Saturday 27 March : Makers of life-saving Oxford vaccine under attack by rivals and the EU

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/03/27/lettersmakers-life-saving-oxford-vaccine-attack-rivals-eu/

768 thoughts on “Saturday 27 March : Makers of life-saving Oxford vaccine under attack by rivals and the EU”

  2. We must stop capitulating to this intolerance. 27 March 2021.
    The Batley Grammar scandal reveals the depths of liberal cowardice.

    That this is happening in the wake of the beheading of Samuel Paty last year – the French teacher butchered by an Islamist for showing Muhammad cartoons to his pupils – makes it all the more grotesque. We also recently marked the sixth anniversary of the slaughter at Charlie Hebdo. We do a disservice to the victims of religious intolerance when we undermine the principles they lost their lives for.

    This is no longer just about Batley Grammar. This is about whether or not we want to usher in a backdoor blasphemy law. The protesters’ demands are quite clear. A ‘community leader’, addressing the protests this morning, suggested people are ‘using freedom of speech as an excuse’ to justify ‘hurting somebody’s emotions and sentiment’. ‘Especially as this school is located around the Muslim community, we should be more careful.’

    Morning everyone. We already have a Blasphemy Law; it’s just not written down! Who in their right minds, and I have to say I suspect this particular teacher of stupidity, would question Muslim belief? Such a person is asking for trouble. They will receive no help or support apart from a few meaningless soundbites in the MSM! It is important to understand for your own wellbeing that the Political Elites of the UK are Cowardly Scum who oppress only the meek, but Kowtow to those who defy them, and this most certainly applies to the Muslim Presence. These people may essentially do as they please. As a group they need fear no one within the UK. Eventually they will rule by default as the indigenous power declines into spineless irrelevance.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/03/26/we-must-stop-capitulating-to-this-intolerance/

    1. Has the balance now tipped too far and are we, our culture, our history, our values and beliefs irretrievably lost forever?

      Certainly Compliant Haystack and his Woke Paramour won’t dream of doing anything about it.

    2. Charles Moore writing in the Telegraph:

      “The grandly-named Purpose of Life (PoL) is a charity based in Batley, West Yorkshire. Its purposes, as approved by the Charity Commission, are “to help young people of all races and backgrounds while being particularly sensitive to the needs of ethnic minority communities”, especially through education and the relief of poverty. Nothing in its listing on the Charity Commission’s website indicates that it is a Muslim organisation. Indeed, PoL states on its own website: “We are all one family, irrespective of race, religion, colour etc.”

      This week, PoL’s founder and CEO, Mohammad Sajad Hussain, published on Twitter the full text of a letter he had just sent in his charity’s name to Gary Kibble, the headmaster of Batley Grammar School. The letter named a religious studies teacher at the school. “We at Purpose of Life”, it said, had been “deeply hurt” by the teacher named because he had been “showing insulting caricatures”, which proved “what hatred people feel for the beautiful religion of Islam”. His behaviour was “clearly sadistic”.

      “This to me is terrorism to Islam & Muslims around the world”, Mr Hussain added.

      The letter demanded that the named teacher be “permanently removed” from the school. The school’s apology – already issued by Mr Kibble – “does not go far enough”, it said. “This is the stance Purpose of Life takes with any organisation who attacks our beloved prophet Muhammad (PBUH).” Therefore the school must “recognise its own shortcomings”, it concluded.”

      Votes dear boy, votes ….and then one day there will be a Supreme Leader.

      Edited to add: Despite Charles Moore’s piece being about Free Speech. the Daily Telegraph in its cowardice has:

      2. “This to me is terrorism to Islam & Muslims around the world”, Mr Hussain added.

        Well, he being a Muslim would know all about terrorism.

        1. Which implies that beheading the offending shower of cartoons is justified as the cartoons are terrorism!
          The Charity Commission is another pathetic institution that doesn’t do its job properly.

          1. It almost certainly believes that it is. It certainly won’t bother itself with such niceties as actually policing charities and I imagine it gave a free ride to this one.

            What bothers me more is that no doubt we’ll have been forced to fund these utterly abusive effluent.

      3. Nothing beautiful about Islam. It is responsible for more murder, violence and criminality in this and last milllenia than anything else.

        Notable that you Googe hide the true statistics in favour of promoting articles that it’s ‘far right’ – not that such exists – rather than the Muslim and Lefty.

    3. We can keep saying this until we are blue in the face but the anti Western civilisation agenda will just carry on rolling along regardless.
      What chance do we have when it’s our own Western elected politicians and leaders of our institutions doing it?

      1. Morning Bob. None really. We must just keep on hoping for a change in the weather!

    4. Morning all.

      The ropers’ views are compatible with the wokeries. Hurty feelings and all that. Never mind the fact that ropers are sadistic. They use our tolerance against us and TPTB are utterly useless and cowardly.
      Edit: hurty.

    5. “And to suggest that those dickheads in Batley represent the concerns of the entire ‘community’ is to tar all Muslims with one brush.”

      I can’t hear the Muslim dissidents…

    6. The aggressive Muslim demographic behaves as it does not because the state is afraid but because the state endorses, encourages and apologiese for their attitudes!

      If, the first time a Muslim had squealed ‘a loo and a snack bar!’ and killed someone the police had hammered that entire community, had the actual religion condemned things would be different.

      July 7th bombings happened because of that tolerance for psychotics.

  3. Rastus C. Tastey 7 hours ago – reposted

    Saturday 27th March

    The Brilliantly Talented Musician and splendidly Spikey raconteur

    FALLIC ALEC

    A Very Happy Birthday

    and

    Many, many more Happy Birthdays

    This is the big one – 80 years young today

    With our very Best Wishes

    from Caroline and Rastus

    1. Here’s my virtual Birthday Presents for Fallic & Belle*:

      On this day I promise not to breakdown in Fallic’s neck of the woods, and neither will I do a durdle in Belle’s!

      Happy Birthday both.

      PS * Fallic & Belle could be a good brand name for a new range of exotic paints or pants!!!

    3. Very many happy returns of the day, Spikey! Hope the day is a good one and I can’t believe you’re 80! Not a day over 79! Sending love and best wishes and hope you get to see your dear wife! 😘🎂🍾🎉

  4. Rastus C. Tastey 7 hours ago – reposted

    Saturday 27th March

    The Lovely Maggie – our veritably

    TRUE BELLE

    A Very Happy Birthday

    and

    Many, many more Happy Birthdays

    With our fondest Best Wishes

    from Caroline and Rastus

    1. Its very thoughtful of you to keep us up to date with birthdays.

      Happy birthday Belle .

    3. Wishing you a very happy birthday Belle! Hope you have a wonderful day and the sun shines on you! Sending love and good wishes! 😘🎂🎁🍾

      1. Happy birthday Spikey ,

        Good cheer to you as well .. I wonder what the odds are of sharing a birthday .. we know what our parents were doing on the previous July!

      1. Good morning J,

        Hasn’t this year flown, can’t believe I have another lockdown birthday .
        Sky was sunny first thing , clouding over now .

    6. Good morning Richard and Caroline

      This is probably the biggest best birthday breakfast party , shared with lots of lovely people .

      Thank you for all your kind wishes . xx

  5. The Horse Sale

    A guy calls his buddy, the horse rancher, and says he’s sending a friend
    over to look at a horse.

    His buddy asks, “How will I recognize him?”

    “That’s easy; he’s a midget with a speech impediment.”

    So, the midget shows up, and the guy asks him if he’s looking for a male or
    female horse.

    “A female horth.”

    So he shows him a prized filly.

    “Nith lookin horth. Can I thee her eyeth”?

    So the guy picks up the midget and he gives the horse’s eyes the once over.

    “Nith eyeth, can I thee her earzth”?

    So he picks the little fella up again, and shows him the horse’s ears.

    “Nith earzth, can I see her mouf”?

    The rancher is getting pretty ticked off by this point, but he picks him up
    again and shows him the horse’s mouth.

    “Nice mouf, can I see her twat”?

    Totally mad as fire at this point, the rancher grabs him under his arms and
    rams the midget’s head as far as he can up the horse’s fanny, pulls him out
    and slams him on the ground.

    The midget gets up, sputtering and coughing.

    “Perhapth I should rephrase that. Can I thee her wun awound a widdlebit”?

  6. Happy birthday TB and Spikey

    And thank you to Rastus for keeping us alI up to date of these special days

  7. Happy birthday TB and Spikey

    And thank you to Rastus for keeping us alI up to date of these special days

  8. Good Morning Folks,

    Blue sky here the sun is shinning.
    Even saw to planes going over earlier, lockdown must be easing.

    Happy Birthday True Belle

    1. Morning Bob,

      I suspect the planes were full of bananas , blueberries , melon, coffee beans etc

      Thank you very much for my b/day greeting.

  9. MPs blacklisted by China brace themselves for cyber attacks. 27 March 2021.

    Sanctions are ‘badge of honour’, say parliamentarians facing ire of Communist state over their investigations into abuse of Uighur minority

    In a joint statement, the five Ipac parliamentarians said the blacklisting was “an attempt to stifle the free and open debate that is at the heart of our parliamentary democracy”.

    “Intimidation will only serve to encourage us to redouble our efforts,” they added, as Sir Iain and Ms Ghani said they considered the sanctions a “badge of honour”.

    I’m sorry but when I read phrases like, …free and open debate that is at the heart of our parliamentary democracy I have to consciously prevent my lip from curling like some long ago Silent Movie actor. Democracy has been extinguished in the UK! This is a Police State that has more in common with China than difference. It’s true that we haven’t got around to rounding up the White Uighurs yet but that’s only a matter of time not intention. There is no Badge of Honour here; its poking a stick through the railings to get the dogs barking. These people are in no danger from the Chinese State. Now if they had spoken up in support of the teacher in Batley or opposed the Police Bill I would be really impressed but those would have entailed Real World consequences!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/26/mps-blacklisted-china-brace-cyber-attacks/

    1. Spot on. It’s almost funny how little self awareness they have. I suppose if you asked them they’d say it’s completely different, to which should be asked: how?

      They won’t know. Like all power mad idiots they only ever want more power. This is why, as a matter of absolute imperative the state be stripped of the ability to levy taxes.

  11. “Parliamentarians” is a nice, cozy reassuring sounding word, but really it means crooks and criminals !

  12. Good morning from a Anglo-Saxon Queen with blooded axe and longbow.
    Its a very sunny day wity a deep blue sky but quite chilly .
    Just about to heat the oven for chocolate croissants, shall have some Twinnings English breakfast tea and yoghurt too.

  13. SIR – AstraZeneca, the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company, had little experience of vaccine production. Yet, in reaction to the pandemic, it has been manufacturing the truly wonderful Oxford team’s vaccine for global use with a not-for-profit business plan.

    The company is being pilloried by some EU politicians and US-based competitors, using statistically wrong interpretations of data, in an attempt that has every appearance of being politically and financially motivated.

    No wonder Pascal Soriot, the CEO of AstraZeneca, has said he would not do this deal again.

    Dr Peter Sander

    Hythe, Kent

    SIR – Goods, including vaccines, are bought from companies, not countries. Those seeking to interfere with this will come to regret their meddling.

    Dr David Shoesmith

    York

    SIR – If a playwright had concocted a plot that resembled the EU Commission’s efforts to achieve a Europe-wide vaccination programme – seizing its own vaccine supplies, discrediting the vaccine of one of its main suppliers and blaming a near neighbour and key player for all its ills – it would be thought too improbable for a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera.

    ADVERTISI

    Dr Richard Harries

    Loughborough, Leicestershire

    SIR – We must retaliate immediately by threatening to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest.

