Saturday 30 January: Helping out the EU with vaccines might persuade it to trade more fairly

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),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/01/30/lettershelping-eu-vaccines-might-persuade-trade-fairly/

778 thoughts on “Saturday 30 January: Helping out the EU with vaccines might persuade it to trade more fairly”

  1. Taliban creep closer to capturing former heartland as lack of pay undermines Afghan forces. 30 January 2021.

    When Bilal, 24, joined the Afghan security forces six years ago, his motivation went beyond receiving a monthly paycheck – he wanted to serve his country. Ironically, that commitment has been severely put to the test lately with a months-long delay to his salary despite a surge in violence across Kandahar.
    “I haven’t been paid in eight months but if I don’t fight, who will do it, who will fight for my country?” he says from the roof of a police station in the Zhari district of Kandahar now acting as a front line following the capture of several police checkpoints further ahead. That morning, fifteen 950mm mortars were fired from the same rooftop into Taliban territory beyond the now-deserted homes directly in front of the building.

    Morning everyone. It is an absolute certainty that the pay of Bilal and his comrades is being syphoned off into the pockets of Government Ministers and employees. This is the way things work in Afghanistan! The Afghan Army costs four times as much to run as the country’s GDP. This means in effect that it is financed by the US and UK taxpayer! It is riddled with Taliban informers and sympathisers. Quite a few of them moonlight as Jihadists. It is utterly useless as a Fighting Force. Why are we there? Well all the stuff we give them has to be paid for. Weapons. Ammunition . Military supplies. All this comes from the West. It’s the old Military/Industrial complex at work! No one’s security is enhanced one iota by the occupation, in fact the very opposite! One always hoped that Trump would get the US out completely now there are signs that Biden intends to upgrade their involvement.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/taliban-afghanistan-kandahar-conflict-peace-talks-b1794717.html

    4. Strange that Trump was so keen to get US troops out of Afghanistan, yet the MSM hated him, whilst Biden is so very keen to get more deeply involved in Syria and Afghanistan, and the MSM idolise him.

        1. Nobel are being a bit slow this time. I think this far into his presidency, O’Bummer already had been nominated for the Peace Prize, or possibly already got his mitts on the moolah.

  3. […]
    My son was one of those at St Pancras. He was trying to get to his ski-teacher training course in Switzerland – which equips him with qualifications for a career. The tweet came from a train manager called Justin (no surname given), and because he posted a picture of ski equipment no one bothered to find out the truth.
    […]
    This happened well before the latest restrictions but education was and is a legitimate reason for travel.
    […]
    Sophie Durlacher

    Stretching the meaning of ‘education’ a bit thin Ms D. Your son’s travel was hardly essential. No-one in the world would suffer hardship if there were no new ski instructors next year.

    2. Her son was ONE of those at St Pancras, just how many where there and let me hazard a guess, they all were going on a training course.
      I must remember to book that villa with private pool to give Mrs VVOF some swimming lessons.

    3. People are allowed to travel to university. Skiing is very serious in central Europe. He should not have to put his career training on hold.

  4. Thank you Geoff and good morning all from a still dark Derbyshire with 0°C on the yard thermometer.

    A rather fanciful headline on this morning’s letters page:-

    Letters: Helping out the EU with vaccines might persuade it to trade more fairly

    To which I respond, “Well, perhaps, but on the other hand it might encourage them to continue taking the piss.”

    2. That’s exactly the sort of wet, ‘Good European’ teacher’s pet thinking that landed this country in such a mess.

    3. Well said, BoB. If we roll over this time it will only encourage the EU bullies in the future.

    4. My childhood experience convinced me that the only way to deal with a bully is to hit them very hard without concession, discussion, negotiation, or delay.

      1. Agreed.
        Firstborn, who always has been shorter than average, was bullied at his first school. At the second school, the bully came over to him and tried it on. Big mistake. In front of a crowd, Firstborn picked him up by the lapels and hung him on a coathook, and told him that if he ever tried crap like that again, he’d get seriously hurt. No more bullying.

        1. Which is, perhaps, fine between boys. But when the bully is a boy 3 or 4 years your senior and you are a little girl of 10 that simply isn’t an option… you just have to learn to keep out of the way.

          When the bullying is between girls a sharp tongue is often more useful than any sort of physical hurt – especially when you know that the bully, being the younger sister of five brothers, is the apple of her father’s eye and he will believe any lie she cares to tell about you touching her and will simply never believe in a million years that she might have done anything untoward because she is his little angel.

          1. Perhaps there are some here who think that “…they’re the apple of her father’s eye and he will believe any lie she cares to tell about you…”

            No matter how often she downvotes you, in the mistaken belief that that improves her rating with her peers.

            Just saying (and thinking).

          2. Just writing you were, unless you were talking to yourself for fear no one else would listen.

            What you certainly were not doing was exercising the power of thought, though there was probably a good deal of entirely unwarranted malice.

      2. A very valuable lesson that children are unable to learn when they exist in a society where all violence is condemned.
        Running to the teacher to tell tales doesn’t exactly stand one in good stead in later life.

      3. Exactly, HP. In my first year at senior school I was constantly needled by a cretin of a bully. One day the red mist descended and I hit him as hard as I knew how, putting him on his back and breaking his nose. I didn’t get away scot-free however, having broken the knuckle on my left hand (still mishapen to this day) which required hospital treatment. Anyway, he never came near me again.

      4. Exactly, HP. In my first year at senior school I was constantly needled by a cretin of a bully. One day the red mist descended and I hit him as hard as I knew how, putting him on his back and breaking his nose. I didn’t get away scot-free however, having broken the knuckle on my left hand (still mishapen to this day) which required hospital treatment. Anyway, he never came near me again.

  5. Priti Patel suggests fire at Kent asylum seeker site started deliberately. 30 January 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/648f19cad9bee557ff46553b38b1daea377ed08c34618db3ead0b48111f2e2ec.jpg

    The home secretary, Priti Patel, has suggested that a fire at a former military barracks used to house asylum seekers was set deliberately as she comes under mounting pressure to shut the site.

    Images posted online showed thick smoke billowing from one of the blocks at Napier barracks near Folkestone. The facility has the capacity to hold 400 people but in recent days some have been transferred to hotels after a Covid-19 outbreak.

    Suggests? No kidding! This is of course now the standard immigrant response to accommodation that doesn’t suit them!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/29/napier-barracks-fire-asylum-seekers-kent

  8. Definition Of The Word “Coincidence”.

    A chicken farmer went to the local bar. He sat next to a woman and ordered champagne.

    The woman said, “How strange, I also just ordered a glass of champagne”.

    “What a coincidence” said the farmer, who added, “It is a special day for me – I’m celebrating”

    “It is a special day for me too, I am also celebrating!” said the woman.

    “What a coincidence” said the farmer.

    While they toasted, the man asked: “What are you celebrating?”

    “My husband and I are trying to have a child for years, and today, my gynaecologist told me that I was pregnant”.

    “What a coincidence!” said the man. ” I’m a chicken farmer and for years all my hens were infertile, but now they are all set to lay fertilized eggs.”

    “This is awesome” said the woman. “What did you do for your chickens to become fertile?”

    “I used a different rooster.” the farmer said.

    The woman smiled and said: “What a coincidence”

    1. A quote from Der Spiegel:
      “Even within von der Leyen’s own party, the CDU, uneasiness is growing. Germany has thus far provided 300 million euros for vaccine development, says Mario Voigt, the CDU candidate for governor in Thuringia state elections this fall. “Europe should ensure that companies like Pfizer don’t shortchange us.”

      Well, that cannot be true, can it? Jennifer SP says this money is an investment not an up front payment. Strangely though, no country is shown as having invested in any of the vaccine businesses. Countries like the UK have made up non-returnable deposits of hundreds of millions. Oh, wait, …nope, they haven’t. Jennifer SP says they haven’t.

    2. Excellent and interesting article, what a pity our Press doesn’t seem to do similar more often.
      I liked the “Peter Principle” style analysis of von der Leyen:

      Whenever von der Leyen, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian
      Democrats (CDIU), has taken on a new leadership position, she has never
      just been the new minister. She has always acted as though she would do
      everything different – better – than her predecessor. It has frequently
      sounded as though von der Leyen planned to reinvent whatever department
      or ministry she had just assumed control of, making it more functional
      and more glamorous at the same time. But by the time it became necessary
      to dive into the sordid details, she had usually moved on.

