it won’t be taken seriously. I know it’s like pushing water up hill but I don’t think being rude will gain any traction. I want to win an argument not be considered to be another crank.

          2. It won’t be taken seriously when you use such expressions as ‘the current shower’.

        2. If I may:
          Covid: I want him to take get it seriously and hopefully pass it on to the cretins above him.

          2. Yeah standard response.

            Thanks for your letter, we are looking at your points or some equal load of faff.

          4. I find all the MPs I’ve written to reply personally but their reply often says doodlesquat. Politicians are experts at making 1-6 sides of A4 say completely bugger all.

          5. My MP is the utterly useless Theresa Villiers.

            Our previous MP, a Tory by the name of Sydney Chapman, was an excellent MP. He held our seat for 26 years and for a Tory he was very impressive. He passed away in 2014. A road ( and possibly more) was renamed for him.

    7. There is more to living than not dying.

      That should be written above every entrance to every publicly owned building in the UK.

      EDIT For gawds sake, why won’t the damned thing post!

    8. 327543+ up ticks,
      Evening AtG,
      Einstein has been proved right time & time again especially over the last three decades.

    9. “…these are infections…”

      Even that’s questionable, given the flaws in the testing regime.

    2. I hate it, Moh has been watching it for years .

      The noise and raucous voices irritate the life out of me .

      The sort of background stuff one sees in nursing homes , deadens the senses . A mind cosh!

      Sorry to sound a misery .

      1. Dob’t forget the clashing colours, Belle! All of it too noisy and brash and bright for me, it is a violent assault on one’s senses.

      2. I preferred the original Come Dancing with Angela Rippon. I found the Military 2 Step hilarious. Clicking heels and saluting.

        I have lost the clip but google James Cagney and Bob Hope dancing on a polished table. They could both entertain and dance. Ant and Dec are rank amateurs by comparison, a sign of our decrepit times.

        Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in ‘An American in Paris’ is the benchmark.

      3. You are not alone, Belle. Many years ago I tuned in to find out that the fuss was about. Faced with people in the audience screaming at something or other I rapidly tuned out and have not been back.

      4. OH watched it lst night while I was cooking the dinner. He hadn’t bothered with it all season so didn’t know who they were.

  85. A sheer coincidence I’m sure that this Tier 4 announcement was made the day after the HoC recess for Christmas break started.
    No MPs sitting in the commons to debate the issue as things stand.

      1. Well, not a surprise. This will be happening all over the country. Almost no one has any experience of moving stuff around and keeping the items at this low temperature. The lowest standard temperature for foods etc is -30. Our logistics people are experienced at that.

  87. Them and us, writ large:

    Received just now, so presumably they finished yesterday:

    “Thank you for your email. I am now out of the office until Tuesday 5th January 2021 with no access to my emails. “

  89. What security level are we in ?

    If there are 20 mile queues on the M20 .. full of lorries , won’t that create even more chaos. I see that French fishing boats are also blocking ferries .

    Who is overseeing this chaos , and I do hope that MPs aren’t on Christmas recess.

    1. if that looks crowded, just look at the crowds round the underground after a train or two arrives.

      By the latest rules can any of them leave London or shouldn’t they go into quarantine.

    2. if that looks crowded, just look at the crowds round the underground after a train or two arrives.

      By the latest rules can any of them leave London or shouldn’t they go into quarantine.

      1. Be my guest – glad to have someone take over – it gets exhausting repeating it over and over again!

        1. Tut, tut … d0n’t you know know
          nuffink about Ball-room dancing?
          Yer quick-step beat is:
          quick, quick, quick quick slow.

          :-))

        1. Ooo…err! I was about to tell you
          orf and delete your post when I
          saw you were replying to me! :-))

          1. Just a reminder that the ‘old’ nttl was subject to Disqus’ Californian naughty words list, whereas ‘new’ nttl isn’t. Not that I condone such things… :-))

          2. I remember the early days!

            I was just being pretendy-pops polite
            instead of posting a derogatory comment
            about BJ and his pretendy government!!

      1. I think the lid went on to the coffin some time back but this could be the final nail. How this bastard and his bastard friends sleep at night, I do not know. But then, I’m not a sociopath.

    5. I really do not understand what all this shit means.
      I am supposed to drive my 80 y.o. parents from London to Norfolk on Wednesday and collect them on Sunday.
      Is that permitted?

      1. Don’t know. We look after the affairs of an elderly bed-bound lady who has carers visit three times a day I was due to visit her just before Christmas to check everything was OK, collect post etc, so I sought information from the Government’s website on “Support Bubbles” – I gave up trying to decipher the various permutations in the light of “You must not do’ s above. In short I’m none the wiser.

        1. Post Script. Just learned her ‘carers’ didn’t turn up this morning and her telephone was left out of reach. I will go early tomorrow morning to ensure they turn up.

      3. No, but I advise you do it anyway. Take the back roads and keep an eye out for the stasi police.

          1. If you’re fined don’t pay and await a court summons. There are over half a million cases in front of you. It’ll be like never never land.

        1. Unbelievable! If instructions like that had been issued during the War, the Germans would have simply captured the entire Army at Dunkirk while the British were still reading the regulations and wondering whether they were allowed to launch any small boats!

    1. Ten years ago. Isn’t that about the same time as the Texan who fronted the great Supreme Court challenge is supposed to have been involved in election fraud?

  94. Of course the Davos billionaires know that to achieve quasi global control via their 2030 sustainability targets, they have to break Western economies first, roll back capitalism and introduce international socialism. Except for themselves as they get a free pass. That’s why their eager little beavers Boros Johnson and Matty Hancock are so keen to lockdown the UK forever and force Britons to have an untested vaccine which some doctors believe might reduce fertility and even cause cancer in the long term. Everything we need to know about the Johnson administration is helpfully explained by Matty and his allegiances……..