    Garry Carfoot

    Wooburn Green, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – As someone who, at the age of 85, might consider residing in a care home in the not-too-distant future, I should certainly ask a prospective home if all the staff are vaccinated against Covid-19. If the answer was negative, I would take my custom elsewhere.

    The question of whether there should be statutory compulsory vaccination of care-home staff would thus become redundant, as homes with unvaccinated staff would soon go out of business.

    Jeremy Parkinson

    Weymouth, Dorset

    SIR – I would have no problem with showing a passport stating I have been vaccinated, but I do not wish to buy a smartphone so I can have an app as proof of vaccination. Are people without such devices to be banned from pubs, concert halls and theatres?

    Fiona Wild

    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    SIR – If by law one cannot breathe out cigarette smoke in a pub, I can’t see why a law should not prohibit breathing out coronavirus in a pub.

    Iain Campbell

    Crieff, Perthshire

    SIR – Let publicans decide if they wish to be a vaccination-certificate pub or open to all. Then make this known so that customers can make their choice.

    James Thacker

    Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwicks

    2. Ms. Fiona Wild is missing the point.

      The Europeans have stated that the reason for an App on a mobile is that they are able to track the holders.

  14. SIR – The head teacher of Batley Grammar School (report, March 26) said that one of his teachers showing a cartoon of Mohammed to pupils “had the capacity to cause great offence”.

    So, too, do protesters at the gate disrupting school business and trying to shut down freedom of expression.

    Graham Jones

    Huby, North Yorkshire

    SIR – Let me put into perspective the deep reverence that Muslims feel for the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him).

    Muslims hold on dearly to his example and take inspiration from him in nearly all aspects of their lives. It is no exaggeration to say that insulting him is deemed an act immeasurably more heart-wrenching than the vilest insult of their own mothers.

    Fareed Rehman

    New Malden, Surrey

    1. And there is the problem. Muslims revere a man whose example would be anathema to any decent human being.

      1. I look forward to apologists telling us we shouldn’t be projecting the values of the present onto the past…

        1. Oh, they have the story well prepared, about how the little girl was really an adult, but contemporary writers lied about her age. Funny, this story only surfaced when people in the west started to criticise Mohammed for being a pederast.
          A former muslim who would now be in his sixties told me this story years ago (which he found disgusting), and he certainly never doubted that it happened as it was written.

    2. Somebody needs to tell him it is either “heart-rending” or “gut-wrenching” but anything goes in the Telegraph, these days.

  15. Joe Biden is giving left parties the world over a masterclass in how to use power. 26 March 2021.

    You may not have noticed, because he is not nearly as in-your-face as his predecessor, but Joe Biden is currently teaching a lesson to left and centre-left parties around the world. True, it’s one they should have learned long ago, but still they should be paying the closest attention. Because Biden is delivering a masterclass.

    Hardened cynic that I am I have to confess that my jaw dropped as I read this! Is this that same Biden that is a well attested Paedophile and can scarcely place one word after another? As I read it I had one of those flashes of perception that come to us occasionally, this must have been the same sort of Sycophantic Drivel that German Journalists must have written of Hitler after his accession to power. Ignore the Reality and Hate and Lies and save the rent and your ass!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/26/joe-biden-left-parties-power-radical-winning

  16. I think we are being sold a pup around this issue.
    I was put onto it by a French epidemiologist (who normally takes an anti-government position). She was was asked whether she was embarrassed by France and the EU’s uselessness in procuring the vaccine. She answered, no. For once she was relieved by her government’s incompetence.
    Why? Well, the UK, the UAE and Israel who had been very effective in rolling out the vaccine all had a massive spike of deaths in January compared to a year-on-year average. I did not believe it, so I checked. It is true.
    See: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1111804/weekly-deaths-in-england-and-wales/
    You will see a previous spike in March/April. We know about that. It was when the country was locked down because of the rampant virus. But why in January, in the middle of a lockdown and the rolling out of this vaccine (mainly to the elderly at that time)?
    Did you even know there was a spike in deaths? Did our British media tell us?
    No. All we got was a narrative that EU nations were maligning the AstraZeneca vaccine – just sour grapes because we had procured it more efficient than they had.
    But that was not what was happening.
    The EU’s contention was not that the vaccine did not work or was dangerous. They were all on board with it, and they were indeed angry that the UK got there first, hence all this guff about contracts, and so on.
    Those headlines described the national health services of several nations (including those EU satellite nations of Indonesia and Thailand, btw) withdrawing from it because they were observing deaths, before the EU jumped in and called them all back to order.
    Do you remember when nations decided what was good for their own countries?
    How quaint. In theory BrExit gave us independence from overarching extra-national lobbies and authority. In practice we have become even better at kow-towing to it than EU nations and we call that independence. But not to worry, the Europeans are back in the fold, now. The EU made the nations shout out that there was nothing wrong with it and there were only a few cases of thrombosis… less than usual, in fact.
    Ok. So why the spike? Well, we don’t know. Was it that there were other causes of death that have not be publicised? Well, there must have been other causes if not thrombosis.
    – It was not because of no lock-down since it was in place.
    – It was not because of no vaccine, since they were being sold to the taxpayer on a scale that IG Farben would not have dreamed of.
    And why has the spike trailed off? Is it because they are vaccinating younger people, now?
    – We don’t bloody know because no-one is asking.

    1. We’d have to see the same graphs of countries that didn’t vaccinate, to make a meaningful comparison.

        1. But doesn’t that play right into the hands of the bedwetters who believe that covid-19 is the most dangerous virus evah, evah in the history of mankind, and that armageddon was only avoided because of lockdown and vaccinations, and the peak would have been far, far higher if these things had not been implemented?

    2. Could it be delays in recording deaths over the Christmas /New year break. What were the recorded deaths for December 2020 – if they were lower than normal monthly deaths that might be the answer.

    3. There are long lists of adverse reactions to the vaccines, including some deaths. I don’t think they’d account for the spike. The virus had its winter resurgence and will do each year.

    5. January covid-related deaths were likely to be people taken ill in December or earlier. The vaccine rollout in the UK started on 8 December and with a slow start, would have had little impact on January deaths.

        1. So why the spike? Possibly the easing of restrictions for a couple of weeks in December? Dunno, but then, I didn’t write the article.

          1. This illness has a three week cycle, on average. 1 week to become symptomatic and two more to be ill. That takes us to early January from when the new lockdown was imposed. And you can bet your life it would have been publicised if there were causality.
            This peak is end of January. Zilch from the media.
            Odd.

          2. Three weeks on average – so, shorter if you get over it and longer if you go into hospital, then into intensive care, then don’t make it… 4, 5, 6 weeks and much more in many cases.
            Edit – I’m not going to speculate when I don’t have all the underlying data.

  17. Good morning to all NoTTLers! And my very best birthday wishes to Fallic Alec (80 years young today) and to the lovely Maggie TrueBelle who doesn’t look a day over 21 (although we all know she is really 25).

    1. Good morning Elsie

      Thank you for your kind wishes .. Doesn’t time fly . Birthdays whizz around now .

      My second lockdown birthday .. Dog walkie time to look forward to!

      Lovely sunny day here but with a brrrr factor .

      1. Good morning, Margaret, and many birthday hugs are coming your way. 🎂🥂👍🏻😘

        1. Morning Grizzly

          I always love lots of hugs xx

          Will you do me a favour , pen me a short letter that would be suitable to send on to the DT letters .. purporting to come from you in your style , so that I can at least have a letter printed before my next birthday . xx

  18. Morning again

    SIR – The blockage of the Suez Canal (Letters, March 26) highlights a design flaw in modern container vessels.

    Today, supertankers and super-size container ships typically have one enormous engine, single screw and single rudder. If this engine fails the vessel loses propulsion and steering.

    If such vessels had two engines and two screws – common until the age of super-size vessels – then engine failure would be less serious. In addition, twin screws provide significant steering even if a ship is almost stationary.

    Dr Keith Ray

    Marlow, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – It was once suggested that if the world’s airliners all faced the same way at full thrust, the earth’s rotation could be affected.

    Why not tie some of the ships queuing in the Suez Canal to the beached ship and get them to pull to straighten it? Unless, of course, this might also affect world rotation.

    Roger Fowle

    Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire

    SIR – Strange that they can build a pyramid but don’t know how to unblock a canal.

    Jeremy Nicholas

    Great Bardfield, Essex

  19. Morning again

    SIR – The blockage of the Suez Canal (Letters, March 26) highlights a design flaw in modern container vessels.

    Today, supertankers and super-size container ships typically have one enormous engine, single screw and single rudder. If this engine fails the vessel loses propulsion and steering.

    If such vessels had two engines and two screws – common until the age of super-size vessels – then engine failure would be less serious. In addition, twin screws provide significant steering even if a ship is almost stationary.

    Dr Keith Ray

    Marlow, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – It was once suggested that if the world’s airliners all faced the same way at full thrust, the earth’s rotation could be affected.

    Why not tie some of the ships queuing in the Suez Canal to the beached ship and get them to pull to straighten it? Unless, of course, this might also affect world rotation.

    Roger Fowle

    Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire

    SIR – Strange that they can build a pyramid but don’t know how to unblock a canal.

    Jeremy Nicholas

    Great Bardfield, Essex

  20. SIR – Our police deserve praise for dealing with unruly behaviour at rallies. But when it comes to helping average law-abiding citizens, they are sadly lacking. Three acquaintances have recently experienced this.

    The first had his mountain bike stolen and later noticed it for sale on Gumtree. He posed as a buyer, met the vendor and forwarded his address to the police. They were not interested.

    The second had his mobile phone snatched by a moped rider. He traced it through its tracking app to a flat, gave the address to the police, and they did nothing.

    The third was stopped one wet night after skidding slightly in front of a van containing several police officers. He was subjected to half an hour of verbal abuse about dangerous driving, was physically pushed and given a ticket. These were not traffic police and seemed simply to want amusement.

    Tim Goss JP (retd)

    London NW3

  21. SIR – Our police deserve praise for dealing with unruly behaviour at rallies. But when it comes to helping average law-abiding citizens, they are sadly lacking. Three acquaintances have recently experienced this.

    The first had his mountain bike stolen and later noticed it for sale on Gumtree. He posed as a buyer, met the vendor and forwarded his address to the police. They were not interested.

    The second had his mobile phone snatched by a moped rider. He traced it through its tracking app to a flat, gave the address to the police, and they did nothing.

    The third was stopped one wet night after skidding slightly in front of a van containing several police officers. He was subjected to half an hour of verbal abuse about dangerous driving, was physically pushed and given a ticket. These were not traffic police and seemed simply to want amusement.

    Tim Goss JP (retd)

    London NW3

  22. Mng all, HNY, Valenties day and all that. It’s been a while, a tad busy with usual shenanigans here. Lot of reading to catch up on, I presume nothing seismic has changed

    2. Morning AWK,
      What kind of shenanigans are the norm for you? I wonder if your usual shenanigans are the same shenanigans as my usual shenanigans.

      1. Mng, pole sana for delay getting back [one of the local shenanigans kicked in over weekend [power rationing – again]. Here local shenanigans not dissimilar to your end, slight variant being ongoing illegal lockdowns for no reason ever given. Given no vaccines are even here, and what happend last time in 2013 [tetanus vaccines c/o Billy boy Gates via W.H.O. / UNICEF “vacinated 450,000 women who became sterilised and once the Church leaders kicked off, the “vaccine campaign” disappeared]. Currently Uhuru’s trying to push his Build Bridges Initiative [BBI] which essentially provides free money and immunity for him and others in his cadre and nothing to do with C-19. Not surprisingly, the population ahve given it ages ago, “the Agincourt salute”. Therein latest, local shenanigans are geared to attempt to punish, primarily those in Nairobi, Kiambu, Machakos, Kajiado. So now I’m unable to move out of these counties, which means I couldn’t go to Naivasha, Mombasa etc. but can reach and cross the border to Tanzania.