    3. Excellent and interesting article, what a pity our Press doesn’t seem to do similar more often.
      I liked the “Peter Principle” style analysis of von der Leyen:

      Whenever von der Leyen, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian
      Democrats (CDIU), has taken on a new leadership position, she has never
      just been the new minister. She has always acted as though she would do
      everything different – better – than her predecessor. It has frequently
      sounded as though von der Leyen planned to reinvent whatever department
      or ministry she had just assumed control of, making it more functional
      and more glamorous at the same time. But by the time it became necessary
      to dive into the sordid details, she had usually moved on.

    4. It’s satisfying to see Britain doing something right, but frustrating that the whole narrative here is a pro-vaccine one, and the idea that only the vaccine can save us appears to be taken as gospel.
      Frankly, there is no evidence that we have just been through anything but the usual winter flu season, with a lot of hype and propaganda. The corona peak last spring was something unusual, and it evened out the unusually light flu years that we have had recently.

      1. I’m having the vaccine, not because I think it will save my life or anyone else’s but because I’m not yet ready to give up travel and I think it will be a requirement for that. My planned trip to Kenya in four weeks’ time is obviously going to have to be postponed, but I’m not giving up on it entirely.

        1. I view it as a box ticking exercise; quite frankly, I had it because I am worried about the effect this nonsense is having on my grandchildren. If this farrago continues, their future is bleak.
          No doubt some handy mutation will appear, but at least we will have done something to box the government into a corner.

        2. I don’t mean to sound critical of anyone who decides to have the jab. It’s a personal decision for every individual.

          https://www.freedomairway.com/ apparently is looking at a flight to Tanzania, but it’s not on their website yet.
          They are very difficult to find on search engines, even DDG, I wonder why!

          1. Tanzania’s Mr Magufuli decided that as a goat and a papaya tested positive he wasn’t going to bother with having a crisis. They’ve so far recorded 21 deaths from the virus. No testing – no cases! simples!

            In Kenya they’ve tested well over a million people and recorded 1753 deaths. More people die on the roads here than that. Yet I’m prevented from going there on holiday.

        1. Well that’s a bit worrying if true! If replicated in the UK, we’d have millions of deaths by now.

      3. I agree. Initially Germany was held up to be the most successful country in containing Covid. Germany had experienced two very severe winters which had contributed to deaths in the elderly. The UK by contrast had experienced two very mild winters which as you say led to unusually light flu years.

        This disparity goes some way towards explaining the disparity in deaths in the elderly and otherwise vulnerable people.

    5. On reflection, I just realised – Spiegel’s analysis is not terribly deep, because although they note the Great Britain is forging ahead, they still write that UvdL getting all 27 EU nations to agree on a common vaccine effort was a “triumph”.
      Depends how you define a triumph, I suppose.

      1. It probably was a triumph to get them to agree to anything – they’re like rats in a sack.

        1. But as all the British papers have noted – the nation states beat the EU into a cocked hat.
          This German disease of prioritising consensus above every other result!

  10. Its only taken a month for the whole world to see why we left the EU.How can anyone support them. They make our government look perfect.

    1. We know our government is far from perfect but they appointed someone who knew what she was doing and they deserve praise for that.

    2. I can’t see why a month was needed Johnny.

      Remember that last October/November it was widely reported that M. Barnier had threatened to cut off all pharmaceutical supplies to UK from the EU.

      Why has this present action come as such a surprise to so many Brits?

      1. Indeed, Janet. Folk are perpetually surprised at the EU doing what they say, and going about it in an unpleasant manner.

      2. I’m not sure that it has come as a surprise. More a confirmation of previously formed opinion.

  11. Hmm in a country where you can get 5 years hard time for jaywalking in some places this is more than a little strange………..

    Epoch times:
    “A federal judge on Jan. 29 sentenced former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith
    to 12 months of probation for forging an email that resulted in one of
    several major errors in the applications to spy on former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page”
    The swamp looks after its own??

      2. Well said. The man is obviously a buffoon, as both of his followers will attest. RT’d and liked.

          2. A pity no one has also done a screen dump and then tw@ted it asking him why he deleted it instead of explaining his reasoning!

          7. You still suspended from that? They let me out eventually after five months. I did hassle them a bit with appeals.

    1. Morning Paul. Thanks for that – no idea why it would be closed. Nothing has been deleted in the last 17 hours, so there seems no reason why anyone would have been on the moderation page. Perhaps a Disqus glitch. Or Gee See Aitch Queue?

      1. The close / open command is under your name at the top right of the page. Took me a while to find it… maybe someone was adjusting their profile, or logging in with frozen, clumsy fingers… :-((

  14. Morning all

    SIR – Reading between the lines, it looks as though the AstraZeneca plant in Belgium is having scale-up problems. Hence its “best efforts” fall well short of the EU’s belated order.

    With our astounding success at securing supplies of vaccines, why don’t we offer to divert any excess UK-made supplies to the EU – provided it cuts the unnecessary bureaucracy on our exports?

    Neil Kerr

    Pontrilas, Herefordshire

    SIR – The EU’s reaction to its self-inflicted vaccine fiasco demonstrates that it is a vindictive, incompetent, bullying autocracy – in short, a shamboligarchy.

    Jolyon Cox

    Witney, Oxfordshire

    SIR – We once ordered a range oven from a French company and were given a delivery date of early June.

    In fact, the oven was not completed until the end of July, but because of French holidays during August, we didn’t actually take delivery until mid-September.

    Now I realise that my wife and I could have raided the manufacturer’s premises and seized the oven ourselves.

    Christopher Darlington

    Bough Beech, Kent

    SIR – As I am well over 65 and have just been vaccinated with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, will the vaccine passport mooted by Tony Blair allow me into Germany?

    Angela Reid

    Henfield, West Sussex

    SIR – The foresight of the Government in supporting the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and in not becoming part of the EU joint vaccine procurement process is truly inspiring. The nation should be eternally grateful.

    Just imagine if other political parties had been in power. Where would our vaccine programme be now?

    Terry Barnes

    Woodford, Cheshire

    SIR – News of the success of the UK’s vaccine-purchasing programme gets better and better, but where is the praise for Kate Bingham, the unpaid vaccine Tsar who organised the whole thing last year?

    You mentioned her in your Leading Article (January 29), but she has been abused elsewhere. Her appointment was said to be an example of chumocracy at work (her husband being a Treasury minister), even though she is as well qualified as she could be. She deserves our grateful thanks.

    Toby Gunter

    Weyhill, Hampshire

    SIR – What has happened? Is the general public having an impact on the BBC at last?

    Yesterday’s lunchtime television news had good news, more good news and no real attempt to darken everything with doom-laden comments and video footage.

    Let’s hope it continues.

    Richard Dalgleish

    Newbury, Berkshire

  15. Morning again

    Governing by Twitter

    SIR – The attack by Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, on people “turning up at St Pancras Eurostar terminal with their skis” (report, January 28) shows how a small story – picked up from Twitter and amplified without verification – makes it to the Dispatch Box in the House of Commons.

    My son was one of those at St Pancras. He was trying to get to his ski-teacher training course in Switzerland – which equips him with qualifications for a career. The tweet came from a train manager called Justin (no surname given), and because he posted a picture of ski equipment no one bothered to find out the truth.

    This happened well before the latest restrictions but education was and is a legitimate reason for travel.

    Are politicians now using government by Twitter, relying on fake news to justify their decisions?

    Sophie Durlacher

    London W14

    SIR – The announcement by Priti Patel relating to quarantine rules and subsequent media interviews with Michael Gove raise several issues.

    First, it is clear that the detail and practical arrangements had not been thought through. No plans appear to exist to save the aviation industry or to retain the capacity of our airports for freight and passengers in the future.

    Secondly, making it “illegal”, in Ms Patel’s words, for British citizens to leave the country without permission is unprecedented. While measures such as withdrawing British passports have been taken in the past for very specific counter-terrorism or policing reasons, we have never in peacetime forbidden our own people to travel.

    Strict requirements on their return may well be justified but historically only autocratic and totalitarian regimes have banned their own citizens from leaving the country.

    Lord Blunkett (Lab)

    London SW1

    1. I wish politicians would stop taking Twitter seriously. I know there are a few NOTTLers who try to uphold standards on there, but the average twitterer must be at least 10 IQ percentage points below the average!
      They are just losers trying to make themselves important, and the Home Secretary shouldn’t be taking any notice of such twaddle.