    Matty enthusing over George Soros……..

    https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1075319635464081409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1075319635464081409%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fby%2Fdisqus_Vs7PX8srwh%2F

    Matty enthusing over Bill Gates……….

    https://twitter.com/matthancock/status/1088390904858202112?lang=en

    Matty enthusing over Klaus Schwab, chair of Davos, and close friend of George Soros and Bill Gates…………

    https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/956851034797891584

    Why does Matty enthuse over billionaires and do what they want ? Why is Boros best friends with Bill Gates ?

    Multi million dollar positions in the political afterlife and a seat at the globalist top table just like Tony Blair !

    1. The biggest annoyance is, yet again, the language. NAtional populism – what the people want or, as it used to be called, democracy.

      These fools leap on buzzwords without thinking. However that assumes that democracy means the same to them as it does to me and of course, it doesn’t.

  95. Tier 4 – soon to be Tier 5 – Third Wave on its way followed by up to 100 waves. Go to bed and stop eating.

    1. I am hoping that a Church Deacon will
      post ‘photos & vid.’ of tomorrow’s outside
      ‘Carol Service’ … if so I will ask a
      fellow NoTTLer to post it on here for me!
      Since I am useless at techie things.

  97. Presumably the crematoriums are belching out carbon dioxide like there’s no tomorrow, and there are so many corpses that they are having to be buried at sea.

    It will serve the French fishermen right if all they trawl up is rotting human bodies from 1st January.

    1. Don’t be silly. Death has been defeated – they made it illegal. Seriously, though, there have been four funerals in our parish this year. None were Covid-related. Only one escaped the singing ban. In a typical year, we would have around four funerals a month. Were this pandemic genuine, I should have been raking in the organist fees. Reality is somewhat different.

      2. A good point and very true, but I can’t help smiling at the church organist’s take on the situation!

        1. These days, apart from voluntaries before and after the service, my role is reduced to disc jockey. I download a few hymns from Mr Bezos’ site to my phone, and play them over the sound system. Being an organist as a side-line to the ‘day job’ has been fortuitous. In fact, it started before the day job, and continues (after a fashion) following retirement.

          If I remember correctly (it’s been a while), I direct two choirs, which have been out of action since March. Strictly speaking, they’re now permitted to sing, in a socially-distanced fashion. But our bedwetting Rector won’t allow it.

          It seems to me that the CofE hierarchy – Common Purpose graduates to a man/woman/thing – are fully committed to The Great Reset, which, ironically, has no place for organised religion. Except Islam, maybe.

          Having been thrown out of my tied Verger’s cottage, I have a new 5 year contract as Director of Music for the parish. I’ll give it a year before the Church decides that the future is Zoom, and they have no need for me.

          1. The pace of going downhill has only increased since Welby took over.
            I too am very dismayed at how the Church is being targeted in the corona reset. Actually not so much being targeted as willingly hurling itself off a cliff. It would be wonderful if we were allowed to go back to church for Easter, but I will be surprised if that happens.

  98. That’s me for this painful day – brightened a little by seeing Saturn and Jupiter in close proximity. They get closer until Monday – apparently.

    I shall retire to take a lot of medicine. I can’t drink anything alcoholic, coffee or tea tomorrow as I have a CT scan on Monday. So will double up* this evening.

    A demain – possibly.

    *Edit – only after I posted did I see the unintentional pun!!

      1. Thanks. I am not looking forward either to the procedure or to hearing some months later what it revealed. I’ll probably have died in Wave Six, anyway.

        2. CT is OK, Bill. The suite is usually populated by the best looking nurses, too – and some of them are women!

        3. The process is OK. I speak from multiple similar examinations.

          Stop worrying; it’s the seventh wave that’s the bugger…

  99. – On the first day of Christmas,
    Boris gave to me
    A boring day with no company

    On the second day of Christmas,
    Witty gave to me
    Two fuck all’s
    And a boring day with no company

    On the third day of Christmas,
    Vallance gave to me
    Three horseshit sandwiches,
    Two fuck all’s
    And a boring day with no company

    On the fourth day of Christmas,
    Hancock gave to me
    Four empty chairs
    Three horseshit sandwiches,
    Two fuck all’s
    And a boring day with no company

    On the fifth day of Christmas,
    Mayor Khan gave to me
    Five cycle lanes,
    Four empty chairs
    Three horseshit sandwiches,
    Two fuck all’s
    And a boring day with no company

    On the sixth day of Christmas,
    Sturgeon gave to me
    Six sweaty socks
    Five cycle lanes,
    Four empty chairs
    Three horseshit sandwiches,
    Two fuck all’s
    And a boring day with no company

    On the seventh day of Christmas,
    Drakeford sent to me
    Seven horny sheep
    Six sweaty socks
    Five cycle lanes,
    Four empty chairs
    Three horseshit sandwiches,
    Two fuck all’s
    And a boring day with no company

    On the eighth day of Christmas,
    Bill Gates sent to me
    Eight vaccinations
    Seven horny sheep
    Six sweaty socks
    Five cycle lanes,
    Four empty chairs
    Three horseshit sandwiches,
    Two fuck all’s
    And a boring day with no company

    On the ninth day of Christmas,
    Klaus Schwab to me
    Nine circles of hell
    Eight vaccinations
    Seven horny sheep
    Six sweaty socks
    Five cycle lanes,
    Four empty chairs
    Three horseshit sandwiches,
    Two fuck all’s
    And a boring day with no company

    On the tenth day of Christmas,
    Biden sent to me
    Ten Dominion machines
    Nine circles of hell
    Eight vaccinations
    Seven horny sheep
    Six sweaty socks
    Five cycle lanes,
    Four empty chairs
    Three horseshit sandwiches,
    Two fuck all’s
    And a boring day with no company

    On the eleventh day of Christmas,
    Macron sent to me
    Eleven smelly farts
    Ten Dominion machines
    Nine circles of hell
    Eight vaccinations
    Seven horny sheep
    Six sweaty socks
    Five cycle lanes,
    Four empty chairs
    Three horseshit sandwiches,
    Two fuck all’s
    And a boring day with no company

    On the twelfth day of Christmas,
    Soros sent to me
    Twelve mass extinctions
    Eleven smelly farts
    Ten Dominion machines
    Nine circles of hell
    Eight vaccinations
    Seven horny sheep
    Six sweaty socks
    Five cycle lanes,
    Four empty chairs
    Three horseshit sandwiches,
    Two fuck all’s
    And a boring day with no company

  100. I am convinced that this action by Johnson is a further extension of the, build up hope and expectation before taking it away, ploy. It’s a classic, yet obvious move to further break the will of the masses. No good employing all those highly paid and bought behavioural scientist on the SAGE nest of vipers and not put them to good use.