        The other local cracker is Kenya Met Office is run by Google servers which has been issuing daily info of huge thunderstorrms. There hasn;t been a drop of rain here since early Feb. All good fun, have a good week

  23. Putin says will think about creating his own blog. 27 March 2021.

    NOVO OGARYOVO, March 26. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to think about creating his personal blog.

    During a meeting Friday, one participant noted that Putin could make a good blogger, and offered Putin to think about it.

    “Thank you very much; I will indeed think about it,” the head of state replied.

    Wow! The Trolls would go into meltdown!

    https://tass.com/politics/1270871

  24. You sew what you rip

    SIR – When my elderly mum, helping with the laundry, noticed that her granddaughter’s jeans were torn (Letters, March 26), she neatly hand-sewed each rip.

    Helen Shortland

    Birmingham

    1. “…my elderly mum mother…”

      Please, DT Ed, even if a correspondent uses childish terms in his/her letter could you not correct them? I’m sure the letters you receive contain many other spelling and grammar mistakes that you correct before publishing

  25. SIR – When I ring my GP surgery (Letters, March 26) I hear a recorded message telling me that “due to overwhelming demand there are no routine appointments on offer”.

    The message goes on to advise what to do if there is an emergency. There is no emergency, but I do require a routine procedure and it is now overdue.

    I am left high and dry by an NHS which in the recent past was assuring me it was “still there” for matters such as this.

    Campbell McLearnon

    Bangor, Co Down

    SIR – Any patient with a swollen calf (Letters, March 25) should have a face-to-face consultation with their GP to eliminate the possibility of a life-threatening deep vein thrombosis. It would be very difficult to eliminate this possible diagnosis over the telephone.

    Dr Simon La Frenais

    Runcorn, Cheshire

  26. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7b26379fb0174c4241f49d96af01d3c9d2b881e30fd487ba5af1fdc8c25372ac.png Yes, indeed, Martin. I too have fond reminiscences of that veritable Sheffield institution, Cole Brothers, even long after they were taken under the umbrella of ‘John Lewis’ but before they were, consequently, rebranded under that name.

    Rather than improve the store, the deterioration you mention after take-over was obvious. I recall the same being the case for other veritable stores that also suffered when gobbled up by John Lewis: Jessop & Son of Nottingham, and Bonds of Norwich being just two examples among many more.

    1. Cole Brothers had been part of John Lewis for a long time before being renamed, as had Tyrell & Green in Southampton, where the DT used to work, and Bainbridges up in Newcastle, now all branded as John Lewis.

      I don’t suppose the appointment into the top seat of a diversity quota filler with no retail experience helped.

      2. Mention not the rocket promoted effnick.

        Truly, it is staggering how an individual with no appreciable experience, having bounced from department to department (the CS’s idea of competence – move someone around so quickly they can’t be shown an inept buffoon) in the civil service is suddeny the CEO of John Lewis.

    3. Well, they didn’t build the canal- it was a French Grand Projet which was seen as a huge threat to British interests by Lord Palmerston- its greatest opponent. 100 years later, Britain goes to war over it. Times change.

        1. Hey Beatnik, how come that Sphinx has that sickly smile on his kisser? What’s he been doin’, Dude?

    6. In contrast, building a canal is easy. Building a pyramid is simple geometry.

      Now, the bit I don’t get is why they didn’t build a wind break. I mean, you can get them for a tenner from Tesco, They’re left all over the beach by the chavs.

      However, I don’t imagine the sort of super container ships were considered when the canal was built.

  30. Good morning, everyone. Sunny and cold. Walked the dog at 0630 and now on first coffee.

    1. Just back from the shops in Cromford and despite the sunshine, there is a bitter Northerly that really cuts through you, especially when you’re out of the sun!

  31. Good morning from a beautifully bright Derbyshire morning. It’s is a rather chilly 1°C, but will be getting a lot warmer today.

    2. So Muslims take inspiration from a blood-thirsty, slave-trading, paedophilic monster? No wonder they cause so much trouble in the world.

    3. 330877+ up ticks,
      G,
      I do believe that most indigenous of these Isles feel deeply for their children / grandchildren and having seen the contents of the JAY report tends to put islamic followers in a very different light.

    4. Well, you’ll just have to grow thicker skins, then won’t you Mr Rehman, if you want to live in a non-muslim society that values freedom of speech.

    5. Like using that criminal scumbag Floyd as a role model.
      Bah!
      Morning, Grizz!

    6. Good. Then Mo should be insulted continually, repeatedly, viciously. Every form of mockery imaginable, on every building until they learn to laugh at it and accept it in the spirit it is meant. That’s called being an adult.

    7. His letter is getting a right roasting in the comments, for example pointing out that their ‘role model’ was an intolerant, slave-owning, violent paedophile.

    8. It’s not a religion in the way I think of religion. They have no choice from the day they’re born, they’re indoctrinated.

      1. I can assure the author of that piece that the expression Spitting Feathers for furious anger was commonplace in the UK well before the 1990s. My mother was routinely using it back in the early 1950s if not long before then.

        1. Yes, i remember it being used in my youth.
          It suggested violence levels up there with ‘spitting tacks’ or ‘spitting nails’.

    3. I’ve heard it used in both senses. MOH refers to being very thirsty as “spitting feathers”. Maybe that use is a Shropshire-ism.

  35. My dear friends, thank you so much for the pressie which arrived in yesterdays post, it was most kind and thoughtful of you and it has made my 80th even more special, I will drink a toast to you all when I tuck into my fillet steak, stilton and port this evening.

    5. Welcome to the club! But 80 is the new 60, so you are still a youngster! Good health!

        1. Hi Phizzee

          I am not complaining , we are all at cross finger stage .

          You are being very brave and I hope they are really sorting your leg and foot problems out .

          Things must be very difficult for you , just try to take care 😎😘.

          1. You are such a kind soul to be thinking of me on your birthday.

            I am getting better slowly. Haven’t had the results from my latest scan but they did sort out my blood condition.

            Had the Vaccine yesterday. No side effects.

            Hope you have a lovely day.

  36. Morning all!

    Bristol protests…the police and media laid bare….

    Yesterday I did a spot of investigative journalism by watching several live videos simultaneously while also reading media reports (Daily Mail & Daily Express) and the comments. While things remained peaceful I was able to enjoy a good game of rugby on the TV adjacent my PC.

    Below are my findings.

    Large crowds gathered across Bristol and the marchers were very peaceful. The majority comprised of younger people who recognize how the new bill will affect their future freedoms and the message was aligned with the thoughts aired on this thread. After darkness fell there was a stand off whereby a large crowd simply sat in front of the police lines. The police were in riot fatigues with helmets and shields. Some protesters spoke to the police and a woman stuck daffodils to police shields. The standoff remained quiet and peaceful until 10pm when the police appeared to make a tactical mistake. Having afforded the protesters several hours to get their point across they could well have offered an agreement where everyone shook hands and went home. Instead, an officer appeared and told the crowd to disperse or the horses will be deployed. Dog handlers appeared with dogs barking to aggravate the situation. The riot police then began shoving the protesters and one officer used the edge of his shield to assault a protester.

    It was obvious that the standoff was designed to keep the police from their beds but it was the police themselves who broke the deadlock with violence.

    Now to the reporting by the MSM and presumably the 77th Brigade of cyber “heroes”. On one video there was a sidebar with comments appearing thick and fast. There were those giving an accurate take while many dammed the protesters. The papers called the protesters thugs and included images of police vans on fire from a previous event to add more drama to the pro police narrative. The Express had open comments where condemnation of the protesters was rife. The Mail moderated their comments and the same happened. Very few comments supporting the protesters made it through.

    This of course is how the establishment controlled police and media have been working to control public opinion against anyone prepared to stand up to them and until the public learn to see through the tactics so the majority of us will never gain the upper hand.

    Fireworks launched at terrified police horses as anti-establishment protests in Bristol turn violent AGAIN after officers using riot shields arrest bottle-throwing demonstrators
    Officers used their shields to batter protesters, sending some of them tumbling near Bridewell Police Station
    More than 100 riot police started to disperse crowds after eggs, bottles and traffic cones were pelted at them
    Police seen beating at least one protester across the thighs as he refused to go quietly before he was arrested
    Ten arrests were made after what police called unacceptable ‘violent conduct’ at the third Kill the Bill march
    Protesters demand the government scrap policing bill which criminalises ‘public nuisance’ demonstrations

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9407437/Kill-Bill-protestors-face-weight-law-warns-police-chief-crowds-gather.html

    1. I’m not sure what anyone thought would happen. The Black Looting Mob riots showed the police cowardly and pathetic, supplicants to a mob of violent anti establishment types.

      The Lock ups have generated a deep undercurrent of bad feeling.

      The police want more powers – they always want more power – to prevent opposition to organisations like the black looting mob – not to oppose the mob, but the opposition to the mob. The state supports and endorses the black looters.

      Now there’s a group of Lefty thugs causing damage in opposition to a bill that is intended to ensure those same Lefty protestors get to shout, rant and whine with impunity.

      It isn’t about them. It’s about the decent citizen saying no. That they won’t live in a masked police state, that they won’t accept oppression and dictatorship. That’s why the sudden powerful plod response. They’re frightened of normal people no longer being cowed by the badge and riot gear as they smack us about for rejecting the state line.

      You’ve got to look behind the reality to see the truth. The police are working to a longer term agenda. It won’t last. If consent to be policed because there is no trust or respect for them except that derived from fear then they are no more than the welfare sponsored mob they are fighting.

      1. Most of the protesters were younger versions of those of us oldies commenting here. The police chief was on the BBC just now and was actually quizzed about the handling of the situation. He lied about how the violence began by accusing the protesters in stark contrast to what I saw and reported in my comment.

  37. I see the half-witted, far-left Liebour MP for Batley has modified her tune. On orders from Cur Ikea Slammer.

  38. Yesterday, there were a number of comments about ‘President’ Biden’s so-called press conference. Last night I spoke with a very conservative octogenarian friend on Skype. I asked if he had watched the press conference. He said, “No, but I heard that it went better than expected with some good questions and sensible replies”. I asked who on earth told him that. He said “it was on the BBC”.

    I won’t say what I think of the BBC except that it is so blatantly in contravention of its charter, which requires it to be impartial, that I would have thought that there are grounds for its closure. People who rely solely on the BBC for news are ill-informed because they do not receive balanced information.

    In other news, a pilot of Southwest Airlines is in serious trouble because he said what he thinks of San Francisco, not realizing that the microphone was switched on.

    Southwest Airlines says it is “fully addressing” a pilot’s recent hot mic incident over the Bay Area in which he lamented its population of “liberal f—s.”
    “F— this place, god— liberal f—s,” the pilot said in audio recorded March 12 by ATC, a website that livestreams air traffic control audio transmissions.
    The pilot also went on to lament “F—ing weirdos, probably driving around in f—ing Hyundais, f—ing roads and s—t that go slow as f—.”

    The airline said: “This situation was an isolated incident involving a single employee and not representative of the nearly 60,000 hardworking, respectful people of Southwest Airlines.” But I bet there are countless millions who would agree with him, albeit perhaps with less colourful language!

        1. Every city where the Dems/Left hold power eventually turns into a shit heap. London, Paris and New York being prime examples.

          Good morning, Mr Grizz.

      1. Happy Birthday, Maggie! Have a lovely day (predictive text tried to change that to “lively”). The sun is shining at least!

          1. Have you got anything special on today? I guess he’s not taking you out for dinner……….

  40. Good morning all again. Late to the 🥳 party but here’s wishing a very Happy Birthday to Belle and Fallic Alec today. Have a brilliant day from Alf and me.