  16. Parthenon marbles

    SIR – Simon Heffer (“The Armada maps belong in Britain, along with the Elgin Marbles – nothing hypocritical about that”, telegraph.co.uk, January 28) praises Lord Elgin’s “desire to conserve” the Parthenon marbles, which might otherwise have been “smashed up” by the Turks. “Would the marbles still exist today,” he asks, “if Elgin hadn’t ‘looted’ them? Quite possibly not – which means he did culture a service, as Britain has done by keeping them so safe ever since.”

    Say I walk past Mr Heffer’s house and see oiks smashing up his furniture. Impelled by a “desire to conserve”, I help myself to two thirds of Mr Heffer’s best Wedgwood tea set. A week later, the oiks are in custody, and Mr Heffer asks for his plates back. I don’t understand: shouldn’t he be grateful that I am keeping them safe?

    Professor Peter Thonemann

    Wadham College, Oxford

    2. An Oxford Professor of Greek and Roman history, and that’s the best he can come up with?

      I wonder if he rejoiced when the Bamiyan Buddhas were destroyed.

        1. Who were the initial cause of people getting AIDS/HIV.

          Now, a revised version of this ‘cut
          hunter’ hypothesis has been published which states the original ‘Patient
          Zero’ was not a native hunter, but instead a starving World War One
          soldier forced to hunt chimps for food when stuck in the remote forest
          around Moloundou, Cameroon in 1916 — giving rise to the ‘cut soldier’
          theory.
          In an exclusive interview with
          MailOnline, Professor Pepin reveals how colonialism, starvation and
          prostitution helped create the ongoing AIDS epidemic.

          https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9202531/First-HIV-case-soldier-World-War-One-caught-virus-hunting-chimps.html

          1. With many of the population eating bush meat for the whole of the twentieth century, just how likely is it that one starving white soldier was the one to get the AIDS virus?
            Incredible that viruses are totally on board with the BLM agenda.

          3. Well, as we know, they can tell the time and knew when restaurants and pubs opened and closed.

          5. “Phew,” I thought … “thank goodness it was nothing to do with bleks.”
            Are they sure the soldier ate the chimp?

    3. Well, saving the tea set would be good. However, you misunderstand. The Greeks did not keep the Marbles safe, and the Turks blew up the Parthenon.
      Moreover the Turks are still the same uncivilised, unpredictable, violent savages they were back then, and they are still threatening Greece.

      I’ve seen your picture. History professors become professors by reading books written by other professors.

      https://www.wadham.ox.ac.uk/people/fellows-and-academic-staff/t/peter-thonemann

      1. Good morning

        I looked at your link, and had to look twice , how can some one so young be so knowledgeable , do youngsters like that have a photographic memory .

        When and at what stage of an academic career does one become a professor?

      3. Please do not try to persuade me that this child has made any contribution to the study of Ancient History that would have impressed previous Oxford Professors in the subject.

        As far as academia goes, the qualifications for success in general appear to be who can be the battiest follower of political correctness whilst simultaneously stabbing the greatest number of one’s colleagues in the back.

        1. The latter, I discovered (from observation) being the most frequent and certainly the most effective method of ascending the greasy pole.

          1. Not you – I was rather anticipating some know-all posting that the child is actually the world’s leading expert on the metaphysical aspects of trans-feminism in 2nd century Naples, and expecting me to be impressed by it.

  17. Radio 2 B-list chat

    SIR – James Hall (Features, January 28) notes that Radio 2 has left older listeners high and dry as it axes favourite programmes in order to appeal to younger listeners.

    It has also changed existing programmes, with new presenters turning them into chat shows – interviewing an endless stream of B-list celebrities. Even worse, when they run out of celebrities, they resort to reading out texts from listeners on subjects such as “What are you cooking tonight?” or “What have you achieved today?” Not to mention the endless requests (or “shout-outs” as they are now called).

    Whatever happened to programmes hosted by DJs who are knowledgeable about music and interested in it?

    Nick James

    Brighton, East Sussex

    1. …and there I was, thinking that Radio 1 was reserved for the kiddies.

      Still and all, who listens to any BBC output these days?

      1. R2 was holed below the waterline when they replaced Jimmy Young with the ill-informed, sensationalising, speculative antics of Jeremy Vine and his very small rolodex of subject matters.
        Wogan’s replacement by the modern equivalent of Smashie and Nicie scuttled it off for me.

  18. Wellies that can cope

    SIR – Hunter wellies (Letters, January 29) aren’t fit for purpose now that they are made in China. Wellies should not be a fashion item – they should be able to cope with mud and mucking out.

    Rather than spend a huge amount on French Aigle boots, I prefer to buy British. My latest pair are made by Goodyear (producers of tyres) and are definitely up to the job.

    Penny Small

    Milland, Hampshire

    SIR – I recommend Rockfish wellies, which are handmade in Britain.

    Donna Cartmell

    Preston, Lancashire

    SIR – I have a pair of perfectly serviceable green wellies bought more than 10 years ago. Attracted by the maker’s reputation – “Where the rubber meets the road” – I find they are just as good across country. The maker is Dunlop, replacements cost £12.99 and they were made in Portugal.

    Malcolm Watson

    Ryde, Isle of Wight

  19. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Interesting column from Charles Moore today, but I fundamentally disagree with his suggestion that we should be generous to the EU:

    The UK’s vaccine success will allow us to be generous to a failing EU

    The nimble approach of the UK’s Vaccine Task Force compares favourably to that of the lumbering EU

    CHARLES MOORE
    29 January 2021 • 9:30pm

    On May 6 last year, Boris Johnson rang Kate Bingham and asked her to head the Vaccine Task Force (VTF), which he and colleagues had just devised. Its main purpose was to stop people dying, he told her. It would seek, first, full protection for UK citizens; second, international cooperation to provide vaccines for people in poorer countries everywhere; third, an infrastructure against future pandemics.

    So described, this sounds a straightforwardly reasonable thing to do. But in fact it was daring and controversial. Normally – and, quite often, rightly – such things work through Whitehall’s slow administrative processes, and are merely advisory. The VTF was explicitly different. Because of the virus’s pervasive threat to life, speed was of the essence.

    Normally, too, someone like Ms Bingham could not just walk in and take charge. She is, by trade, a venture capitalist in the field of pharmaceuticals, with 30 years’ experience. Potential conflicts of interest would have had to be argued over for months.

    But the Government, 10 Downing Street, and its Policy Unit, still wrestling with the huge difficulties over getting PPE and providing testing, wanted a team that knew the industry whose services they sought. Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, who has senior private-sector experience, pushed the Task Force idea very hard. All realised that only vaccine procurement could achieve recovery from Covid. They understood the need to spread the risk of failure by approaching numerous providers.

    At this stage (April), some in government thought Britain would be better off sharing EU vaccine procurement. They sought safety in the enormous buying power of 27 nations combined. They were overruled, however. Boris and co foresaw the literally life-sapping slowness of the EU system. The majority feared indecision caused by the constant clash within the bloc between those who want Brussels to lead and those who want more decisions made by individual member states.

    Yesterday, I rang Sir Richard Sykes, the biochemist and former chairman of GlaxoSmithKline. In June and December last year, he reported on the VTF’s work. He was pleased with what he found. The problem with the EU, he says, is that “a big bureaucratic machine cannot deal with a serious, urgent problem when you’re confronting a plague. When 27 people start arguing, it’s not a pretty sight.”

    Ms Bingham was empowered to do what the entire European Union was not doing. She could form her own team of business executives, scientists, military procurement experts, ex-diplomats and career civil servants. She could use her unique industry contacts to build up the right portfolio of vaccines and secure the right terms. Unlike in contracts later negotiated by the European Commission, she was not instructed to drive the toughest financial bargain, but to focus on delivery and use the full range of differing technologies. Her team had to get enough doses – indeed, more than enough – fast enough. Britain bought about 360 million, which works out at more than seven per adult. In ordering, the team identified the “front-runners” who were likely to get their vaccines out first. It decided that Pfizer-BioNtech and Oxford-Astra-Zeneca were ahead, so it bought them early and big.