    Post Christmas/New Year the new but unidentified extra-virulent strain will necessitate full masking: probably only when outside but I’m convinced it’s coming. Anyone hoping to express their disgust at the May elections will also be disappointed as I cannot see Johnson going to the polls. Far too dangerous politically but it will be dressed up as too dangerous due to whatever strain of virus is in vogue at the time. Anyway, whom would people vote for? Con, Lab, LibDem, Green? They’re all in this together.

      1. Of course it is, Bob3. SAGE has more behavioural scientists on board than it does virologists, epidemiologists etc. How are they gauging the mood of the people? The Intelligence Services, GCHQ, tapping phone calls, reading/trolling Twitter and other social media. They must have thousands who are complicit in this scam.

    2. Assuming any elections go ahead at all. If they do, hopefully The Brexit/Reform Party will be on hand, as I won’t be voting Toy any time soon.

      1. If no one from Brexit/Reform is available I’m quite happy to stand as an Independent against my useless MP – she says a lot about how disappointed she was about Tier 3 but she still voted for it!

      2. Expect the Reform Party and especially Farage and Tice to come under bitter attack in the New Year. Has the Electoral Commission agreed to the new name etc? Earlier this week the Commission was being accused of stalling on this issue.

      3. If no one from Brexit/Reform is available I’m quite happy to stand as an Independent against my useless MP – she says a lot about how disappointed she was about Tier 3 but she still voted for it!

        1. Indeed – I only vote for my equally useless (and one of the remoaner rebels who nearly brought down the government in 2019) Tory MP because of the alternatives on offer – especially the threat of Corbyn’s Labour getting in.

          1. 327543+ up ticks,
            EA,
            They are a mass uncontrolled immigration
            paedophile umbrella lab/lib/con coalition party, & have been for at least three decades.

      4. ‘Brexit Reform Party,’

        Is that yet another of Nigel’s Vanity Projects?

        Or does he mean, this time, to follow through
        his promise?

        Edited.

        1. I think he thought he couldn’t win that time and stood down enough candidates to ensure Labour didn’t get in and some form of Brexit went ahead. No good being principled and ending up with nothing. No-one (other than those behind it) could’ve forseen the pandemic.

          This time, Nige et al won’t be fobbed off by similar protestations by the Tory top brass over splitting the vote, as enough working class (but not woke or hard Left) Labour supporters from the Midlands, North and Wales will be similarly minded as the Trump MAGA supporters (mostly GoP but many ex-Dems too) in the US to vote for freedom-loving parties and not the Establishment.

          It’s the response of China I’m worried about – they may make their ‘big play’ when the chaos ensues. And by then, Biden could be (well Harris, controlled by Peolsi [God help us all]) in the Oval Office.

          2. Trump has to act in the next week or so whilst he still retains POTUS powers.

            More than half the voting population of America think the ‘election’ of Biden a fraud. That fact will not go away.

    3. I agree. Get everyone dancing one-legged through hoops, then standing on their heads. As long as they keep on obeying, the government can do what it wants. If I had gun I would be prepared to use it.

        1. 1.3 million shotgun certificates (which means at least twice that number of guns) and over half a million rifles.

          We have not been disarmed.

    4. Since furlough has been extended to the end of April, there will be no local or regional elections.
      Too dangerous, local government unable to cope at short notice, social distancing, not fair to burden our NHS for the sake of one day … blah … blah … blah …

      1. I’ve been pondering on Johnson going for a national postal vote scheme. It would be difficult to organise but would give him something to try and resurect his dead reputation, re democracy. Of course, after the fiasco in the USA, nobody would ever believe the result. However, after today’s shit-show I’m not convinced he will still be PM. Where will he hide, I wonder?

  103. The Nightingale hospitals were created to cope with a huge pandemic.

    Guess what , we don’t have sufficient nurses or doctors to attend to the huge amount of anticipated patients .

    Saving the NHS has become an own goal . There aren’t enough English / Scottish/ Welsh nurses and doctors in training because the fees are colossal, why should young women take out huge loans to pay for training when although years ago hospitals trained their own nurses , these days it takes forever to pay of university student loans .

    The NHS has appealed for nurses from abroad to fill hospital vacancies .

    1. The Nightingale in London comes under Barts Trust. They’re only at 32% ICU bed occupancy across all six hosps anyway. 57 out of 177 beds.

    2. How pathetic is that – appealing for nurses from abroad. What about 1) lockdown, 2)country of origin in same boat. How stupid can this government be?

        1. You maybe, not me.

          I knew Boris and his team were incompetent ( and May and Camerloon ), and I won’t blame their failures on being led by the civil service, the MSM and big business. It’s their idiotic ideology that’s at fault. if you treat public sector workers like dirt for ten years and then intimate it will continue for another 5-10 years then don’t be surprised when you can’t recruit them when you really need them.

    3. Doctors have always been problematic. We simply don’t have enough medical school places.

      Nurses however ought to be plentiful but because of a decade of austerity and public sector workers always first in the firing line every time the government decides it wants cuts recruitment of nurses is now almost as bad as the problem with doctors.

      Many nurses do 25-40% more hours than they are paid for. The shifts tend to be long and very hard. You often have to take a fair amount of abuse. And the wage? Nothing you can’t get elsewhere for a lot less responsibility and hassle.

    4. Faced with what at the time were potentially serious unknown consequences of Covid 19 (leaving aside Mr Ferguson’s erroneous projections). The government should have commandeered all the Private Hospitals and reserved them for urgent cancer surgery and fractures. This would have freed up a significant number of staffed NHS beds. Staff could then have received refresher training in Control of infection Protocols to deal with the expected influx of Covid 19 patients. NHS elective theatre staff could have been seconded to the private hospitals to ensure maximum use of the operating theatres.