          1. I’m sorry, Spikey, but you can’t take a day off just because it’s your 80th!

            Who’s going to rescue all those gormless tourists who get stuck because they don’t know what ‘Passing Place’ means on Highland roads? 👍🏻😉

          2. I’m on call Grizz – it’s something to do although I’m visiting the home this afternoon

          10. Wouldn’t be so bad if they’d only take a shovel, dig a hole and bloody bury it!

          11. They don’t even hide behind bushes – they perform in the middle of laybys and in full view of the road

          14. They had a spacesaver which I fitted – just got back from another one, a real swine too

    2. Good Lord. Is it Spikey’s birthday as well?
      Happy Birthday, dear chap. Just few weeks younger than the two Bills; Legal Beagle and MB.

        1. Getting there, thank you. He’s beginning to notice and tackle small jobs that I hadn’t liked to mention.
          Still on rather more pills than we would like, but I think the review is at the 3 month mark.

        1. My mother’s father was born in 1872. Just a few weeks after his parents’ marriage………… my aunt was shocked when I told her that.

    4. I like their camouflage kit. I looked in my local Army and Navy stores but couldn’t see any.

    1. Where is Peddy when we need him to explain the difference between lose and loose?

      1. Not sure why people do that, I got if from facebook, they use aloud instead of allowed on there

        1. I wouldn’t’ve’ad thought people would’ve had problems with the apostrophe but they do.

          Forecastle (fo’c’sle) and boatswain (bo’s’n) can cause problems in alternative apostrophised forms but the rules are relatively simple to follow.

          1. I’m not quite sure what you mean – “used to” is the correct usage of a verb which refers to something done or experienced in the past, but is no longer e.g. “I used to play football, but I’m getting too old for it”. If someone were to ask if I used to play football, they would correctly say “Did you use to play football?”

      4. Still languishing in the banned list. I’ll let you petition Geoff if you want a reprieve.

          1. Don’t get me started on the abominations invented by the retard, Noah Webster, which were published in his Dictionary for Imbeciles and accepted by the halfwits of an entire country.

            However, even though he got his fellow Yanks to accept idiocies such as: ‘flavor’ to replace flavour, ‘plow’ for plough, ‘center’ for centre and ‘defense’ for defence; not all his abominations were accepted. Among those sensibly rejected were:

            ‘Ake’ for ache; ‘cloke’ for cloak; ‘dawter’ for daughter; ‘greef’ for grief; ‘grotesk’ for grotesque; ‘iland’ for island; ‘masheen’ for machine; ‘porpess’ for porpoise; ‘soop’ for soup; ‘steddy’ for steady; and ‘wimmin’ for women.

            Americanese, is NOT English.

          2. They aren’t just spelling variations by yer septics, they differentiate between noun and verb.

          3. Don’t get me started on the abominations invented by the retard, Noah Webster, which were published in his Dictionary for Imbeciles and accepted by the halfwits of an entire country.

            However, even though he got his fellow Yanks to accept idiocies such as: ‘flavor’ to replace flavour, ‘plow’ for plough, ‘center’ for centre and ‘defense’ for defence; not all his abominations were accepted. Among those sensibly rejected were:

            ‘Ake’ for ache; ‘cloke’ for cloak; ‘dawter’ for daughter; ‘greef’ for grief; ‘grotesk’ for grotesque; ‘iland’ for island; ‘masheen’ for machine; ‘porpess’ for porpoise; ‘soop’ for soup; ‘steddy’ for steady; and ‘wimmin’ for women.

            Americanese, is NOT English.

          4. Don’t get me started on the abominations invented by the retard, Noah Webster, which were published in his Dictionary for Imbeciles and accepted by the halfwits of an entire country.

            However, even though he got his fellow Yanks to accept idiocies such as: ‘flavor’ to replace flavour, ‘plow’ for plough, ‘center’ for centre and ‘defense’ for defence; not all his abominations were accepted. Among those sensibly rejected were:

            ‘Ake’ for ache; ‘cloke’ for cloak; ‘dawter’ for daughter; ‘greef’ for grief; ‘grotesk’ for grotesque; ‘iland’ for island; ‘masheen’ for machine; ‘porpess’ for porpoise; ‘soop’ for soup; ‘steddy’ for steady; and ‘wimmin’ for women.

            Americanese, is NOT English.

    5. How on earth can a gust of wind shove a container ship around? Is the Egyptian diet to blame?

      2. Anne, when it next gets windy, find a piece of ply, hardboard or similar of a couple of square feet, go outside and hold it across the wind. You will be surprised by the amount of force on it from the wind.
        Consider then how many square meters one side of the ship & loaded containers presents to the wind.

          1. Exactly.
            An ounce of wind force per square foot on the hull of a vessel will add up to a considerable force when multiplied by several thousand square feet.

    1. That would be the same asylum seekers who have just paid thousands to criminals for an illegal Channel crossing after they’ve just paid thousands more to get to Calais from their home countries, would it? The same asylum seekers who all have mobile phones? Those asylum seekers?

      1. It is the white man’s burden (to coin an old phrase again) to accept that we shall be ripped off.

    2. Happy Birthday Belle. We hope you have a wonderful day.

      Of course they are not asylum seekers they are illegal gimmegrants. The HO do like to dress this up so they don’t have to take any action.

    3. “In Primark”. But, but Primark are locked down and according to their website, don’t do online sales.

    6. May I just take this opportunity to wish you a very Happy Birthday, enjoy your special day. 🥂

  45. After watching Biden’s senile ramblings in his public performances, I’ve been trying to think who he reminds me of. Then it came to me – it’s “Young Mr. Grace” in the TV series, “Are you being served?”.

    3. I’m waiting for Biden to get lampooned on HIGNFY. Then again, I won’t be holding my breath.

      1. Did Ian Hislop lose his satirical facility, his brains and his testicles all at the same time or did he lose them one at a time?

        2. Not only that, but he writes woke, predictable anti-Brexit, anti-Johnson – anti-everything comments below the line on The Times. Gets terribly tedious.

          1. And for that, we quit our subscription. They even called to ask why, and that’s the reason we gave. One-sided, unfunny, and even the journalism was dull.

        4. Ian went to Ardingly. We used to know someone who taught him there, and they said that he was exactly the same when he was a small (as in young) boy.

      2. I gave it up,……….. it was for a long time one of my favourite TV programmes.

          3. When i realised that the once loved and not to be missed program left me stony faced i stopped watching it too.

            Ian and Paul get paid £20,000 per appearance.

      3. Only centre and right politicians are lampooned.

        All lefties are sacred and may not be criticised under any circumstances.

    4. He’s been playing driving an old worn out wedge between the UK (England) and Ireland. The Daft old git.
      Does any one know if he played a lot of Soccharr and has been heading the ball too often ?
      This morning the first thing i see on my mobile phone screen was a picture of a LBT sandwich, claiming that Bacon causes Early onset dementia……..surely not, that would be irrational.
      I wondered if it was another way of undermining our long established culture and even our (small c) christian society. Perhaps dementia might also be incurred by kneeling and banging ones head on a piece of matting. Or standing and banging ones head on a wall.

    1. Morning Bill – They know there are mice in the greenhouse and want to get at them. Your garden offers them a good hunting ground. They are a lucky pair.

      1. Thanks, Clyde. Despite the gale – they have been outside most of the time since 8 am. They love sunshine.

    1. The illegals have realised that it is cheaper by plane than by dodgy rubber boat.

    2. A big jet military aircraft flew very low over the town mid week, I think it was heading for Leeming airfield about 6 miles away. It circled before making another approach in that direction. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to get my camera. The sky was blue and it was a nice sight to see.

      1. Leeming was my first posting after training, many a happy evening spent in the pubs of Northallerton

        2. Morning Alec – there is a pub in Leeming close to the A1M where my colleagues used to assemble for our meetings, it was a favourite of the RAF personnel and had pictures of the RAF planes which attracted me more than the meetings.
          The Golden Lion in Northallerton was featured in a scene from one of the earlier RAF WW2 films.
          As my father, ex RAF ground crew, was in the now abandoned Grantown on Spey hospital a fellow patient said that during WW2 he drove through Northallerton regularly with lorries loaded with ammunition en route to the main RAF ammunition dump, a few miles North of the town, for the many airfields in that part of North East England. I am amazed at how many people have memories of Northallerton.
          While I am at it, best wishes on your birthday and welcome to the 80’s club.

          1. Thank you, I remember the 3 Tuns and the British Legion in N’allerton and there was a pub at the side of the A1 which was motor racing orientated – even the beer came out of little petrol pumps. I was on Meteor NF14s and Canberra T11s at the time.

        3. Is it your Birthday Alec ? Have a good one if it is if not have a good day any way 🤩

          3. 80,……… my elder sister is nearly 80, i can hardly believe it. One of my work fellows in the 1990s has just past 55 ….but i still have more hair than he has.

        6. Were they still flying Gladiators as front-line fighters back then?
          (runs ‘n hides!)

        1. Hii Eddy. it was not a small crop spraying aircraft. It was a sleek version of a Hercules but looked fairly new and was a quiet, probably a 2 jet engined aircraft which I may have seen on TV but not over Leeming.
          I sneeze when in the sunshine.

          1. All my life, I sneezed due to sunshine, or just ‘cos I’m still alive. My mother always asks “Oooh, have you got a cold?” “No, mother, just sneezing”

      4. Having looked at the RAF heavy lifting fleet it might have been a 4 engined globemaster. It was a beautiful plane

    1. Some of the rape gang victims were initially introduced to the rapists via younger brothers at school, weren’t they?

      I have to say, I would never send a daughter to a mixed boarding school. I heard similar stories in the late 80s when the boys’ schools started to admit girls in the sixth form.

      1. Now it is ‘uncool and unWoke’ to be Hetero………… single sex/gender/type//urge schools will have similar problems

        1. I believe the girls go trans or bisexual, and then date other girls nowadays. I’m glad I’m not at school now, it must get very complicated.

          1. Read about a bloke the other day who had his bits cut off when he was nineteen but froze some sperm before he did so he could have children.
            God help the child who grows up knowing its ‘mother’ is also its father. No mental illness ishoos there, no sir.

          2. The sperm freezing is free for the first three years, I think, thereafter must be paid for. There is a whole group of trans women out there desperately holding onto frozen sperm hoping a woman will come along who will have a baby with them.

      2. I think that society’s attitudes have changed a lot over the last 40 odd years.
        I don’t believe that even the most promiscuous boys and girls had anything near the number of sexual partners that are reported nowadays.

        And the concept of gang bangs was almost unheard of, except amongst motorcycle gangs and the like.

        1. I am not talking about promiscuous boys and girls. I am talking about physical bullying of girls by boys.

          1. Apologies, I thought you were referring to the sexual aspects of the schools.
            Bullying is rife at all levels, MM, FF, MF and at times FM.
            Girls on girls can be some of the worst.

          2. Of course there is a sexual dynamic to it.
            There was almost no bullying at my (all girls) school. The bullying by girls at my chldren’s (mixed) school often seems to be related to the girls competing for boys’ attention.
            It’s unacceptable to have boys for example, holding down a girl and cutting her hair forcibly because they don’t approve of her hairstyle. As I said, I would never put my daughter into this Lord of the Flies sort of environment.

          3. I put most such problems down to poor management by the head and the teaching staff.
            I think it’s a good idea to have mixed schools at over 16, I’m less keen on it between 11/12 and 15/16, middle school if you like.

          4. I am also in favour of mixed schools for both boys and girls, just not boarding schools. Single sex schools are a very poor preparation for life, I think.

      3. My school admitted girls in the 6th form late 70’s. The girls loved it – so few of them, so many boys, so much attention!