    This bet proved correct. In an article in the Lancet at the end of October, Ms Bingham set out what the VTF was trying to do, given that “No-one has ever done mass vaccination of adults anywhere in the world before.” As she puts it in conversation today, “Growing mammalian cells doesn’t happen like punching out face-masks.” At the time of her article, she had, as she admitted, no proof of a successful vaccine; yet anyone reading the piece now will see that the plans she set out have borne fruit. Three weeks after the Lancet piece, came what she describes as “the incredible – beyond incredible – day,” when Pfizer-BioNtech announced the over 90 per cent success of their “primary efficacy analysis”. Help was on the way, and Britain had secured a good share of it.

    This is where the much-used word “nimble” was so important. Britain has an excellent science base, especially in life sciences, but is a relatively small market. It had to make itself useful to the suppliers it was courting. That is why the VTF harnessed our tradition of big clinical trials. Here the vast size of the NHS, often a handicap in other fields, offers the necessary scale. On Thursday, it was announced that the American Novavax vaccine works. Because we had offered large-scale clinical trials of that vaccine long before these were available in the United States, Britain has already secured 60 million Novavax doses.

    Similarly, support for vaccine manufacturing was deployed fast. The Novavax vaccine will soon start production in Stockton-on-Tees. In Scotland, Valneva, a French company, has been helped to set up a factory for “whole-vial based” vaccines. In the case of the Oxford vaccine, government encouragement went back several years. This was helpful in persuading AstraZeneca, who had never before produced vaccines, to grasp the chance. The Oxford BioMedica plant is the most productive of all those manufacturing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Another incentive the Government offered was to indemnify the vaccine manufacturers against liability. Again, the EU left this very late.

    As the above shows, this is not a story of the “vaccine nationalism” of which Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, rightly warns. The VTF has drawn on scientific and commercial work across the globe, employing, in every case except China, personal contacts with the companies involved. It has also put more government money (£548 million) into COVAX, the organisation procuring vaccines for developing countries, than any other nation. Before Christmas, a team from Oxford-BioMedica, headed by VTF’s manufacturing lead, Ian McCubbin, went quietly out to the Dutch plant trying to produce the AZ vaccine to help sort out problems there. These are not the actions of nationalist power.

    By contrast, the unhappy EU, theoretically committed to internationalism, now makes protectionist noises against exporting vaccines beyond its boundaries. Desperate for more AstraZeneca vaccines which they failed to tie down in negotiations, European leaders have taken to insulting the company which they so badly need, casting doubt on its vaccine’s efficacy even as their regulators approve it, and airing contractual disputes. Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, now advocates legal interventions to ensure vaccine supplies. This is the same Charles Michel who earlier wrote in his proposal for an international treaty to fight pandemics, that “To prevent disruptions in global supply chains, export restrictions for essential medical supplies should be avoided and tariffs and trade barriers on essential goods should be reduced or removed.”

    Many Leave supporters will now be saying “I told you so”. The facts suggest they are right, but the tone is wrong. Obviously the first part of Boris’s instruction to Kate Bingham last May comes first: nothing should compromise the promise to vaccinate all our adult citizens as fast as possible. But it would also be good to do everything we can to help less fortunate countries. No nation will really get over Covid if its neighbours still have it. It must be in our interest to do what we can to help European vaccine production and supply. Perhaps the time is not far off when, because we are now an independent country which can make up its own mind to act, we shall have more vaccines than we need. If that happens, we should be generous. The world will notice our example.

    Leading BTL comments (and there are plenty more where these came from):

    Red Kot
    29 Jan 2021 9:44PM
    I would rather we be generous to the poorer commonwealth countries that have always had allegiance with the UK. We owe the EU nothing.

    Nom Nom de Nom
    29 Jan 2021 9:57PM
    I think it would be a mistake to be generous with the EU. It would merely reward their appalling behaviour and encourage them in it.

    This time, they should dig themselves out of the hole.

    Martin Shaw
    29 Jan 2021 10:04PM
    @Nom Nom de Nom Very true. They’ve never been grateful for anything we’ve given them in the past. They’ve just demanded more.

    George Carleton
    29 Jan 2021 10:08PM
    @Nom Nom de Nom I’m inclined to agree; anyway they would never forgive us for offering to help….

    Charles Turner
    29 Jan 2021 10:00PM
    Jean Claude Juncker said we should be treated as deserters. In wartime deserters are shot. When can we stop pretending these people are our friends.

    Alan Sheepbridge
    29 Jan 2021 9:52PM
    If we sent doses, they’d just claim they were right and we stole them. They would then see blockades and hard measures as the way to negotiate in the future.

    Plus we’d see A-Z nearly getting destroyed standing by us, only to then give them away.

    At this time, we can’t back down.

    Euan Cameron
    29 Jan 2021 9:46PM
    Would they be generous to us if the roles were reversed?

    1. Good piece by Charles Moore- but helping the EU should be well down the list- our own people first, then the poor countries of the Commonwealth. The EU might have sorted themselves out by then.

    2. For once it would appear that the Government has performed well.

      By staying out of it and getting the Private sector to lead.

      I remain sceptical that the total indemnities will turn out to be a good idea and that there won’t be long term problems for many people from one or other of the vaccines, but respect where it is due.

      As to the world noticing our example if we are generous, that is a very narrow and hazardous path to walk. Help Europe before poorer nations and we are white supremacists, help Africa and the Asian Sub-Continent, then if something does go wrong, for whatever genetic reasons, and we are culling their populations.

    3. “Another incentive the Government offered was to indemnify the vaccine manufacturers against liability. Again, the EU left this very late.”

      Let’s hope this doesn’t come back to bite them…

      1. Which is why we’ve turned down mRNA vaccine; a scientific ‘advance’ produced in such a time of hysteria is one we’ve chosen to avoid.

        1. mRNA technology has been in use in cancer treatment for a few years. The original advance had already been made.

          2. No problem. There’s been a lot of rubbish written in a great many places about mRNA – and almost no truth at all.

            Sadly it will not be possible to change the DNA of humans for a good while yet – so those who’ve got a faulty set will just have to keep struggling on.

    4. “When 27 people start arguing, it’s not a pretty sight.” It would depend on your perspective.

    5. Good and informative article.
      I think we were extra cynical after the T&T debacle, which was run by another ‘wife of’.

  20. Good morning, all. Made it through the night. Still feel a bit odd. Hope it improves as the day goes on.

    No news again, I see.

    1. Today is so grotty you have the perfect excuse to doss around – so just do it.
      I had my jab on Thursday afternoon, and felt fine, but by 10.0 pm last night, felt ready for my bed. No aches or pains, merely ready for my bed.
      I think MB was zapped because (we all suspect) he had the bug last January/February. I can imagine his immune system thinking “Oh no, not again! This time I will really give you the message to bugger off.”

      2. Quiet day? The MR has just poured a whole cup of coffee over the bed – managed to get the duvet, sheet, undersheet, mattress, bed, carpet, bedside cupboard and wall. Cats mystified at resulting chaos….

        Am keeping low profile….

          2. It’s like dropping a milk bottle. How on earth does 1 pint cover an entire kitchen floor?

          3. I still relive in my nightmares catching a bucket on the edge of the sink and spilling 3 gallons of milk-substitute (which I had just mixed up to feed calves) all over the floor, the wall, the laundry appliances and myself.

            Milk substitute is made with skimmed milk powder and the fat is added in the form of tallow. After the initial mopping up which was pretty comprehensive, we kept finding little bits of set tallow in very hard to access corners.

          4. When I was seven, my mother nearly removed the top of a finger when she was washing the kitchen floor. She was wiping it with a cloth and caught her finger on a shard of a broken milk bottle that had jammed itself under a cupboard.
            It took weeks of treatment to return the finger to anywhere near normal.
            That memory has stayed with me throughout my life.

          5. That must have been very nasty, fingers have so many nerves, tendons, blood vessels etc that doing them serious harm tends to lead to nightmare (or no) recovery

            I worked in a milk bottling plant as a student, one of the less popular jobs was hand lifting bottles from crates onto the belt which took them into the steriliser – then they came out of the other end and were refilled.

            You had to work quickly, lifting four or six bottles at a time with fingers and thumb of both hands inside the top of the bottles. Hot summer weather and you really wouldn’t believe how many of those bottles were unwashed and very smelly. Or how many of them were cracked or simply in pieces. It was unusual to get to the end of a shift without a cut of some sort, though fortunately there was “only” one injury bad enough to be recorded in the book in the month that I was there.

            Glass is beastly stuff to work with. I’m afraid that I’d like to set all the “lets all go back to glass bottles” advocates to a month of working 8 hour shifts at that job… I would guarantee that they would change their tune.