      1. Perfectly true.
        Some one else mentioned that idea to me the other day .

        No one has engaged their brains , have they , all we are seeing are cobbled together ideas on back of cigarette packest .

        We know that certain parts of Kent will be at risk by virtue of very ethnic populations who are perhaps more vulnerable to the Virus .

        If British cities and towns were not so squashed in with Vitamin D dependent diversity , I doubt very much whether we would have the problems we are experiencing now .

        1. You have earned a badge of honour from some low life who doesn’t have the courage to put the name to comment on your post. Why do people downvote? They must be cowards.
          I may not always agree with you Belle but I will never downvote anybody.

          1. I am some times very outspoken Alf , and not too sensitive to politically correct points of view .
            If some one has something critical to say to me , I wish they would say it , with honesty .

            I won’t have a tantrum and stomp off .

            If I have said the wrong thing , please correct me for being too judgemental.

            So if the down voter is reading this , identify yourself and discuss stuff with me!

          2. It seems as though they’re at it again with this post of your.
            I will always be prepared to argue my corner as your are and like to win or lose arguments on the argument itself. I am prepared to change my mind if the other person makes a better argument.

          5. Alf – I can usually see who has downvoted, but on this occasion, there’s no downvote on Belle’s post. Perhaps the phantom downvoter has changed her mind?

          6. If you are on about the blitz post then on mine it still shows a downvote. If someone else clicks on the same downvote will it show the other voter?

          7. Thanks for the update Geoff.
            Perhaps shaming is the answer although I can still see one against Belle and I seem to have earned one as well. I doesn’t concern me and I can’t see who the snide is but obvious a coward of the first odour.

          15. I occasionally downvote abject stupidity or rudeness.

            I don’t see a problem with downvoting. I don’t give a rat’s backside when I’m downvoted.

          16. Someone noted that you once downvoted me. I cannot imagine why. Itchy finger or such.

            Like you I care not about downvotes yet find your stance somewhat hypocritical for the reason that I never downvote yet you admit to so doing.

            Edit: I have just set the world record for attracting a downvote in a record time of: 5 seconds from posting.

          18. I can remember downvoting you. It was a terribly rude post. Over the past 18 months or so your online personality has taken quite a sharp edge to it. Sometimes too sharp.

          20. There is a condition known as bi-polar. My eldest sister had it. She would switch in an instant from a reasonable discourse to a flaming rant.

            Edit: I just noticed you have attracted the attentions of the downvoter.

      2. What makes you think private hospitals are geared to deal with fractures and urgent cancer surgery?

        Fractures, well that’s largely A&E department work and private hospitals don’t have A&E departments. Cancer surgery runs the gamut from mundane and easy to 14 hour plus operations that are extremely complicated. Private hospitals are OK generally for the quick and easy surgeries.

        1. I believe they could be fairly swiftly geared up to tackle fracture neck of femurs and I know several are capable of undertaking THR’s – Cancer more complicated but a fair range could be undertaken with a degree of forward planning leaving hospitals such as the Marsden tackling the complex stuff. Sure the private hospitals can’t replicate A&Es but they could, subject to capacity, undertake a fair amount of trauma and elective surgery.

          1. The local private hospital took over end of life care and the regular chemotherapy treatments.

      4. Like the Nightingales the Private Hospitals went unused. The staff at the Private Hospitals weren’t all moonlighting from the NHS. People have died because their treatments became unavailable wether they could afford to pay or not.

        Your suggestion is sensible. Which is why they didn’t do it.

    5. The problem is probably testing. I think they have regular tests (PCR rubbish/worthless tests) and anyone testing positive has to self isolate along with contact/trace bods. This whole thing would have been over in a month had MPs been furloughed, up to £2,500). That would have concentrated their minds.

      1. £2,500 a month?
        If only.
        Yes, I know I don’t have a mortgage, but that amount of money would allow us to move our standard of living up several notches.

        1. That’s the maximum amount on furlough, if you are lucky enough to have a job of course. What makes me angry is all those MPs, National Covid Service staff not working, teachers, snivel serpents and other public sector workers at home on full pay when others have lost their jobs or whose businesses have gone under.

          1. Maximum each or per household?

            And as to the rest of your correct observations, my blood is boiling.

          4. If a worker was furloughed they were 80% of salary (average income for those who are hourly paid and on variable hours) up to a maximum of £2,500 maximum. In truth very few people with a salary in the upper £30,000s were furloughed. Most were shop-workers (non essential shops), those in the hospitality trades, factory workers etc.

            Many people who were working at home in both the public and private sectors were working very hard – and looking after their children at the same time. And plenty of public sector workers were still working at work – like those who collect our recycling and bins.

          5. I’m pleased you are so trusting.
            Those at the bottom end were stuffed.
            There were many taking everything they could get and quite content to do so.

          6. No, not trusting. Just here living in the real UK, not somewhere in France or comfortably on my arse in retirement, and seeing what has been going on, who was getting what and how much and where and when.

            Of course there have been winners and losers, that would have been the case in the last 9 months anyway. But the endless spite and ignorance gets wearing.

          7. I always love it when someone refers to me living in France, retired.

            It tells me that they have lost the argument.

            They don’t have the intelligence to realise that someone looking in from the outside might might have a better perspective over how the UK is being desolated by ignorant politicians and gullible sheep.

            Like you.

          8. No dear. It tells you that you lost the argument. That you haven’t actually got a clue what is going on here and that your “perspective” doesn’t exist.

            It tells you that other people know more, think more, understand more and don’t blow their own trumpets quite as much.

            I’m sure that you will continue to feel superior. But fortunately you can’t do much harm.

        2. MPs do not live in the world they create for the rest of us. They only think they do. There is a tv prog where rich and poor people swap homes and spending cash amounts for a week. The rich get some real eye opening moments. I would like the MPs to try the same.

          1. IDS offered to, he said he could live on benefits. The very next day he bought a 39 quid fry-up for breakfast and billed it to expenses.