        1. I don’t think the darker side of it was advertised so much. I only heard stories from ex pupils at these schools. Some quite bad stuff happened at university too.

    2. What’s waiting for YOU on the ‘other side’, P-T?

      Unlimited court time and no let-serves?

    3. I would like to see the look on his face when St Peter tells him he’s booked in to the other place.

        1. Do good, just in case there is a God and a Heaven. If there is not, you have lost nothing, and have won the bet. However, if you are bad and there is a God…

          1. Do good, just in case there is a God and a Heaven. If there is not, you have lost nothing, and have won the bet and have done good. However, if you are bad and there is a God…

  52. Yay!!!! Third time lucky.
    Actually managed to drop three humungous bags of rubbish off at the tip. Tried twice yesterday and lost the will to live.
    Used a different strategy today – and while hovering, ran my mind round various sites where, if push came to shove, I could distribute bag contents if all else failed.
    Now to get my life back.

    1. They brought in a booking system last year at our local tip – OH thinks it’s better as there are no queues, you get told where to park and it’s quicker than just turning up as it was before. Only snag is it’s booked two weeks ahead.

    2. Thrilled to have read recently that Jane and Ann Taylor lived for a while in Colchester. Authors of children’s poetry, eg ‘Twinkle twinkle little star’.

  53. Happy birthday to True_Belle and Fallick_Alec. 🍺 🍻 🥂 🍷 🥃 🍸 🍹 🧉 🍾 Don’t drink it all at once!

  54. Seen elsewhere :-

    Don’t forget to move your clocks one hour forward tomorrow (unless you live in Batley, where you have to move them back 2000 years)

  55. Further to my earlier long report on last night’s Bristol protests….

    Good call from the BBC…

    The police are the problem and why peaceful protests turn violent.

    Bristol police chief furious slap down on BBC as Jon Kay infers blame ‘Wouldn’t say that!’
    A BRISTOL police chief hit back at BBC Breakfast host Jon Kay during Saturday’s programme after he suggested that the police could have been at fault during the recent protests in Bristol.

    https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/1415612/Bristol-police-chief-slaps-down-Jon-Kay-infers-police-at-fault-Bristol-riots-BBC-Breakfast

  56. Funny to think that, were it not for his English great-grandfather, Toy Boy would not exist.

        1. Nope. Rain. Washing the dust away, and killing the last icy bits of snow – slowly.
          Got me a 6-pack of Fullers London Pride – so tucking in. Not as good as cask, but beggars can’t be choosers.

    2. We have a very well educated friend in Marmaris whose father was a Turkish ambassador and he was educated at lycée and university in Paris. He is nominally a Muslim but he believes that historically Turkey was at a crossroads when it could have become Muslim or Christian and tragically it took the wrong turn and went Muslim. Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) did his best to establish a non-religious lay state but Erdogan’s main aim is to undo all the good that he did.

    1. Thought a ‘Dindu’ was a Hindu, influenced by the Dalit philosophy.

      ….. I’ll get me joss-sticks.

      1. Comes from that claim, “I dindu nuffin'” when apprehended by the Police.

    2. Left wingery is NOT progressive change. It’s oppression, violence and control. They want to think it is, but it isn’t.

      And no, narcissism is NOT the belief in only yourself. That’s egotism. People don’t use narcisissm correctly.

      1. “Narcissistic personality disorder — one of several types of personality disorders — is a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of extreme confidence lies a fragile self-esteem that’s vulnerable to the slightest criticism.”
        Describes a fair proportion of Government ministers……
        https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20366662

      2. Left-wingery and narcissism should be treated as notifiable diseases and dealt with as smallpox and anthrax were.

      3. Ayn Rand apologised for her misuse of the term egotist in one of her novels. English was her second language and only after publication did she find out the difference between egotist and egoist, as in self interest, which is what she’d actually meant. Self interest and self obsessed are after all not the same thing.

  58. ‘Johnson off on another spinner….

    In just a few days’ time… I’m going to drink a pint’: Boris says Covid lockdown WILL end on time as ‘Happy Monday’ looms – but says continued freedom ‘depends on things going right’ as police warn the rules do NOT end next week
    Families, joggers and weightlifters flocked to parks and beaches across the country as the UK braced for sun
    Amateur athletes raced along the banks of Queensmere Pond in Wimbledon Common in south west London
    Greenwich Park in south east London was rammed with sunseekers from early this morning with dogwalkers
    Temperatures will start to climb and hit 52F by lunchtime, the Met Office says, before peaking at 55F Sunday
    Ahead of the easing of restrictions on ‘Happy Monday’, police chiefs warned next week is not the end of curbs

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9409209/Britons-hit-parks-beaches-throw-caution-winds-ahead-Happy-Monday.html

  59. Why Gen-Z is turning its back on the BBC. 27 march 2021.

    Do 16-34 year olds still watch terrestrial TV? More importantly, will they still be watching in a year’s time when BBC 3 re-launches as a linear station? Six years ago, the youth orientated channel switched to digital-only as part of a £100 million cost cutting measure. Since then they have produced a couple of runaway successes such as the all-conquering Fleabag, hence the decision to have another crack at broadening their appeal to a rapidly dwindling youth market where TV sets are a rarity and scheduling anathema.

    Well I’m 74 and apart from the News Headlines once a day I don’t watch it and quite frankly feel none the worse for it! The author of this piece I think misunderstands the BBC’s purpose here. It is not to gather viewers; they don’t need the money, but to inculcate the ones they do have with Woke values. It is simply a propaganda exercise! This age group is the future!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/gen-z-rebellion-against-the-bbc

    1. It’s not relevant. They’re on youtube, discord, steam, tiktok, instagram etc.

    2. Play School:

      “Hello children – which window shall we try today?”
      “Window 10?….ah, hello Bill!”

  61. 330877+ up ticks,

    Sadiq Khan’s Housing Design Adviser Brands Traditional Architecture ‘Offensive’

    I believe that he is calling for mud & straw to be used along with rebar rods showing through the roof.

      1. 330877+ up ticks,
        SiedC,
        Many a true word is spoken….
        You haven’t lost the chance yet.

  62. Afternoon All

    A few “Batley”s

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/44e72a7ed1c90ecbe1c7d5703b3778d3e01479d384a51341bb9af2862aaeeb38.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5fa183a2b2e142b11d7bc0d83ed81610e1ea641e8d27085d8a0f37caf3165795.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2b5f6ce6e46e43d30dc3cf0feedf39dde72e929578586ab6455744d7e815e635.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8e034788ca7bfe626a1ecf4db5c77f2f7e4216c051b8cd44471541baeb7c6615.jpg

  63. Winchester University’s decision to splash £24,000 on a life-sized statue of Greta Thunberg – who needless to say, has zero connection to the city – was met with both outrage and hilarity. 27 March 2021.

    Outrage because since the effigy was commissioned in 2019, the university has enacted swingeing library cuts and two rounds of staff redundancies (despite the vice chancellor’s salary of £233,207). And hilarity because the statue looks rather more like an extra from the Hunger Games than the 18-year-old climate campaigner. Which might be part of the messaging, I suppose.

    As someone who lives down the road from the site – and who used to teach at the University – I was hardly surprised by the news. The place has recently branded itself the “University for Sustainability and Social Justice” (capitalisation not mine) and its website has been plastered with woke messaging.

    The university, we are told, holds dear the core values of “Compassion, Individuals Matter and Spirituality” (again, not my capitals) and believes that “academic freedom leads to big ideas which in turn lead to social justice”.

    This simply adds to my conviction that the University System is being deliberately destroyed!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/winchester-university-s-greta-thunberg-statue-is-a-shameless-pr-stunt

    2. could they not just have borrowed one of the cows from Milton Keynes for a month or so?

  65. 330877+ up ticks,
    Dt,
    Exclusive: The four-tier traffic light system that could save summer holidays.

    My aching sides, first have your arm topped up with an unknown NON time tested substance then you can go to coster bomma,
    Renaged on,

    Latest,
    That “could” save summer holidays
    They are counting on many of the peoples have the memory span of a gnat.

    With no hard shoulder to cry on, politico,s are considering it, that means they are cementing covid 19 suppression material into place so as overseers can dip in / dip out of
    issue, ongoing.

    Much the same as the tory (ino) actions regarding the brexitexit out but still in via “the deal”

    1. Roger Helmer is very, very hopeful.

      A government, so fearful of Muslims that it declared lockdown to finish on the first day of Ramadan is certainly not going to arrest Muslim rioters.

    3. H’mmm …. maybe they could hold a peaceful vigil for the girls who’ve been the victims of ‘honour’ killings.
      At least that would attract police attention.

  67. Just made my Butchers day. Spent £190. He even carried it all to the car for me.

    I asked for 4X4 bone rack of lamb and ended up with 8 of them. My fault.

    The Filet steak this time came from the head end and i had asked for them to be cut one inch thick, they are huge. Had to cut them in half. The perils of ordering by phone !

    I normally buy from Donald Russel but we all have to support local independents if they are to survive.

    1. Donald Russel is owned by what was Dewhurst Butchers chain in E&W about 30 years ago (Alex Munro in Scotland) – hardly your local corner shop butchers.

      1. I think what he was saying was that he hadn’t shopped at Donald Russel, as he usually does, but rather he bought it from a local butcher.

    2. Farmisons is very good. I have ordered steak from them that is the best I have ever tasted.

  68. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/14c00694c571761be8d0791df9d6f9c59e84d25cbb1cc043f60f2986d9460b41.jpg It’s prep time for tonight’s supper: Calzone.

    Home-made base from Tipo 00 flour and Durum semolina; home-made tomato sauce from a tin of Italian tomatoes and garlic, seasoned and reduced; spicy beef mince; cubed ham; pepperoni sausage; anchovies; pickled peppers; olives; spinach; mushrooms; buffalo mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

    I’ll add the full recipe if anyone is interested.

      1. Not so sure…the peaceful ones are regular people and the activists probably work for the police.

          1. I’ve studied many a protest including the recent ones plus watched the EDL etc and these are different. And remember, activists always spoil it for the many.

          2. Activists?
            Why not say what they really are.
            Thugs.

            Riding on the back of reasonable protest.

            As AA notes above:
            “The pattern seems to be genuine peaceful protesters in daytime; the ‘professionals’ rock up in the evening.”

            It strikes me that every single protest nowadays gets used as a pretext for anarchy and theft as soon as the thugs think there’s a good chance they will get away with it, generally as soon as it gets dark..

          3. It’s par for the course these days…if someone protests against the establishment, the establishment thugs are sent in to spoil the party. Likewise, leftist protests are treated with kid gloves even if they are violent.

          4. A conspiracy theory too far for me.
            The thugs do it for its own sake and are more than happy to weigh in on any and every protest, Right, Left or Centre. The establishment has no need to send agent provocateur thugs in.

          5. Just look at the crowds in the video just now…they look more right than left leaning.

          7. You are answering your own question…the establishment thugs will arrive and all the protesters are labelled as thugs.

          8. “Establishment thugs” suggests that these people are controlled by the establishment (whatever that might actually be).

            I very much doubt it. These people are thugs, nothing centrally controlled about them.

          9. During the BLM violent protests in London when the Veterans were protecting the war memorials and the football lads were chanting, police dressed as hooligans alighted from police vans and pretended to attack their uniformed colleagues which the MSM used to tar the Veterans as Far Right thugs.

          11. Then I’m a liar. I’ll try and find some historic videos which means more work on top of the research I already do and have done.

          12. Mistaken.
            I have argued things in the past, where I was wrong, but genuinely believed I was correct. That does not make me a liar and I’m not accusing you of being a liar.
            Video footage is so easily altered and judiciously edited that I remain sceptical over many claims.