          6. When I was seven, my mother nearly removed the top of a finger when she was washing the kitchen floor. She was wiping it with a cloth and caught her finger on a shard of a broken milk bottle that had jammed itself under a cupboard.
            It took weeks of treatment to return the finger to anywhere near normal.
            That memory has stayed with me throughout my life.

          7. When I was seven, my mother nearly removed the top of a finger when she was washing the kitchen floor. She was wiping it with a cloth and caught her finger on a shard of a broken milk bottle that had jammed itself under a cupboard.
            It took weeks of treatment to return the finger to anywhere near normal.
            That memory has stayed with me throughout my life.

        3. Our cats tease us by bringing in a live mouse and dropping it on the floor, to watch us leap about shrieking and try to catch it so that it doesn’t vanish somewhere to die later. You can see the amusement on their furry faces!

          2. Gus and Pickles are being VERY wussy about going out. Gus will risk a quick burst – but Pickles just sits and watches. I tried plonking them outside the french windows – and closing the door. They were leaping against the glass to try to get back in!

          4. Well, they were not allowed out until two weeks after they had been neutered.

            They will learn! The last kitten we had, after five months indoors, on her first day out was climbing trees….

          5. I’ve never kept kittens indoors as long as that. So long as they are not in contact with other cats they are fine. I didn’t have them neutered until they were six months old, and the previous pair, both boys, later than that. Both lots lived to 17 or 18.

          6. I recall my first kitty making a terrified dash for the open door when a blackbird swooped low over the garden, alarm calling loudly (watch out, watch out, there’s a new cat on the patch). A few weeks later he was proudly bringing them in.

        4. I know I shouldn’t laugh, but a vision of Gus and Pickles ‘helping’ has sprung to mind.

          1. Fortunately for the continuity of their young lives – they were not involved in any way in “the incident”.

      3. I’m pretty sure I had it too – a mild dose but the persistent, dry cough was the main symptom. Last time I had a typhoid jab I felt distinctly odd in the evening but that had worn off by the morning. I had no reaction whatever to the flu & pneumonia jabs I had in October – so maybe the immune system reacts to something it’s seen before.

        1. Persistent dry cough was exactly what MB had for the better part of a fortnight. He also got breathless halfway up the stairs and had to pause for breath.

          1. My cough lasted for the best part of four weeks – but otherwise the initial stages were just a not very heavy cold. I probably spread it around quite a bit.

    2. I haven’t felt any ill effects at all after the AZ vaccine yesterday. I wonder if people react differently to the various types of vaccine being used?

    1. It’s wet here- we’ll see what comes next. When I went shopping yesterday there were lots of empty shelves. My friend on the checkout said it was because people were expecting snow.

      1. If the roads were ploughed and salted, there would be no problem with a bit of snow!

        We had about eight inches of snow last Sunday and Monday – Thursday night, it suddenly warmed up, most of the snow disappeared – yesterday was +12, sunshine – this morning, the first primulas are out in the garden! Happens every year, but it’s always astonishing how quickly they appear.

        1. It’s so infrequent in this country that it always catches us out. Living on a steep hill as we do, we have to be prepared to not use our cars for up to 10 days as no council snowploughs come this way. We and the neighbours have a grit bin but it’s a do-it-yourself job. We’re not so young now, so we tend to let younger neighbours do their bit first.

        2. The number of pot holes in our roads up here make it look like they’ve been ploughed

          1. Drove on a road in South Sudan some years ago, where the potholes through the tarmac were so big that everybody drove in the ditches either side of the road. Often both ways in the one ditch, too. “Is that cloud of dust ahead of us a truck going this way or the other way?”

  22. Today’s DT Leader:

    EU leaders are indulging in vaccine rows the continent cannot afford

    This wrangling is not only unseemly, but is in danger of damaging trust in the immunisation process itself.

    In the middle of such vast progress in vaccine development, it is frustrating that EU leaders continue to play politics on such a sensitive subject. Two separate issues are being conflated, perhaps deliberately. One is supply: the European Commission has seen fit to publish its contract with AstraZeneca in an opportunistic bid to redirect supplies from the UK; it has also announced export controls, including towards Northern Ireland in contravention of the Withdrawal Agreement.

    The other is efficacy: the European Medicines Agency has authorised use of AstraZeneca’s jab for all Europeans over 18, but the Germans have chosen not to recommend it for the over-65s. In a particularly inappropriate intervention, Emmanuel Macron has gone even further. He has questioned the UK’s vaccine strategy and described AstraZeneca’s jab as “quasi-ineffective” on people older than 65. AstraZeneca naturally rejects this view, stating that the clinical data demonstrates efficacy in the over-65s.

    This wrangling is not only unseemly, but is in danger of damaging trust in the immunisation process itself. It is astonishing that Mr Macron, of all people, should risk such an outcome. Polls have consistently shown that large numbers of French citizens would refuse to take the vaccine. If Donald Trump had made such comments, he would have been excoriated by Left-wing commentators for jeopardising the fight against the pandemic. Their silence now is telling.

    Given that the EU project is supposedly about solidarity, and projects such as AstraZeneca’s are designed to be of benefit to all of mankind, this is an unseemly row that reflects poorly on European leaders. They would do better to consider their own responsibility for the EU’s vaccines shambles.

    A couple of leading BTL comments:

    Susan Kennedy
    29 Jan 2021 11:31PM
    The whole border controls issue must be a blow to the Irish. For 2 years they’ve been at the big boys table, berating the UK for whatever. Now they are not even told ahead of time that the EU is putting up a hard border. Something we were told during negotiations would be an act of violence. How quickly the irish became irrelevant and expendable.

    Carpe Jugulum
    29 Jan 2021 10:47PM
    Enough really is enough. The EU have put aside any pretence of friendliness and are now openly hostile. Not only hostile but deceptive and irrational. In what reality is a contract between a buyer and a seller invalidated by a subsequent contract between the same seller and a later buyer?

    The UK should look to our own future and now prioritise our friends and potential friends given the fact we are turning into one of the world’s leading vaccine producers.

    AZ and others are obviously commercial companies and are bound by the contracts they have signed but any UK excess should be directed to Commonwealth countries not hostile entities.

    There is also a lesson in the EU vaccine acquisition debacle. The EU bureaucrats, clutching degrees of highly dubious worth have shown their utter ineptitude. We gave the job to highly qualified scientists. THAT is the way forward.

    * * * *

    Quite right, CJ – the EU’s grubby antics will surely encourage vaccine manufacturers to decamp to this country in double-quick time!

  23. Article in today’s DT about ‘Ursula Fond of Lying’. Anyone who presides over a such appalling decisions should be gone, surely?:

    German politicians and media turn on ‘careless’ Ursula von der Leyen over Covid vaccine fiasco

    ‘The commission president can no longer duck the issue’

    By
    Justin Huggler
    BERLIN
    29 January 2021 • 7:33pm

    Ursula von der Leyen was facing German anger at her handling of European Union vaccine orders on Friday.

    There is indignation and dismay across the European Union at a debacle that has left the bloc facing severe shortages.

    But while most member states supported the European Commission in its war of words with AstraZeneca, politicians and newspapers in her native Germany began to point the finger of blame squarely at Mrs von der Leyen.

    “Vaccination is our only way out of the crisis, it has to be a leader’s responsibility. I’m really stunned by how carelessly Ursula von der Leyen has looked after the start of the vaccination over the past few months,” said Carsten Schneider of the centre-Left Social Democrats (SPD).

    “With all the procurement chaos and the mistakes that have been made, the commission president can no longer duck the issue.”

    The party chairman of Angela Merkel’s main coalition partner, Mr Schneider is not someone Mrs von der Leyen can afford to ignore.

    Bild, Germany’s highest-selling newspaper, joined the criticism of Mrs von der Leyen, demanding to know why the EU has been left behind the UK, US and Israel in the vaccination race.

    Noting Mrs von der Leyen had refused its request for an interview, Bild published its questions for her, including “Why did it take so long to agree contracts?” and “Why were no specific delivery dates agreed?”

    Mrs von der Leyen has long been a controversial figure in Germany. While her appointment as European Commission president last year was seen internationally as a triumph for Germany, domestically it was viewed as rather more of a mixed blessing.

    “It brings back memories of her leadership style at the defence ministry,” Mr Kilingbeil said on Friday. Mrs von der Leyen’s tenure as defence minister saw the armed forces so starved of funding that German troops taking part in a Nato exercise had to use broomsticks instead of guns. But she chose to focus instead on initiatives such as creches for soldiers.