          2. Also the wealthy people suddenly find they have a lot of empathy for those struggling. Which is also lacking in our MP’s

          3. We were poor a long time ago. I don’t want to do that again, it wasn’t fun.
            The only treat we could afford was a single pint, on a Friday, and that was it.

          4. I was poor as a student. It looks as though I may well end up being poor again thanks to MOH’s health problems. The wheel has turned full circle.

          7. If you had been feckless and never worked. Or if you had been low paid. Or if you had been unable to work…

            You would now be provided with the very barest of bare minimums.

            Your position is unenviable, but please don’t pretend that it is just lovely for those who (very often for no fault of their own) are even worse off.

          8. I am not pretending that everything is “just lovely”, but my county means tests everything. As I worked and provided for a separate pension for us, we don’t qualify for help. As I say, if I had never worked, we’d have had a state pension anyway and also have qualified for pension credits, housing benefit, free TV licence, and free care. As it is, it is unlikely we will get even the “very barest of bare minimums”.

          9. I think that you underestimate what you have (most counties means test everything nowadays) and greatly overestimate what you would “get”. Those benefits don’t add up to much of a private pension – even if you get them all.

            You, or rather your good lady, should qualify for Attendance Allowance which is not means tested, doesn’t come from the county, and you are probably eligible for the higher level. It’s not a huge amount of money, but £85 per week isn’t to be sneezed at.

          10. Yup, been there, done that too! I never really believe in my heart that I won’t end up in that situation again.

          11. Which is why I can’t throw anything out, you never quite know when you will need it again and life has a strange way of coming back at you when you can least afford it.

          12. I have to admit, I’m the same. I have also found that, on the odd occasion when I did throw things away, I had reason to regret it because I needed them not long afterwards 🙁

          13. It certainly provides an incentive to strive.
            We lived in a “hard-to-let” flat (it was due for demolition) on the Isle of Dogs, with Rastas above who’d party over night – until a Kray relative offered to beat in their door & blow the stereo away with a shotgun! Fortunately (or otherwise), the SPG came round and took them away.
            Food was the stuff that would otherwise be thrown away late on a Saturday (we only got the timing wrong once, and after a weekend with nowt much to eat, we learned) and meat was offal – the East Enders didn’t eat that stuff. Absolutely not a spare penny – except the weekly pint.

    6. They made the nurses pay for their own training so they could afford to pay their executives £500,000 each.

  104. Just learned that an elderly acquaintance whose husband had MS (she looked after him single-handed for 40 years until he passed away and whose funeral was a fortnight ago), was expecting to be picked up by her daughter to spend Christmas with her. Her daughter is now in Tier 4 and may not be able to pick her up.

    1. There’s going to be a lot of that kind of thing this Christmas. Unfortunately. My Mother will be christmassing alone (apart from the ghosts of absent relatives, of course).
      }:-((

      1. Does she see the ghosts of relatives past? I’d like to see mum and dad, even if it was a delusion.

        1. She reckons they left on a tour to Aunt Hilda this morning – her parents & my father. They are just a bit late back…

          1. I remember going to visit my father’s uncle and aunt after she “lost the plot”. She spent the afternoon calling me Frances (Dad’s sister) and assuring me that “the boys” (their own adult sons) would be back “from football” at any moment. He, poor love, was still as sharp as a tack and terribly distressed by it all but she seemed to be quite content in her own little world.

          2. I haven’t explained to my Mother that her mother died late 1950s, her Aunty Hilda in 1984, her father in 1980, and my father in 1997. I suspect she’ll be terribly upset, and I’m not there to do anything about it. By the next day, she’d likely have forgotten, and so do we do it all agsin, or do I just let it lie? I decided the latter, for want of better advice.
            But I see the logic of her thought processes. Things happen at home, she doesn’t see who did it, and the people she’s sure live there aren’t there, so they must have gone out. The car is gone, too, and they’ve been away for all day, so the only reasonable explanation is they went to Leicester to see Hilda.

          3. My oldest client’s husband died some 25 years ago. Her mother was still alive, but not at all compos mentis. One day when I was there she was preparing to go to visit her mother and said to me “She’ll ask how H is. I’ve told her three time that he is dead, so now I just say he’s fine.”

            The advice, generally, is that causing repeated distress does neither them, nor you, any good.

            Yes, the thought processes make a a sort of sense… a bit like the sense that the very drunk might make… but you can see the connections.

          4. It makes me very reluctant to phone her, which isn’t fair on her either, but I absolutely hate hearing her saying this crazy stuff. Last week, she said she was looking forward to going home to the house she was in… just as soon as her parents came back.
            Sigh…

          5. I know it’s distressing, Ol, but for her, humouring her is best. Try to imagine it as play-acting.

          7. It does tend to get more and more difficult. My Dad is still very sharp but of recent months my mother has started to deny having been told things which I know very well that I did tell her. I don’t think there’s a big problem as yet, but I worry about it a bit. Mind, they are 86 and 88, so one has to expect things to change.

            That I haven’t seen them for 14 months doesn’t help, but as Nicola has just closed the border it is just as well that I wasn’t planning a long journey north.

        2. The ghosts of “Christmas past” are more feelings than apparitions.

          I do not hear your voice beyond the wind,
          I will not feel again that touch of hand reached out to hand;
          But all the presence which is you, in me, is here whenever I will think of you
          With joy beyond the sorrow

        3. The ghosts of “Christmas past” are more feelings than apparitions.

          I do not hear your voice beyond the wind,
          I will not feel again that touch of hand reached out to hand;
          But all the presence which is you, in me, is here whenever I will think of you
          With joy beyond the sorrow

    2. Best advice is ignore the nonsense and get on with our lives. People in London will continue to go shopping and not wear masks and give the Police a very wide berth.

      Boris Johnson has become a sort of Lord Haw Haw character. The rules some SAGE geniuses have given the fat dolt to recite are gobbledegook but this latest advice is so shambolic as to render him a Prize Fool.

  105. We are taking their word for how bad this is, and meekly complying with what they tell us we need to do.

    When they call us ‘sheeple’, they are not far wrong, are they?