            Hell’s teeth, look at how Trump’s statements were changed, distorted and presented as fact..

          13. I’m struggling to find a video of a Veteran who told his story from the second Saturday of last summer’s BLM riots. A group of mature Veterans, the type you see at your local memorial on the 11th November carrying banners were guarding the war memorial when they were attacked by BLM thugs. They pleaded with the police for help and they refused. One old boy was stabbed in the neck. Later, another elderly Veteran was feeling ill and his friend asked the police for a bottle of water from the crates they had. He was told to FO and then handed out the bottles to the BLM thugs.

            Many things like this never make the news and can only be found by intensive research. I have many more yarns including what really happened during the French yellow vests protests when the police dressed as thugs…they used red arm bands when they were with the other police and removed them when they assaulted people in the back streets.

            They also threw projectiles at the uniform police and were so pathetic that they carefully lobbed them at the shields.

          14. I believe that both Antifa and BLM are well funded by the billionaires. Probable sponsors are Bezos and Zuckerberg, possibly including Gates and Soros.

            Every world event can be linked to these megalomaniacs. Bezos has a space programme and would like to rule Earth from a hub on the Moon. Gates wants to sterilise women and incapacitate or kill the people of the World with mass vaccinations.

            The aim is to cause civil unrest and the intentions always malevolent and pure evil. The billionaires have been in cahoots with Russia’s Putin for years. They and our governments and security services have much to cover up from 911, links to Al Qaeda, Lockerbie, the death of Dr Kelly, and just about every conflict since the Falklands War.

          15. I am confident you are correct about the lack of police assistance for those guarding the memorials.

            The French have no need for such subterfuge, if they want to wade in, they will. No need for armbands and the like.

            When comparing British strong-arm policing and French strong-arm policing it’s Girl Guides against Marines.

          16. I call our police Antifa in uniform…

            When the BLM 2nd Saturday happened there was a ten minute period when the football lads attacked the uniformed police by throwing tin cans. At the time I could see the amazement on the football lad’s faces as they wondered who those throwing the cans were. Some even backed away. All cameras and videos were able to record the event and soon the headlines began appearing in all the papers and the BBC …Right wing thugs attack police. Then all cameras and videos were pushed from the area and no one could see what was going on. The only information to be found was on social media sites where many reports of police dressed as thugs emerged plus independent group websites which had to be looked for.

            Ten minutes of orchestrated violence for the cameras and then nothing. It’s a pity I can’t find the local video telling about the elderly Veteran needing water. No doubt videos like this have been conveniently erased.

            Why else would the police take the knee to violent BLM thugs and get rough with normal people to promote them as Far Right? The government’s plan is to flood the country with illegals yet anyone who complains is targeted. These are incredible times and incredible things are happening that no one would have believed could happen in 21st century Britain.

          17. The easy answer is that the police know where the odds are stacked against them.

            Choice: Bash a few Football lads in daylight, or get bashed by several hundred Antifa thugs after dark.

            I am equally sure that the can throwers will have been Antifa, rather than police in disguise.

            My view is that you are blaming “the establishment” for what is really left-wing and anarchic rioters who will do what they do at every opportunity.

          18. Watch the protests around the country….

            Several are taking place today including deepest Cornwall. Study the people taking part rather than the agitators. Normal every day people so fearful of the Soviet style laws that are coming. The leftie thugs don’t even know what the laws are.

            All will become apparent in the coming days.

          19. I’m certain the people taking part are the same as I am.

            I’m also sure that they are correct about what is being put in place.

            Where you and I go in different directions is that I think the agitators will attack whatever the cause of the underlying protest. It isn’t driven by the “Establishment” it’s driven by anarchy and left-wing BLM-type thugs.

          20. Why do you think the police kneel to BLM thugs?

            Answer this question…What would you think of the protesters if there was no violence?

          21. 1 Expediency.
            2 Respect.

            People have the right to protest.
            Peacefully.
            If the police then break up that peaceful protest, no matter on what Covid or other nonsensical grounds, then the police are in the wrong.

            Your next question will be “what would you do about that?”.

            Difficult to answer, but more protest until the politicians realise they will be out of office if they don’t do something about it.

            And yes, I do realise there has to come a point when only violent uprising solves the problem, but it really is the very last resort.

          22. If the protests remained peaceful they would grow and grow until the government took notice.

            Notice how the police are going in strong before any trouble starts. The establishment thugs have given the police the green light to break them up with the backing of the public.

            Every able bodied adult should be protesting until they vastly outnumber the police which will happen anyway because even the most peaceful in society realise the danger we are all in. This is their 1939 and will get their hands dirty like they did back then.

            Just needs the public to all wake up and very quickly.

          23. Facial Recognition Vaccine Passports Being Developed by British Tech Firms

            https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/03/27/facial-recognition-vaccine-passports-being-developed-british-tech-firms/

            Like one commenter mentioned….what good is facial recognition if everyone is wearing masks? Like…what’s in the vaccine?

            Do you know about the 77th Brigade?

            20,000 strong unit that monitors the Internet. They look for right wing chit chat…troll comment threads and put comments promoting the establishment.

            Many anti protest comments are theirs to give the impression the protesters are thugs.

          25. Every comment you make is logged.

            A retired Royal Marine officer commented on Breitbart about three years ago that he wanted to go to London and protest. Next day two men turned up at his house and reminded him that he has family members and going to London was not a good idea.

            If all you do is moan like we all do and are quite old then you are not really a threat.

          26. Kill the Bill demonstrators ignore officers’ pleas to stay at home as they protest across the country amid fears of more violence in Bristol after protestors hurled fireworks at police horses

            https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9409711/Kill-Bill-demonstrators-city-streets-Britain.html

            Notice the only comments allowed are those criticizing the protesters and most of the pictures made to make look them bad.

            The controlled media are playing us big time.

          27. To answer your question and not intending to be disrespectful…

            Some can’t see through the MSM mist and the biased way they report protests. Historically the thugs have looted when protests are going on but everything’s political these days.

            Trust me…I have studied them in depth.

          28. Ultimately, everything is political when protests take place, it always has been.

            Does it ever occur to you that you might be making the mist?

          29. If you are determined to win the argument rather than study these events in depth then I’ll concede and let things unfold.

          30. What is your hard evidence that this is occurring?
            You’ve studied it in depth, you tell us.

          32. Because I don’t accept your argument that this whole modern, violent, movement is controlled and directed by a shadowy establishment to discredit the so-called Right.

          2. They are all pretty rank.

            I am using the same mask – when I have to wear one – that I first used last May…

          4. Me too. I can’t bear the thought of the environmental cost, or indeed to cost to the ennaitchess of changing to a new one every few hours when at work.

        2. Notice the Muslim among the protesters? Could that mean all races and religions uniting against the government.

          If so…we might win at long last.

      3. The pattern seems to be genuine peaceful protesters in daytime; the ‘professionals’ rock up in the evening.

        1. Most protesters are younger versions of us on this thread doing what we should have done a decade or more ago.

      1. The French yellow vests kept their protests going for over a year and widespread too. These here are growing.

          1. Nothing happening near me although I would take a video camera to one and talk to people to get a flavour of who they are.

  72. Well, there you go.
    My first ever Dubonnet.
    Quite alcoholic and quite tasty, but nowt special.
    Should it be mixed with something?

    3. The late Queen Mum favoured gin and Dubonnet …
      Ice and a twist of lemon or lime should go well.

    5. Strain it through a fine mesh filter
      add orange juice
      add 1 measure of gin
      add 1 Measure Shnapps
      add ice and shake (the drink

      And ditch it down the cludgie (Loo to posh peeple

  73. Re the Batley Madrassah debacle – many people hoped that the Governors would sort out the feckless head. It occurred to me while struggling against the gale this afternoon, that given the “demographics” in that poor town, many governors will be slammers. {:¬(((

  74. Janet Daley says in a thousand words what most of us have been saying in a sentence or two since 1993.

    The soft-socialist EU believes ‘fairness’ is more important than saving lives

    In the eyes of Brussels, British success deserves to be penalised for leaving others behind, not praised

    JANET DALEY

    The European Union has clearly decided to withdraw its threat of all out vaccine war with the UK. It is now dumping on the proxy enemy – AstraZeneca – instead. This is the perverse reward that the company gets for its public spirited resolution to offer a life-saving vaccine to the world at cost, thereby relinquishing the incalculably enormous profits that might have been made – and, indeed, are being made by the less altruistic manufacturers of competing vaccines.

    Having had its product’s efficacy, reliability and safety repeatedly trashed by European heads of state, to the point where the stocks of its vaccine presently stored in the EU cannot be given away, AstraZeneca is now being accused of reneging on contractual commitments to supply ever more quantities of the substance that Europe has managed, completely unjustifiably, to discredit. This situation is now technically incomprehensible.

    So hysterical have the attacks become on this defenceless company – which, as I have suggested, has become the rhetorical stand-in for the UK now so demonstrably, infuriatingly beating the EU in the vaccination race – that the attacks on it verge on the defamatory. One MEP suggested in a broadcast interview last week that the claim that AstraZeneca was not making profits on the sale of its vaccine was somehow doubtful. (“We would have to look at the books”, he said, with triumphant suspicion.)

    Not that the UK government itself is completely spared the vituperation. As I write there are still emanations of blustering gibberish directed at UK policy being fired across the Channel. The French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, has said that the EU would “not be blackmailed” by the UK as a consequence of our decision to offer as many first doses as possible. So far as I can tell, this absurd remark refers to the possibility that we might claim to be running short of second jab vaccines to justify demanding more of the AstraZeneca product (which, until about twenty minutes ago, the EU regarded as inferior). Is that what he means? Your guess is as good as mine.

    What on earth do these people think they are doing? Apart, of course, from trying to shift the blame from the hopeless mess they have made of their own vaccination programme which, by unfortunate contrast with their newly independent next door neighbour, could suggest that belonging to the EU and being party to its bloc mentality might not be such a great idea. That conclusion, as we know, would be an existential threat to the entire European project which is why the principal architects of it – France and Germany, whose leaders usually manage to talk intelligible sense – are reduced to incoherence for the moment.

    If the idea takes hold that the structures and decision-making processes of the EU are not just cumbersome or vaguely annoying but quite literally life-threatening, that the unity of the bloc matters more to its leaders than the survival of its citizens – well, there will be no coming back from that, will there?

    In a superhuman and counter intuitive attempt at broadmindedness I will attempt to give some plausible account of what might be the EU’s current thinking. First, there is the rather unsavoury commercial angle: AstraZeneca’s vaccine development was funded directly by the British Government which is why it was both possible and ethically appropriate for it to be distributed on a non-profit basis. But in creating a publicly-funded competitor to the private pharmaceutical companies, the UK distorted the market: the new entrant could make a cheaper product which undercut the existing manufacturers who are now almost certainly bringing pressure on foreign governments, in the US as well as Europe, to push the interloper out of the picture.

    This is in paradoxical contrast to the larger, more idealistic rationale which the EU officially espouses, the key to which lies in those recent additions to its list of favoured abstract nouns. Everybody is now uttering the words “reciprocity” and “proportionality” as if they were an instant moral formula (like the old favourite “solidarity”) which can silence any argument.

    What they appear to amount to is the basic soft-socialist concept of fairness – which is to say, everybody must have everything that everybody else has at exactly the same time. This is the traditional basis for wealth redistribution and equality of outcome. Nobody must have any more advantages in terms of wealth, education, health or whatever, than anyone else, even if they have made a greater effort or been of more virtuous character. (Because having the resources to make more of an effort or be more virtuous is itself an unfair advantage.) So it is inherently unfair for the UK to benefit from the fact that it made better and faster decisions about its vaccine programme, including choosing to subsidise its own vaccine development company.