    “Instead of backroom politics and a lack of transparency, what we now need from the EU is clarity,” Mr Klingbeil said “All the facts and contracts with the vaccine manufacturers must be put on the table. We cannot be satisfied that Europe is lagging so far behind.”

    In Brussels, the European Commission tried to calm the war of words. “Transparency is needed, not a vaccine war,” Didier Renders, Belgium’s EU commissioner, said.

    “Britain may want to start a vaccine war, but we have a programme of vaccines for European countries and our partners.”

    But around the continent tempers frayed. “EU on the counter-attack, the chaos over vaccines breaks out into open war,” said Italy’s La Stampa daily.

    The rival Corriere della Sera reported the British press was “on a war footing, accusing the EU of wanting to steal vaccines from Britain”.

    I had hoped not to see 🇪🇺 leading the world down the destructive path of vaccine nationalism. Our continent’s entire history of success has been one of open global value chains.

    Carl Bildt, former Swedish prime minister and co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, tweeted: “I had hoped not to see [the EU] leading the world down the destructive path of vaccine nationalism. Our continent’s entire history of success has been one of open global value chains.”

    Spain’s deputy prime minister waded into the row, placing the blame firmly on AstraZeneca and describing it was an example of multinational companies wielding too much power.

    “We are seeing that multinationals and pharmaceutical companies are not complying with their deadlines and commitments,” Pablo Iglesias of the hard-Left Podemos party said. “They are not only putting people’s health and lives at risk, but also the economic recovery of countries.”

    The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte said he regretted the slow start to vaccinations, but added he was more concerned about shortages that have left the Netherlands with only enough vaccine for 2 to 3 per cent of the population.

    “What then? We still have 70 to 90 per cent to go and you need vaccine for that. And the numbers so far have been going backwards more than forward, it seems,” he said.

    One country that came up with an alternative solution to the problem was Hungary, which became the first EU member to approve the Chinese vaccine, agreeing a deal for 5 million doses.

    The move comes just a week after Hungary was the first EU member to buy the Russian vaccine.

    Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, said he would personally choose to be given the Chinese vaccine, as he trusts it more than any of the others.

    Not much sympathy below the line:

    Nom Nom de Nom
    29 Jan 2021 6:30PM
    The message could not be clearer:

    Your investments are not safe in the EU.

    We will also not be buying EU goods in the future, nor will our extensive fleet be replacing vehicles with ones made in the EU.

    JAMES THOMPSON
    29 Jan 2021 6:38PM
    @Nom Nom de Nom

    Don’t blame you, you can’t trust the emissions data they produce/fake. Says it all the writing about the EU has been on the wall for years.

    Conor Deasy
    29 Jan 2021 7:14PM
    Von der Leyen is another example of promoting failed domestic politicians to a cushy retirement job in Brussels. Times like this show why they flopped domestically but strangely end up with even more power to wreak havoc.

    Lee van der PayEUnothing
    29 Jan 2021 6:31PM
    But failure is recognised as success in the European Commission. It’s a prerequisite for the job …..

    Ursula Fond of Lying is the best candidate.

      1. 328905 + up ticks,
        Morning Rik,
        Pay close attention to the answer to that one, we in the UK, have a whole batch to follow suit.

      3. ‘Morning Rik. If anyone was ever in any doubt that the EU is a very expensive rest home for failed politicians…..

    2. 328905+ up ticks,
      Morning HJ,
      James T is right and confirming the message the REAL UKIP with no need of Banksy has been trying to get across for 20 plus years.

      2. Who thought, a mere month after GB left the EU, that things would implode so spectacularly?
        Thanks to the Brussels Bullies, we also now have a respectable reason to kick the Ireland Protocol into touch. I would like to think that our government was Machiavellian enough to foresee this development.
        That’s what I would like to think.

      3. 328905+ up ticks,
        Morning M,
        Been doing so since they scrubbed the Nation Anthem at the pictures.

        Not at our house though & that reminds me must hoist a new one
        the old one seems like it has been
        at Rorkes Drift for a spell.

      4. Yes, it is definitely on the slide, and their vaccine shambles may well prove to be the beginning of the end for some countries.

    4. Even pro EU Aftenposten wrote that Norway should have sorted out it’s own vaccines, rather than rely on supply from the EU. A small, rich country, we should have been like Bahrain and we’d all be vaccinated by now.

    5. Did you make up the name Ursula Fond o’ Lyin or is it from the comments?
      It’s pure genius anyway.

  24. Beautiful day, magnificent sunrise earlier, shining pink & orange on the snowy hills across the valley. Warmed up a tad, to -21C.

  25. 328905+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Looks like the political Glingons are for an air lift to brussels,
    a submissive knee bender if ever was.

    If the peoples of these Isles want to help out the peoples of the 20 plus nations which I am in no doubt they would, then approach that country’s leader individually, thereby giving no credence to the brussels brigade which in the majority many peoples are wishing it to implode.

    Helping out the EU with vaccines might persuade it to trade more fairly.

    On par with support the lab/lib/con coalition party as is and play your part in successfully bringing down a Nation.

    You don’t make pets of crocodiles.

      1. 328905+ up ticks,
        Morning FA,
        Then ALL the political ingredients
        are in place, part & parcel of the limited damage to brussels
        campaign being run since being triggered on the 24/6/2016.

    1. Perhaps Half-cock should concentrate on Covid first? I doubt he can cope with one ball in the air at any one time let alone 2 or 3!

      1. He should certainly concentrate on this country first.
        Mind you, I would prefer someone less like an ineffectual prefect in charge of the Health Dept.

      2. Yo SB

        If he had spherical in a manly place, we would not be in the mess that we are today

    3. His Twatter profile states he is an actor, singer and director. He obviously neglected to mention all his medical expertise in epidemics and pandemics.

        2. My fault, I should have made it clear I was referring to Tim McArthur.
          Let’s not start on the qualifications of Handoncock.

      2. It’s just a list. Everything on the list has been highlighted by Nottlers. We routinely comment on areas we have not much studied, or of which we have little actual experience.
        More seriously, none of us are professionally trained and experienced comedians and punsters. It doesn’t to seem to stop us floundering away.

        1. So, what you’re saying (© Cathy Newman) is, that there’s a red herring in every comment.

          1. Possibly. I’ll mull it over. In my case every attempt at a joke overlays depths of serious meaning, I’ll have you know.

          2. Possibly. I’ll mull it over. In my case every attempt at a joke overlays depths of serious meaning.

          3. I’m sardin’ with you on that. It’s why many of my jokes go over like lead balloons.

        2. The difference is people like McArthur believe they have serious views worthy of a Twatter post, another Lineker or Geldof perhaps. The classic listen to me I’m a celebrity mentality.
          We Nottlers know however we are just budding comedians who express views to help put the world to rights.

    4. A deeply partisan, anti Tory rant there.

      I fail to see how Boris missing cabinet meetings is a problem. He has proxies – endless proxies.

      Cummings – depending on your perspective – did nothing wrong and bluntly, no one cares apart form those fanatically invested in hating him.

      No one ignored asymptomatic transmission. This is why his daft demands for more lock up and more masks is silly. The virus isn’t going anywhere. It will be there when this ends. You could vaccinate the entire population – to get herd immunity (which this bloke derides) and people will still die. In fact, 12,000 odd a week will die.

      I really don’t know what people expect. From the outset we’ll always end up at the same point: we cannot carry on like this.

      The Nightingale hospitals were barely used, we cannot – CANNOT close our airports. Our population is simply too big. The care homes issues and PPE is simply more biased drivel. He ignores that Labour tried the same thing and, more that monolithic NHS trusts contorl this, not individual hospitals.

      He wants to blame the government rather than accept that the state machine is incompetent.

  28. From BTL

    Letters: Helping out the EU with vaccines might persuade it to trade more fairly

    Action Stations: Action Stations: Action Stations:

    All hands to Action Stations

    Arial Porcine Squadron incoming

    Arial Porcine Squadron incoming

    1. It does, but only temporarily. However as the Soviet system lasted 70 years, that time scale would see us all out. I want to be around to gloat.

      1. #MeToo – that’s the trouble with we old farts, Anne, we insist on getting our pound of flesh and, Bigod, it’s gotta hurt the other side.