    1. Depends. Alf and I have not worn masks right from the beginning. We printed off a “badge” from the Government website and carry them when out shopping. I have also printed some stuff about reasons for exemption and whether an exemption has to be shown. (It doesn’t).

      Sorry for repeating the above to Nottlers who have already seen it.

      2. I remember Riks reaction to being told to wear a mask when we were at lunch. It might work for big guys like Rik and Alf but i don’t think it would work as well for little old me.

        1. When I’m shopping on my own it’s fine, I have the badge with me and the printed regs in case anyone challenges me. TBF it did take courage wjphen I first went on my own but now I’m fine and just carry on as normal. Take courage Phizzee you’d soon get used to it.

        2. That was truly a joy to behold, Phil. And it worked. I was back at the Good Intent a week or two ago with Dianne. She claims exemption; I forgot mine. They didn’t bat an eyelid.

          1. As he entered he was told he would have to wear a mask.

            In a stentorian voice he responded that he didn’t have to, he was medially exempt and under the Act which he quoted to them including the year, they were not allowed by law to ask him any further questions.

            Garlands and I just stared at each other with a smile on our faces.

          4. I know, a really unexpected and very generous gesture. We must do it again some time! (joke!).

            Loved the pub too, really enjoyable.

          5. Quite a limited menu but the pie was excellent. Generous portions too. I hope they survive.

            I have found on previous excursions with Nottlers that if you want to pay for anything you have to get in quick !

        5. Once upon a time, a military policeman was asked why he never chose the bigger soldiers to go out for arrests.

          “Well, if you have a couple of guys trying to arrest you, which one do you go for, the big guy or the little guy?

          the little guy got hit, I ‘cuffed the bad guy when he was distracted”

          1. The bouncers at the dances for the local village carnival were always the four smallest guys in the community.

            What strangers didn’t know was that one of them was the blacksmith and the others were all Amateur Boxing Association champions.

            No rumpus ever lasted for more than 30 seconds.

          2. If I want someone to do someone else serious damage, give me the blacksmith over the boxer every time.

            It’s similar to “cowboys and ranchers” you name it, they’ve been kicked by it, butted by it, trampled on by it and bitten by it.
            After many years of doing that for a living, they don’t feel pain like we do.

            People not to tangle with…

          3. Those four were brothers, and there was nothing to pick and choose between them fitness-wise. The eldest only gave up the boxing ring because his father died just after his 18th birthday and he didn’t have the time to box and run the business. They had all grown up in the smithy and were fitter than any flea you ever met. The youngest was a painter and you never saw anyone go up a ladder faster.

            I’ve been “kicked by it, butted by it, trampled on by it and bitten by it” – literally. And I feel pain just as much as anyone – I just don’t squeak quite as quickly.

    2. It wouldn’t have happened, we would have surrendered already.

      I don’t know where you found that, but it’s propaganda that Goebbels would have been proud of.

      Tell the tosser who sent it to you that he/she would be an excellent fifth columnist.

      1. No, I rather imagine given the vicious spite of the Left and their refusal to accept the beating they took that they’d be fighting for Germany now.

          6. That’s Olly Reed and a film I’m not familiar with at all.

            Thanks. I’ll be watching that later.

        2. Ron Goodwin produced some superb film music, but I wish he’d expanded them into symphonies as RV-W did with his music for Scott of the Antarctic.

    3. During the blitz the threat was clear. The bombs could be heard for a start. Germany was clearly trying to kill us.

      Now… we’re told to obey, to do things that clearly haven’t worked. Worse, we keep getting told to do these same things that don’t work. We are being misled – I can’t use lied to (yet) as I don’t think it’s deliberate, just incompetence – by the media and state with their conflicting, inaccurate, inflated statistics.

      1. “Now… we’re told to obey, to do things that clearly haven’t worked.”
        Again and again, that’s the depressing thing.

        1. They will keep repeating it to drag everyone down and try to prove themselves right. They are trying to save face. They expected total blind obedience – and didn’t get it. If they change it, it will show what they have already said is a lie. So they are ramping things up. Expect worse.

      2. Dave Cullen (if I recall) predicted on his YT channel some time ago that a ‘mutation’ would be used around this time/early New Year to justify extra authoritarian rules and to further squash the will of the people, because we would be starting to get fed up with lockdown rules and very cautious of taking a vaccine that had only been finished 3 months ago and tested for such a short period – especially for a group of viruses that no successful vaccine has ever been produced.

    4. I don’t agree with that because there is a world of difference between being blitzed (experiencing bombs, incendiaries and mines dropping on your head) and being expected to disbelieve the evidence of your own eyes and swallow new rules every other day.

  108. The war on woke orthodoxies is crucial to the UK’s economic survival

    For a country to thrive it should seek to utilise the talents of all of the people in it – but that diversity should not trump talent

    DOUGLAS MURRAY

    Occasionally when I write about the excesses of ‘woke’ culture a certain type of reader will push back. ‘Have you not seen the borrowing figures for the UK? Have you not seen our debt to GDP ratio of late? Why are you going on about a few crazy people and their whacko ideas?’ It is, in its way, a perfectly good critique. It invites us to prioritise. To focus our energies. What such people fail to see is that the two things are connected.

    Thanks to the Coronavirus that China gifted us this year, Britain is like every other global economy, staggering into 2021 with our largest fall in output for over 300 years. The UK economy contracted by more than 11 per cent this year. Government borrowing is the highest it has ever been in peacetime. So why in a situation like this should anybody care about what Liz Truss is doing in her role as Equalities Minister rather than her role as Trade Minister? The answer is because the two are linked. To be successful we are going to have to be limber. To be able to boom we cannot carry excess baggage. To be competitive we must strip away whatever clogs up a system we urgently need to be efficient.

    This week, in her role as equalities minister, Truss delivered a speech on the government’s equalities re-think. She described how this government wants to do away with the divisive mantras of the radical Left. It recognises that inequalities exist in our society – as in every society. But it will not concede that all such inequalities are always and only to be explained with reference to institutional racism, sexism and homophobia. For instance, as Truss said on Thursday, some of the most startling inequalities in the UK exist between regions and between socio-economic groups. See everything only through the lens of ‘social justice activism’ and you will find (as the woke Left do) that they leave behind vast swathes of the population who they seem not even to feel any sympathy for. Try telling someone who is unemployed and living in Doncaster that they are well-off because they have ‘white privilege’.