    What this amounts to in practice is that no state (EU member or not) should be able to get ahead of any other, whatever the quality of its own decisions and the competence of its management. EU spokesmen were saying quite explicitly when this vindictive row began that the UK rollout should actually be held up until the EU countries, which were performing less well, caught up – even, presumably, if this were to cost lives. Britain should be penalised or handicapped, in other words, for being too successful at preventing serious illness and deaths among its own population. I find the idea that such a notion should be contemplated – let alone shamelessly pronounced as a public statement – pretty staggering.

    So, rather oddly, the EU finds itself attacking a vaccine manufacturer which is state-subsidised and declining to make a profit, preferring instead to advance the interests of private, profit-harvesting capitalist outfits, while with its official philosophical hat on, making the case for absolute socialist equality and universally shared benefit. There is something about those shibboleths of “reciprocity” and “proportionality” (and “solidarity” too) that is oddly reminiscent of the unreformed medieval Church trying to fight off, in the name of the greater good, the Protestant notions of individual initiative and the rewarding of competitiveness. And yet the venture which most obviously embodies those social virtues is attacked. Very confusing.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/27/soft-socialist-eu-believes-fairness-important-saving-lives/

    1. But I thought Boris had signed us up to having a level playing field with the EU in the treaty, that is exactly what they mean by fairness.

    2. We know the EU is represented by a cabal of globalist stooges. Where I am becoming fed up is this constant crowing about our supposedly magical vaccine, which as far as I am concerned is an untested experimental jab consisting of God knows what.

      Despite their anti-UK stance on the Oxford jab I suspect they will be lucky and millions of their people will not succumb to this poison. Time will tell.

    2. “In 2020, as it has for the past four years, Finland was at the top of the happiness league, followed closely by Iceland, Denmark and Switzerland.”

      Bollocks: I would never wish to live in Finland, Iceland, Denmark and Switzerland.

      Nor Norway – refrigerated, socialist puritans all !

      2. If pushed came to shove I could possibly live in Corfu.
        I like the Greeks, great climate, enjoy the food……..and they play cricket!

          1. Cor f u has a certain charm …….
            Venetian architects embellished the town with beautiful public monuments, squares, and churches in the heart of Corfu.

        2. Corfu ? Yes indeed sweetie !

          And Crete, Rhodes, Simi – and Las Palmas, Gran Canaria …x

        4. Think they’re planning to build all over where the Durrell family used to live, I read the other day. We holidayed in Corfu once, never again. The interior of where we stayed was all dark brown, and I mean dark brown, and if you went to the loo you had to put the paper in a small basket coz the system couldn’t cope with it. Disgusting. Nobody warned us. The town itself was lovely.

    3. I heard that Richard Dawkins on the radio yesterday on turning eighty. He said that he expected to live to an old age because he inherited longevity genes from both his parents. He said he was was lucky that he was going to die at some point, in fact all of us are because we are lucky enough to have been born. He said the unlucky ones are the people whose genes were never created and so won’t die because they were never born in the first place.

      What are everyone’s views on this?
      1. Interesting philosophical point expressed by a profound thinker
      2. Total b*ll*cks

        1. If you’re really unlucky you get Dawkins as a room mate instead of a young Bardot.

    4. Due to the somewhat muted response Plum, perhaps some have lied about their age or already popped off the bed.
      I’d be more than happy if i could get my hair cut it was before last Christmas when i last had it cut, i’m resembling my look in the early 70s now,
      it’s more than a bit ironic eh ……….

      1. … the early 70s WOW……take me back!
        Flared trousers , glam rock the ME generation….Granny Takes a Trip, King’s Road, Chelsea.

        Peace and Love Brother….

          2. We’re not, 3 years and 3 days between us. Unfortunately my dear Brother died in December 2019. I’m now the last of nine.

          4. I didn’t think for one moment that you were – you didn’t know. But I do miss the guy I grew up with, scrumping, wandering the marshes and woodland and cycling all over Norfolk and Suffolk.

          6. Both RAF, he for two years, me for ten.

            Ken ended up, at that time as the Secretary of the tit-nosed Buck’s Club and, when I left the RAF in 1969, he asked me to join him as the Assistant Secretary. The highlight was, during the Summer Ball when we were both standing at the foot of the stairs, to be asked by a very influential member, ” Do I see two of you or am I totally pissed?”

        2. I remember wearing those men’s platform/stacked shoes, they were so ‘king uncomfortable.

    5. Plum, you would have enjoyed my half-brother who ran various pubs in East Anglia. In one, it was suggested that they should have a ‘Happy Hour’. “Happy hour, Happy hour?” says James, “We might have a less-miserable 15 minutes.”

      1. ‘Morning, Tom. One of my favourites of yours. All well with you and Judy?

        1. So far, yes, John. Just battling on so that I may reach 77 in May and Judy, 74 in June. Life’s a bitch – did you ever download my autobiography from Kindle? Not a Bad Life just USD 5.00

          1. I did, ages ago – and still have the draft of Vol 2, which I confess I haven’t looked at.

      1. I think they operate some sort of handicap system whereby referees use different levels of law / rule enforcement to create a level playing field.

          1. The ball was not grounded but moved twice. It was bloody obvious from the video evidence.

            Nowadays everything is political. I suppose sport always was when one considers the 1936 Berlin Olympics and every Olympics since.

            In the Six Nations Rugby the refereeing was all over the place. No consistency but constant whistling and so disruptive to a once free flowing game. I wonder what the late Andy Ripley or Barry John would make of it all.

    4. Indeed it did. Shoulda won the Grand Slam reeeelly if it weren’t for the garlic eating surrender monkeys’ having a good five minutes when it counted.

  77. That’s me for the day. The MR has GONE AWAY. For a night to look after her sister who is being vaccinated today. Sister lives alone and the family is susceptible to after effects generally. The MR will be back tomorrow arvo in time to take me to the NNUH for a chest scan – scheduled for 7 30 pm..

    This will be her SECOND nigh away from home since 21 March 2020. She said that she had almost forgotten how to pack a case!

    Managed to do three of the jobs on the list Two more tomorrow.

    Cats wondering where the Boss is. Puzzled. All that tree work has tired them.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ce41dcbe2e396a7be43497b89b7c248033fbb96d33c295034e0634fe6f8b6cae.jpg

    A demain – if I get through the night.

    PS Marriage of Figaro (recorded in 2018 at the Met) at 6.30 pm.

    1. Beware, Bill!

      Yer retro-evolutionary cats are showing treelike symptoms and catouflage …

  78. Thoughts from the bath.
    There are many places in the UK that are swamped with the enrichers*. Pictures of school classes currently demonstrate that black and brown faces are more numerous than white. Those places where those of foreign non-white, non=Christian, non-European antecedents predominate will be joined by many more over the next few years.
    I suggest that certain areas of the UK should be set aside for those people whose great great grandparents were born and raised in the UK, and only those people. I’m thinking of the Highlands and Islands, the Lake District, the Dales, Hereford, West Wales, Cornwall and Devon and similar. Entry to these areas would be controlled and allowed only to residents. The areas would have a name that indicates that the areas are protected and specially designated. I suggest “Reservations”.

    * Not just Batley.

    1. If it was OK to say that Britain was hideously white, can we not sal that Angola is hideously black?

      1. No. Not in Scotland anyway. Someone here recently mentioned that there was no blasphemy law in England. There was in Scotland until just recently. The new Hate Law replaces it. I don’t know if the bookies are taking bets, but I expect the first prosecution won’t be of some anti-Christian blasphemer but rather someone who says something rude to a jihadi.

    2. 330877+ up ticks,
      Evening HP,
      Why, ? when the answer is stop supporting the importers
      the lab/lib/con coalition, then with a peoples reset start an
      monetary offer that cannot be refused repatriation campaign to country of DNA origin.

      Eradicate ALL traces of lab/lib/con coalition after trials.

    4. But they got it wrong over here.

      Instead of reservations for the indigenous, perhaps they should have reservations for the incomers where there are reservations about their willingness to integrate.

      We could call these reservations Bradford, Luton and other run down locales.

    5. Please don’t forget East Anglia, Horace, currently the bread-basket of the UK but getting overrun with so called ‘Solar Farms’ covering acres and acres of good, food producing, arable farmland.

  79. 330877+ up ticks,
    breitbart,
    Facial Recognition Vaccine Passports Being Developed by British Tech Firms

    Will the burqa brigade be exempt, will we all take to the burqa, will we all take to V for vengeance masks,these questions must be asked / answered.

    Why are we putting up with this daily sh!te, is the reason the mindset of idiots as in ” for the good of the party” ?

      1. 330877+ up ticks,
        SiadC,
        IMO,
        I would see that as condoning another click on the overseers ratchet, make the burqa wearer an offer they cannot refuse, and not return. to these Isles, a return = very long term incarceration
        and deportation.

        Make that mandatory.

    1. 330877+ up ticks,
      Evening S,
      “What the hell are we doing ”

      Why, supporting the political bullsh!te manufactures time & again via the polling booth.

      1. Next time i’m asked to cast a vote i’ll be walking in with my black felt tip pen and spoiling the ballot paper, it’s not a patch on the way they have spoiled our lives, but perhaps more of us need to write this on our ballot papers.

        1. Got my polling card today. It’s a three mile round trip on foot to reach the polling station. I await news of which parties are standing, but I’m inclined to request a postal vote, so I can vote for NOTA at parish, PCC, and County level.

          2. The thought had occurred. There’s a bus here on Tuesdays, Wednesdays* and Fridays. So that’s no bloody use. *Wednesdays, it goes to Woking, for some inexplicable reason. Postal is easier. I did the same in 2019, when the usual village polling station (Seale Village Hall) wasn’t available, necessitating a similar walk to the next village. I sent an excoriating email to the Borough Council, suggesting that they had overlooked a large public building which is only used on Sundays. Only to find that the Rector had told them to eff off, because we weren’t insured…

    2. It needs pointing out that We are not doing any of this, it’s the government. And if we’re not careful they will continue to restrict our movements, whereabouts, comings and goings, and every facet of our lives.

      I hope everyone has replied to the Covid certification proposals review. Closing date 29/03/2021, Monday.

    4. The penny might have dropped to those who refuse untested emergency vaccines. Many see the gigantic fraud for what it is.

      There was a session in UK Parliament where Hancock was rattled by a couple of reliable Conservative MPs especially Sir Christopher Chope, a man from the Thatcher – Ridley era. Chope asked how many had died as a result of taking Covid vaccines. Answer came there none but some garbled nonsense from Hancock about dealing with the question outwith Parliament by letter.

      Hancock must know that he and Johnson, Raab, Sunak and Patel have been rumbled and that they will eventually find themselves before a Nuremberg style trial for crimes against humanity.

      The excuse that higher authority required them to institute inhuman lockdowns and advocacy of poisonous untested vaccines will be no excuse (higher authority being the billionaires) as is increasingly obvious.

          1. But what asymptomatic idiot would have a test in the first place? In my Covid certification entry I have quoted:

            “That is not how we do things in this country”, the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. Surely the Prime Minister is not a liar?

            I do hope lots have replied to the consultation. And lots of other stuff. Found it hard to restrain my comments!

        5. Hi Maggie. I was in Woking this morning. Having unfortunately poured a large mug of tea into my keyboard, I needed a replacement. Walked from the station to Lion Retail Park, but decided to catch a bus back. St Paul’s Church is a vaccination centre, and all those arriving seemed very young. Hope they’re not intending to procreate. Didn’t recognise the centre of Woking.