        1. I wondered why that was lodged in my brain; it always seems appropriate when people attempt the appeasement route of solving problems. Thank you for posting, I prefer the Kingston Trio’s version, it touched me and made me tear up.

  30. Good morning, everyone. Just walked the Springer for an hour in the pouring rain.She loved it. Me? Not so much.

      1. How does anyone know how far they’ve walked? The other day, I met a lass with 3 small dogs, including an arthritic, elderly chihuahua. She claimed they were finishing a 5 mile walk. How did she know?

        1. Some step measuring device in the mobile phone?

          Perhaps the chihuahua wasn’t arthritic when she left home….

        2. She probably measured it by the time she was taking. So a slow walk with elderly dogs……… maybe she went half a mile.

        3. Moh is very particular about steps , yards and miles .. A couple of miles is nearly fine with me , then hip really aches.

          I am the tortoise , he is the hare … He has an app on his phone…

          2. Morning Sue,

            I am never in a hurry these days , I don’t have to rush along .. I did that a couple of years ago in Weymouth , we were speedwalking in the harbour area , and I tripped on a dodgy bit of kerb, fell flat , and hit my head on a car bumper , huge bruise, and gash above my eye, A+E visit , and ever since then I have been cautious and wary of obstacles .

          4. Morning OB

            Scar above my rt eyebrow, and I had bruises everywhere, legs knees , face . I was very lucky, but haven’t felt the same about walking rapidly since .

          5. Hmm… don’t be in too much of a hurry!
            Anyhow, I actually meant the car… ! ;-))

          7. After a couple of visits to Specsavers, you’ll be able to see cars when they are in your way.

            ‘Morning, Belle.

          8. Ooh! How horrible Belle! And such a shock! The embarrassment of being in public as well! Such an easy thing to happen but the aftermath can be quite gruelling. Take care and ambling is good!

          10. You already have a ‘don’t mess with me’ expression even at three, Anne! Excellent. I love the ruched swimming cossie, I remember those.

          11. My parents used to dread going home at the end of the day because I used to throw stonking scenes.
            Thinking back, it’s a wonder I survived to adulthood. My parents showed great forbearance.

          12. I am amazed that so many of us survive to adulthood. I am also surprised that the parents survive this test of their endurance. I used to take our two little boys (aged probably 18 months and three and a half years) down to the playground at Newnham. In order to get the elder back to the car I had to sling him over my left shoulder in a fireman’s lift with my left arm curved over his legs to keep him in place whilst he yelled and tried to beat on my back with his fists. Whilst this was going on I was also pushing the buggy containing the 18 month old with my right hand. Every day was an exhausting battle of wills.

          16. I always got crabs in Weymouth. I think I had better rephrase that: when my mother and I used to sail into Weymouth we always lashed alongside the town quay and bought fresh crabs from the fishermen. Nobody in the world dressed a crab as deliciously as my dear old mum did but Caroline is getting quite near. (They always say a man should choose a girl with his mother’s best qualities and none of her worst ones if he wants a happy marriage.)

          19. I always got crabs in Weymouth. I think I had better rephrase that: when my mother and I used to sail into Weymouth we always lashed alongside the town quay and bought fresh crabs from the fishermen. Nobody in the world dressed a crab as deliciously as my dear old mum did but Caroline is getting quite near. (They always say a man should choose a girl with his mother’s best qualities and none of her worst ones if he wants a happy marriage.)

          20. I always got crabs in Weymouth. I think I had better rephrase that: when my mother and I used to sail into Weymouth we always lashed alongside the town quay and bought fresh crabs from the fishermen. Nobody in the world dressed a crab as deliciously as my dear old mum did but Caroline is getting quite near. (They always say a man should choose a girl with his mother’s best qualities and none of her worst ones if he wants a happy marriage.)

          21. Gorgeous pic , how cute , and I can see the old pier in the background . I’ll bet you haven’t changed a bit .

            Those were the summer days when the weather was predictable .

        5. There are several apps for the phone that can do this – or various watches, GPS receivers etc. I track my walks with a GPS watch. There are snags though – apparently some of the simpler trackers can be fooled into thinking you are walking when you eat cake quickly!

        6. My phone can tell me if I was to look at the appropriate app. It’s a hand-me-down from my son. It counts steps but it also uses the GPS.

      1. What you usually see is his/her* performance face. We might not agree with his/her politics, but underneath he/she is as hard as nails.
        I do think that we should maybe accept people as they are. On the other hand, I do not. I see this as a personal failing. I find it hard to accept homosexuals and transvestites and “similar”. Ignoring the religious aspects, I think that these people are bad for society.
        Cognitive dissonance, c’est moi, sweetie.

        * his/her preferred mode of reference.

          1. Even so. I’m not sure of the high heels. However, after the run he recuperates in an ice bath!

      1. 328905+ up ticks,
        Morning P,
        Sad to say it is in the hands of the governance elites as in what course the party’s take.

        Considering the governance party’s were pro eu up until the 24/6/2016 result I can quite well see the relief of brussels being on the cards.

  33. Petitions debate on grooming gangs scheduled for 3 February 2021

    Let the kiddy-fiddler whitewash commence

    1. I’m sure Shameless Chuckmabutty has enough time (and whitewash) on her hands to ‘fulfil the task’.

        1. It is not much fun taking a small white dog with short legs for a walk in this weather, it is into the shower with her every time we return; the green is so squelchy and there are large pools forming in the hollows. Our common stream which runs through the village has burst its banks and three roads out were impassable last week. The link below refers to the common stream which runs past and through other villages along its banks.
          https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B015HH66TE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

          1. So, I’ve just ordered it; arriving Monday. I have a stack of books yet to read, so I won’t get round to it for a while. I’m anticipating something like the excellent “Sarum”, which I received as a birthday present in German from my jogging partner. The irony is, that I lived near Salisbury for 5 years & never heard of the world-famous book, only to read it for the first time in a foreign language.

            Thanks for the reco.

  35. Good morning, my friends

    The “Deal” was a disaster.

    The Northern Ireland issue was not resolved and, as expected and as predicted the EU would do its best to exploit this.

    Yesterday – within weeks of signing the agreement – they were up to dishonest treachery when they made an abortive attempt to close the border between Ireland and the North.

    Mogg, Farage, Francois, Baker – all the so-called champions of Brexit – were not as perceptive as many of us here on the Nottlers’ forum who saw immediately that the EU could not be trusted and would cheat at the very first opportunity. We have been proved completely right.

    And what about fishing? Will the fishermen ever regain their waters?

    And the City – will the EU do its best to destroy that.

    Does anybody who claims to have any judgement at all – even the most ardent remainer – still have any respect for the EU? Why on earth did anyone ever trust them?

    1. Good morning Rastus! The EU was a disaster not the deal. Mogg and Farage were well aware of the mentality of the scheming, devious rats with whom we “negotiated” and knew very well that they would eventually shoot themselves in both feet if we gave them enough rope (excuse mixed metaphors) That this ridiculous situation has occurred so soon comes as no surprise to anyone with half a brain cell, and is absolutely nothing to do with the UK. The entire blame lies with the disgusting, cheating b*****ds in the Berlaymont and I hope this sinks the whole blooming lot of them!

      1. Good morning, Sue

        Yes, I agree with you up to a point (as Mr Salter said to the boss of the Daily Beast).

        I smelt a very pongy and putrid rat when slime-ball Gove went into the fray a day or two before the ‘deal’ was struck. It was clear that he was about to sell out N. Ireland to get a ‘deal.’

        My great shock came when Farage, whose commitment to Brexit I had always thought was sincere, declared that the deal was sound before he had had any time to look at it properly. I was disappointed – but not surprised or shocked – that the Conservative Party caved in so easily.

        Our only hope now must be that the EU collapses completely and we can then trade with France, Germany, Italy and the other independent nations as freely as we did before the odious EU came into being. We probably would benefit from a free trade deal – but with no political nonsense – the sort of thing I thought I had voted for in 1975.

        1. When the squealing finally subsides,then maybe the thick-headed, cloth-eared dimwits may have some perception of what the British are all about. It will have taken them over 40 years to realise that we don’t take kindly to being abused, sh*t on, mocked and reprimanded, by jumped up town councillors and that when we get angry, we will respond. On the other hand, they are far too far up their own fundaments and wallowing in their trough to notice, or give a stuff!

          4. And your gentle blend of humour, patriotism, stoicism and absolute pride in your family and achievements make this site a pleasure. I do hope I’m not too vitriolic! Big softy me!