    Truss’s speech followed a remarkably commensensical announcement from her department. That was the news that from now on Civil Servants would not be put through compulsory ‘implicit bias training’. Regular readers will know that this is something I have called on the Government to do for some time. It is no use cabinet ministers berating universities or public companies for forcing woke-indoctrination onto their employees if the same ministers preside over a civil service that does exactly the same thing. It is incumbent on government to lead. And one good way of leading is to strip this mental and moral asbestos out of the machinery of government.

    It seems that this is now finally happening. With all the attendant hoo-haw from the cartels that run the lucrative diversity racket. One should expect them to howl. For it should be remembered that theirs is not just an unproven discipline, or a non-discipline. It is a crock. Two out of the three Harvard academics who came up with the first such exercise 20 years ago have publicly said that the test is not fit for purpose in the way it is rolled out across vast sectors today.What is more the practise has actually been shown on occasion to increase peoples’ bias, rather than lessen it. That should hardly be surprising. As anyone who has gone through the training can tell you, it is filled not only with clunky pseudo-logic and Left-wing presumptions, but an essentially racist ideology masquerading behind the moniker of ‘anti-racism’ or ‘race-awareness’.

    Thousands of hours of civil service time have already been wasted by making public servants sit through these re-indoctrination lessons led by non-experts. It is a scandal that has gone on for far too long. But at least it has now stopped. Next on the list should be the civil service’s demand that officials ‘demonstrate their commitment to diversity’. How does a white male do this? Only by parroting the Left-wing shibboleths about diversity that the radical Left has told them to utter. Perhaps then the Government can get on with rewriting Labour’s badly drawn ‘equality’ laws.

    Last year I happened to mention some of this to a trade envoy from a foreign country. I mentioned the implicit bias training and the ‘commitment to diversity.’ He listened sadly and replied, ‘Well if your country wants to pursue this kind of thing and make itself uncompetitive on the global stage then you’ll just have to accept being overtaken.’

    That is exactly right. You can seek to be representative in your public services, and probably should be as diverse as you can manage without compromising other factors. But make ‘representation’ the top priority and you push aside any other true priorities: such as ensuring the British economy does everything it can to grow. Focussing on people’s innate characteristics you risk forgetting far more important issues: like how to make the economy grow.

    Earlier this week the Labour party tried to carry out a hit-job on Liz Truss. Information collated by the office of Emily Thornberry (the shadow international trade secretary) claimed that of 250 trade advisers appointed by Truss in government, fewer than a quarter are women and 95pc are white. It was a typical, nasty little Labour game.

    With a race-obsession that would have thrilled the inventors of the Nuremberg laws, Thornberry’s office revealed that her Conservative counterpart had appointed only 12 Asian trade advisors and one black trade adviser. More sinisterly still she had appointed only 63 women, who therefore comprised only 24.9pc of trade advisers. Of course the office of Emily Thornberry will clearly not be satisfied until there is an exactly 50pc quota of trade representatives who are female. As it happens, the last census showed that 6.8pc of the UK population is of Asian origin. So the Thornberry logic should dictate that there should be 17 trade advisers of Asian origin, rather than 12. Perhaps her office balked at going around 250 trade advisers and asking them their sexual orientation so we can see what gay representation is? Besides, what if they are overrepresented? Would there have to be some sackings to allow more heterosexuals to get a look-in?

    In recent years it became increasingly obvious (to everyone other than those who had shares in the diversity industry) that this way madness lies. In the name of diversity you end up being race and gender obsessed. But what is also clear is that this way lies un-competitiveness. For a country to thrive of course it should seek to utilise the talents of all of the people in it. But decide that the diversity should trump the talent – or simply the people who are most capable of the job right now – and you start to compromise around the edges.

    The times are too serious for us to do that. Diversity obsessions, implicit bias training and all the rest of it were frivolities our society treated itself to when times weren’t that tough. 2021 is going to be very tough indeed. So it is just as well that this Government is throwing off the woke nonsense, and getting down to business.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/19/war-woke-orthodoxies-crucial-uks-economic-survival/

    Here’s Liz Truss’s piece (it reads like the script for a speech).

    Equality is something everybody in the United Kingdom should care about

    Now is the time for us to root the equality debate in the real concerns people face, so everyone has a good chance in life

    LIZ TRUSS, Women and Equalities Minister

    We can be proud that the United Kingdom is one of the best places in the world to live, no matter your skin colour, sexuality, religion or anything else.

    This is the result of our story as an equality-minded nation, driven from the earliest days by a desire for liberty, agency and fairness.

    Everyone deserves the opportunity to succeed at whatever they want to do in life, but we must be honest: that is out of reach for too many people across the UK, especially beyond the South East.

    We can ill afford to waste their potential as we recover from Covid and build back better. And the surest way to squander it would be to focus on loud lobby groups, identity politics and virtue-signalling.

    That is what would happen if right-thinking people did not lead this fight for fairness, as the Left’s ideas have been shown to fail time and time again.

    Yet quotas, unconscious bias training and diversity statements still pervade our body politic. They are supported by a philosophy which puts symbolic gestures ahead of policies that would have been a game-changer for the disenfranchised, like better education and business opportunities.

    All the while, the focus on oppressed groups at the expense of individuals has led to harmful unintended consequences.

    This has culminated in Labour turning a blind eye to practices that undermine equality, whether it be failing to defend single-sex spaces which have been hard fought for by generations of women, enabling and tolerating anti-semitism in their midst, or the appalling grooming of young girls in towns like Rotherham.

    We cannot waste any time on this misguided, wrong-headed and ultimately destructive ideology which undermines individual dignity and has failed to help those most in need.

    Equality is something everybody in the United Kingdom should care about, and something all of us have a stake in.