          2. A bit? It’s now clearly visible from the Hog’s Back. It was a concrete jungle when I lived there several years ago. Now – it’s positively dystopian…

          6. If only they’d pull the ghastly new buildings down and put up the artist’s impression.

          8. The only reason we ever go into the town centre is to go to Specsavers. Hitler couldn’t have done a better job! And there is talk of widening the bridge and archway to allow for more railway lines. God help us. They’ll still be “building” after we’re dead and buried. I tell everybody not to come to Woking unless they<absolutely have to. Awful place.
            Edit: Oops don’t know what happened there.

          11. Debateable, Richard. On a personal level, I’ve been lucky. Having had the Verger’s Cottage pulled out from under me, I’m now safely ensconced in a retirement bungalow, owned by a local housing charity. I’ve had to downsize, but I’m within five minute’s walk from a rail station. This is a game changer.

    5. The penny might have dropped to those who refuse untested emergency vaccines. Many see the gigantic fraud for what it is.

      There was a session in UK Parliament where Hancock was rattled by a couple of reliable Conservative MPs especially Sir Christopher Chope, a man from the Thatcher – Ridley era. Chope asked how many had died as a result of taking Covid vaccines. Answer came there none but some garbled nonsense from Hancock about dealing with the question outwith Parliament by letter.

      Hancock must know that he and Johnson, Raab, Sunak and Patel have been rumbled and that they will eventually find themselves before a Nuremberg style trial for crimes against humanity.

      The excuse that higher authority required them to institute inhuman lockdowns and advocacy of poisonous untested vaccines will be no excuse (higher authority being the billionaires) as is increasingly obvious.

  82. Do you know, my mother would never believe me when i told her that I had made a bicycle entirely out of Spaghetti……..
    But she did when she saw me ride Pasta

  83. A snippet from a larger article by Louis De Bernieres on the cancel culture which I’m sure will resonate here:-

    I think I might have lived at the best time in our cultural history, set up for freedom by my parents’ generation, and dying just in time not to see us spiral back down again into a stultifying intellectual and moral captivity.

    4. Sigh… When I lived across the road from the church, it was relatively easy, and was usually done in the dead of night. I turned up last Sunday just before ten, to see it was quarter past six. The ringers (not that bell ringing is allowed, for it will surely cause certain death), had been tidying up. And left a large cardboard box full of rubbish just below the clock weights. The clock has ‘auto wind units’. The weights are regularly raised when they reach the end of their travel. It involves limit switches and timers. It’s not the first time. A few years ago, the clock stopped, and I found a Dyson vacuum cleaner dangling in mid air from one of the weights.

      An early morning visit is on the cards, providing Uber is awake. I’ve noticed that if I book a ride to a church, the Muzzie drivers accept the booking, but never turn up. So I have to be creative…

      1. Flying Donkey?

        (One night, Muhammad rode on his flying al-buraq, a half-human, half ass/donkey/mule, from Mecca to Jerusalem. 800 miles away.

        He claimed to have prayed in the mosque there before riding on to “heaven” to meet Allah.)

  85. I’ve had such an exhausting day thinking about all the jobs and other things i have to do. the pond liner has a leak there are at least 10 frogs filling it with bucket loads of spawn, there’s a leak on the connection of the new electric element heated towel rail in the bathroom, that would mean draining down most of the Central heating system, a shallow plastic container will suffice. And I even dozed off in the arm chair this arvo thinking about it all.
    The wife has a nasty cold she caught from our grand children, grand son caught it at school
    I did climb up onto a high plastic bucket and throw food over the fence for our neighbours fish.
    Made some pizza’s for our evening meal they involve so much work.
    I’ll pop off now and finish my large glass of red, I did record The new version of the Lone Ranger on TV i love a good western, unlike the real world we live in, the baddies always get their comeuppance. It reminds me of a real life incident one Sunday when I still played regular golf. Given Nick-names on paper are drawn out of a hat, my partner and i were pair and one of the opposing players was nicked named the Lone Arranger, he was senior banker. My partner and i were thrashing the oppos and it had started to rain rather heavily. I had left my own umbrella in my car and had noticed the Lone Arranger had a spare one in his golf trolley. I asked if i might use it and he with obvious reluctance lent it to me.
    It was till chucking it down after we had teed off on the par 5 18th, the last hole and half way down the fair way probably after his third shot including a recover from the undergrowth, hadn’t yet reached my tee shot. He quite suddenly demanded the umbrella back. It’s true what they say about bankers (no i have spelt it correctly with a B) and umbrellas.
    Oh before i go i had a note from my GP and it was a list of things i should be doing to improve my health, third from the top it said cut out the drink,….but i couldn’t remember where i’d left the scissors

      1. Banker Stormy.
        We had a guy Named Richard who was involved in the confectionary business, specialising in chocolate. Nick name, Chocolate Dick. And too many others to mention.

  89. Why would they bring in facial recognition if everyone is wearing a mask?

    Can’t be anything hidden in the vaccine so it must be a number tattooed on our heads.

      1. I’ve just watched a youTube video posted in July 2020 where the interviewee notes that a number of countries have already endorsed a mobile phone app that if implemented will mean that individuals will need to be tested monthly for Covid Sars2. Green result will permit one to enter shops -Orange flag – time to be re-tested. Red entry prohibited….

      2. Twas only 3 generations ago that 6 million people went for a shower and were never seen alive again. It’s the same families ruling the world today as it was back then.

      3. 330877+ up ticks,
        Evening C,
        Notching the ears of the human party member sheep, would probably be found acceptable.

        Party first & foremost.

  90. You all know about the facial recognition cameras everywhere you go.

    Covid has forced us to walk two metres apart so they can also get a full length profile.

    Handy thing this lockdown for a flu like virus.

    1. And a swab off every test victim gives them a DNA sample – just like Tony Blair wanted.

      1. Yup. I am not quite sure what these eegits will do with the information except to say that it will definitely not be in our best interests.

    2. So true. Social distancing has precisely the opposite outcome and performance to that claimed. Masks do not work and are in reality an imminent danger to health.

      We need to breathe the good air not re-inhale our exhaled air. Nobody but a moron would believe in paper mask wearing.

      Yup, half the population are Epsilon Semi-Moron on the IQ measures.

  91. Remember the Alamo!!!

    Why Is Everyone In Texas Not Dying?

    “I’m sitting at a bar in Texas, surrounded by maskless people, looking at folks on the streets walking around like life is normal, talking with nice and friendly faces, feeling like things in the world are more-or-less normal. Cases and deaths attributed to Covid are, like everywhere else, falling dramatically.”

    Thanks to this Twitter thread, and some of my own googling, we have a nice archive of predictions about what would happen if Texas opened.

    California Governor Gavin Newsom said that opening Texas was “absolutely reckless.”

    Gregg Popovich, head coach of the NBA San Antonio Spurs, said opening was “ridiculous” and “ignorant.”

    CNN quoted an ICU nurse saying “I’m scared of what this is going to look like.”

    Vanity Fair went over the top with this headline: “Republican Governors Celebrate COVID Anniversary With Bold Plan to Kill Another 500,000 Americans.”

    There was the inevitable Dr. Fauci: “It just is inexplicable why you would want to pull back now.”

    Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke of Texas revealed himself to be a full-blown lockdowner: It’s a “big mistake,” he said. “It’s hard to escape the conclusion that it’s also a cult of death.” He accused the governor of “sacrificing the lives of our fellow Texans … for political gain.”

    What’s striking about all the above predictions of infections and deaths is not just that they were all wrong. It’s the arrogance and confidence behind each of them. After a full year and directly observing the inability of “nonpharmaceutical interventions” to manage the pathogen, the experts are still wedded to their beloved lockdowns, unable or unwilling to look at the data and learn anything from them.

    More here at:https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/why-everyone-texas-not-dying

  92. Goodnight, all. I’m going to try to get an early night to make up for my missed hour.

  93. A fragrant serenade for Scottish viewers:

    “The twin inquiries into the SNP’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations made against former leader Mr Salmond have exposed to public view the toxic civil war between the Sturgeonites and the Salmondites, like a manhole cover being lifted off a sewer. Mr Salmond now intends to go another round with Ms Sturgeon in a fresh court case that could reveal damaging details suppressed in the inquiries.”

    2. Ouch! Just in time for the Election. And if Queen Nic complains it is being done for ‘political gain’ then someone should point out the judicious timing of her 4% increase to NHS staff.

    3. Bring it on – we need to see little Miss Krankie’s gast absolutely flabbered.

    1. I’m sad, Walter, for the guy whose cancer became inoperable – not so much for the gimmegrunts, they should pay, they can afford passage to the UK via France and they could easily raise cash with, or for, their slick new mobile phones.

        1. You have some lovely scenery behind you. If weather is correct for Mon and Tue you should be plagued with sunbathers. Anyway – having last cuppa tea and off to sleep. Bid you and anyone else goodnight.

      1. Geoff

        You are the best present ever, providing us with this gift of a facility to discuss, shout a bit and share ideas and anxieties and our attempts to correct all wrongs which don’t make a right .

        Plus the ability be amongst some very nice people .

        Hope your day has been useful and enjoyable x

          1. Oh no , hells bells , what on earth have you had to cope with..

            Can you let of steam and talk about it?

            Now?

            Goodness me, I have just been playing catch up on here, I can feel and see you are frustrated and angry , and every reason to as well .

            I have been reading your narrative, and I must say it is better that you calm down and relax , before you settle down .

            You are so correct .. idiots seem to be increasing in number.

            We are all being walloped by them from all directions .

            Go easy Geoff, be kind to yourself x

          2. No big deal, Mags. But I inadvertently spilt a large mug of tea into the keyboard, first thing. It’s different – it’s usually wine. I put together the weekly newsletter for the parish, together with a single-use order of service for those rare brave souls who are prepared to actually attend church.

            Simply asking the clergy which readings have been selected gets ignored. It’s hardly secret, but it’s like pulling teeth. An email to the Rector three days ago had approximately six questions. I got a reply today with one answer.

            Were I not being paid to pretend I was Director of Music, I would walk away. Guildford Cathedral is utterly woke (Google the Dean). Were I free, I’d prolly worship at Winchester Cathedral, or (forgive me) my nearest Cathedral. Which is the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Aldershot Garrison..,.

          3. C of E has gone soft in the head , lost direction and lack muscle and leadership .

            I feel it has had a Liberal softie stance for a very long time , although one shouldn’t muddle politics with religion .

            I feel that many previous Arch Bishops of Cantab have had Liberal leanings . When I was a young student nurse , a class of us were blessed by the Arch Bish of Cantab Michael Ramsay , laying on of hands , that sort of thing .

            My father told me not to trust Michael Ramsay , because the Arch Bish supported the idea of overthrowing Ian Smith in Rhodesia !!!!

            Philosophers and the Church are the devil themselves .

            Sorry , but you know what , I could also swop over to RC, I have met many decent Catholic priests , and many who served in the Services .

          4. Oh, for a Ramsey now. I used to sing with a choir which was half Anglican and half RC. Funnily enough, in Normandy, which is where I now live. The RC priest was ex-Anglican, and married. As a result, I’ve attended a few Catholic services. I have issues with some of the dogma, transubstantiation being one, and the current Pope is more woke than Harry and Meghan,..

    5. Blimey! Hadn’t realised the queue for the Suez Canal had reached the South coast…..

  96. Daniel Hanan article:

    In the culture war era, we can no longer afford to write off flag waving as un-British
    The Union flag is a symbol that everyone can adopt, regardless of where their grandparents were born, more important now than ever

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/27/culture-war-era-can-no-longer-afford-write-flag-waving-unbritish/

    Why do the wokery have such contempt for their heritage?

    “That nature that condemns its origin
    Cannot be bordered certain in itself”

    “Filths savour but themselves.”

    [King Lear]

    Those who hate their origins probably do so because they are themselves contemptible.

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