    So, I am calling time on “pink bus” feminism, where women are left to fix sexism and campaign for childcare.

    Our new approach, which I outlined on Wednesday at the Centre for Policy Studies, will be based on core Conservative principles of freedom, choice and opportunity.

    We will take the biggest look yet at the problems people face, from housing and crime to work and schooling. And we will follow the evidence to work out how we can best solve it through empowering people with agency.

    Studies show that modernising and making organisations transparent is the best way to tackle inequality.

    Transparency stops opaque set-ups, which benefit those who know how to game the system. By driving reforms that increase competition, boost transparency and improve choice, we can open up opportunities for all.

    This is the level playing field we should be talking about, and we are going to make sure that this level playing field is properly policed.

    That is why I have appointed a new chair and a wide variety of commissioners to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, who will focus on enforcing fair treatment for all, rather than freelance campaigning.

    For a more equal society, we need an equality debate rooted in fact, not fashion.

    There are some twisting the truth, who should heed the warning from the chair of our Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, Dr Tony Sewell, who wrote last month that they have uncovered “a perception of racism that is often not supported by evidence” and that “wrong perceptions sow mistrust”.

    Our Equality Hub will follow the evidence by looking over the coming months across the UK to identify where people are held back and what the biggest barriers are.

    We will not limit our fight for fairness to the nine protected characteristics laid out in the 2010 Equality Act, which include sex, race, and gender reassignment.

    While it is true people in these groups suffer discrimination, the focus on protected characteristics has led to a narrowing of the equality debate that overlooks socio-economic status and geographic inequality.

    This means some issues – particularly those facing white working-class children – are neglected.

    This project will broaden the drive for equality and get to the heart of the barriers people face.

    We will prosecute our agenda with fierce determination up and down the country, taking the debate beyond London boardrooms and Whitehall offices.

    Whether that is making the case for free schools in deprived areas, or using data to help regional businesses attract investment.

    We will use the power of evidence to drive reform and give people access to that evidence so they can see the facts and push for change.

    The whole of government is totally committed, and there is more we will be doing to make our country fairer and give people agency over their own lives.

    We are fighting for fairness at home and across the world, as we use our presidency of the G7 next year to champion freedom, human rights and the equality of opportunity.

    Now is the time for us to root the equality debate in the real concerns people face, so everyone has a good chance in life.

    We will empower people and actively challenge discrimination, using evidence to inform policy and drive change.

    And we will focus on increasing openness and transparency, fixing the system rather than the result. That is how we will build back a better society and lead the new fight for fairness.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/12/18/equality-something-everybody-united-kingdom-should-care/

  111. Evening, all. I have lost track of what hoops the government thinks we should be jumping through, so I’m going to ignore them all and live my life as it suits.

  112. Mr, economic with the truth, Hancock, being picked up on his deviousness. He seems oblivious as to whether what he says is true, false, exaggerated, damaging etc.

    19/12/20

    Recovery today challenged Health Secretary Matt Hancock to reveal the details of the strain of SARS COV-19 that he announced on Monday as a
    new and more infectious mutation, as evidence emerged that those claims may have been seriously misleading.

    On Tuesday 15 December, Professor Nick Loman of the Covid-19 Genomics UK (COG UK) consortium, identified the new set of mutations as VUI –
    202012/0. He confirmed that it is not new, as COG UK identified it inSeptember, and there is no proof that it is more infectious. As Professor Sharon Peacock, COG Director, pointed out: “We are still dealing with very thin evidence at the moment about this variant.”

    Dr Maria van Kerkhove, the technical lead of COVID-19 response and the head of emerging diseases and zoonosis unit at WHO, has also confirmed that the strain involved has been circulating for many months, though she referred to it as N501Y.

    Recovery is challenging Matt Hancock to answer these key questions:

    Why did he announce this as a new strain on the eve of the tier review when it appears to have been circulating for several months (and may have existed for months more before it was identified)?

    Why has he made headlines with the news that it’s more infectious when the experts who identified the strain say that we don‘t have evidence for that yet?

    Will he publish the evidence he has for that so his claims can be independently verified?

    In the words of the Washington Post, “At a news conference Monday evening, neither Hancock nor England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, released enough data to help the public understand the significance of the new variant.” Does he now regret the way that this announcement was handled, given that it has attracted international criticism?

    With millions of lives and livelihoods at stake, does he now consider that the statement he made to Parliament about the ‘new’ strain may have been misleading?

    Does he retain confidence in the Government advisers who briefed him on it?

    With even the experts at the World Health Organisation who are responsible for tackling the virus apparently confused by the information that the DHSC has provided over the details of the ‘new’ strain, will he remind his department to prioritise accuracy and the clear communication of the known facts over sensationalist language that makes headlines?

    Time For Recovery – Matt Hancock

    2. The PCR tests are laboratory tests for use in laboratories operated by skilled technicians. They have been misappropriated by drug merchants in order to generate false numbers for infections or ‘cases’ despite the fact that the deaths from the virus have been flatlining for months.

      Nobody but a fool would follow the guidance of this government and its SAGE advisers. They are a sick joke.

    1. Exactly, Lewis. Nail on head – where does the “new” variant of the virus get into this country? If “they” can establish the people who brought the virus into this country, then “they” should be able to give figures of the new mutant from the illegals. But “they” won’t. will they?

    1. It is a worldwide scam. We knew Davos and the globalists were hatching something but were off guard and they have both released the Wuhan virus, manufactured in a Chinese laboratory, to coincide with the Presidential elections in the States.

      In the States the Democrats have utilised the hysterical reaction to a nondescript flu virus to enable massive postal voting and other scams which have been part of the plan to unseat President Trump and replace him with a tame decrepit criminal whose family are beholden to them.

      In the UK we are a mere by product of the big scam viz. the destruction of American might and its replacement by China as the foremost superpower in the world. Biden and the Obama’s and Clintons sold out to the CCP years ago in return for unimaginable wealth. They have also taken the Russian shilling which should prove interesting in the near future.

      Our politician are of no great consequence to the Chinese, having sold out to Europe and like Merkel fallen for the China/WHO virus scam.

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