          5. We are slow-boilers but when we do take off it’s no holds barred. We are getting there, is the last piece in the jigsaw the fact thar remainers are uniting with leavers? Whodathunkit possible?

          6. Absolutely pm! Slow to anger, but (hopefully) implacable! I’m sure someone will come up with the poem that encapsulates this feeling – I can’t remember the one!

          7. It was not part of their blood,
            It came to them very late
            With long arrears to make good,
            When the English began to hate.

            They were not easily moved,
            They were icy-willing to wait
            Till every count should be proved,
            Ere the English began to hate.

            Their voices were even and low,
            Their eyes were level and straight.
            There was neither sign nor show,
            When the English began to hate.

            It was not preached to the crowd,
            It was not taught by the State.
            No man spoke it aloud,
            When the English began to hate.

            It was not suddenly bred,
            It will not swiftly abate,
            Through the chill years ahead,
            When Time shall count from the date
            That the English began to hate.

          8. Thank you vw! It sums up exactly the way I feel, and, I have no doubt, a few thousand more British swivel-eyed, fruitcake-eating loons!

          12. Sue – you should say what you really think! I’m so glad I managed to entice you here to speak up and not just vote up!

      2. Good morning, Sue

        Yes, I agree with you up to a point (as Mr Salter said to the boss of the Daily Beast).

        I smelt a very pongy and putrid rat when slime-ball Gove went into the fray a day or two before the ‘deal’ was struck. It was clear that he was about to sell out N. Ireland to get a ‘deal.’

        My great shock came when Farage, whose commitment to Brexit, I had always thought was sincere, declared that the deal was sound before he had had any time to look at it properly. I was disappointed – but not surprised or shocked – that the Conservative Party caved in so easily.

        Our only hope now must be that the EU collapses completely and we can then trade with France, Germany, Italy and the other independent nations as freely as we did before the odious EU came into being. We probably would benefit from a free trade deal – but with no political nonsense – the sort of thing I thought I had voted for in 1975.

      3. “The EU is crumbling at the seams. Now, we’re waking-up and smelling the coffee on the wall”
        — Bill Thomas
        :¬)

          1. Both puzzled by unexpected activity by the MR and me. Aware that “something is wrong…”

    2. 328905+ up ticks,
      Morning R,
      It has only taken twenty plus years to see the REAL UKIP were far from being far right racist, much more like being so far right.
      “any respect for the EU? Why on earth did anyone ever trust them?”

      Because the governance PARTY’s come before the Country, we would have NEVER got into such an odious state as a Nation without that being the order of the day when voting.

    3. Multiple things have happened in a short space of time that the EU cannot cope with: It’s lost a massive amount of money, the UK has left, a pandemic has hit and it has had to react quickly. It was designed like a cancer – to grow, slowly infiltrating and destroying healthy tissue.

      It cannot react quickly to anything. It’s designed to create 500,000 page documents – and then fiddle them when those become annoying to it doing what it wants – not buying vaccines. That involves the market, and it doens’t understand markets except that it wants to destroy them.

      It’s only recourse to this implacable enemy of capitalism and free markets is to stop them functioning at any cost.

  36. We could always send some vaccines over to France in inflatable dinghies with the needle tips uncovered.

    1. That was my thought after the camp fire report, Bob.
      There must be very many inflatables in store in Kent – give the buggers free access to them and directions towards south, and send them away – since they don’t seem to like it in the UK, free accommodation and messing not being good enough and all that.
      Had similar in NOrway some years ago: the accommodation wasn’t good enough, not enough meat in the free meals, wifi too slow, but to the city too expensive, bla bla bla. Some even paid to fly themselves home to the land they’d refugeed from! THus, pretty well all sympathy for the buggers was washed away. I wonder how they’d like it when the temperature outside warms up to -15C? Is this “white priviledge” too?

      1. When they started the fire, it should have been reported, but not put out. Should anyone have tried to leave, the hoses are turned on them – unless they’re on fire.

        The police’s only role should have been to ensure they don’t get out, and to savagely beat any of the criminals who try to.

        Then we simply stop feeding them and put a jammer over the place. No comms in or out, no food, no shelter. They’re not wanted here, not welcome here. These are illegal gimmigrants. Not refugees, not migrants. Criminals.

          1. Water cannons are dangerous.
            All police equipment seems to be intended to inflict the maximum damage up to and including death. Guns, rubber bullets, tasers, CS gas, water cannons, steel batons, boots and knees.
            Why are such things needed?

          3. But, but, they are only used on innocent citizens demonstrating for freedom, not on BLM terrorists, or bottle throwing antifa rentamobs (subsidised by the government))

          5. Afternoon Spikey.

            If that was the case there would be no need for a police force or law courts.

        2. ….and from their acts of arson it can be seen that they are unwilling to obey the laws of this country.

        3. I’m sure the police would save any refugee grannies by hurling them into the back of a van.

          1. That is now the standard approach. Having knocked a person down and jumped on them, the police then throw them into the back of a van. I do not suppose that they even address them politely as “sir” or “madam”.

  37. https://worldfreedomalliance.org/
    A dangerous organisation of cranks, conspiracy theorists and extremists. Why, some of them are even advocating going out without a mask! Others are abusing the education so generously granted to them to presume that they know better than Klaus Schwab. Avoid this website at all costs!

  38. From https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-covid-astrazeneca-vaccine-lockdown-end-johnson/
    Coronavirus latest news: EU backtracks on ‘misjudged’ controls for NI amid vaccine row
    The EU has backtracked on a decision to temporarily override part of the Brexit deal amid an ongoing row over vaccine supplies.

    Boris Johnson had warned European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen of his “grave concerns” over Brussels’ move to invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol to stop the unimpeded flow of jabs from the bloc into the region on Friday.

    EU sources said the move had been a “misjudgment”, as the European Commission U-turned to say it is “not triggering the safeguard clause” to ensure the protocol is “unaffected”.

    The move to impinge on the protocol, which blindsided both the UK and Ireland and provoked condemnation from across the political spectrum, came as the bloc is embroiled in a row with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca over shortfalls in the delivery of jabs.

    Neither the UK PM or the Irish Taoiseach was informed of Brussels’ intention to invoke Article 16 of the protocol ahead of time, it is understood.

    Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland First Minister, has urged Boris Johnson to replace the protocol after the fiasco.

    She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Brussels’ threat on Friday was an “absolutely incredible act of hostility towards those of us in Northern Ireland”, adding: “It’s absolutely disgraceful and I have to say the Prime Minister now needs to act very quickly to deal with the real trade flows that are being disrupted between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”

    The protocol, which is part of the Withdrawal Agreement, is designed to allow the free movement of goods from the EU into Northern Ireland, and prevent the need for a hard border on the island of Ireland.

    EU criticism grows over vaccine row
    Spanish foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez-Laya told BBC Newsnight on Friday the EU’s triggering of the Article 16 was “an accident”.

    But the bloc has continued to warn of further action, saying: “Should transits of vaccines and active substances toward third countries be abused to circumvent the effects of the authorisation system, the EU will consider using all the instruments at its disposal.”

    Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney said “lessons should be learned” and warned the protocol “is not something to be tampered with lightly, it’s an essential, hard-won compromise, protecting peace and trade for many”.

    The EU had sought to justify the measure as being needed to prevent Northern Ireland being used as a back door to move coronavirus vaccines from the bloc into the UK, “due to a lack of supply threatening to disturb the orderly implementation of the vaccination campaigns in the member states”.

    Regardless of the U-turn, French President Emmanuel Macron backed the EU seeking to “control” vaccine exports as he raised questions about a lack of doses being delivered by Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca.

    “It should be controlled because there is questionable behaviour and we will be receiving fewer deliveries that do not honour the contractual engagements agreed,” he said in an interview with media, including the Guardian.

    1. IMHO the EU’s actions and ‘excuse’ resemble someone saying ‘we struggled and the gun went off,’ after killing someone.

    2. The EU is simply a criminal enterprise run by thieves and fools. The free nation has proved more effective than the lumbering leviathan. It so desperately wanted us to fail at everything to prove it’s superiority and at the first hurdle has collapsed and shown what sensible people all knew anyway: that the EU is a pathetic, corpulent thug, frightened and lashing out ‘using any instrument at i’s disposal’ regardless of legality.

      1. 328905+ up ticks,
        Morning W,
        It has been in a state of treachery &
        anti UK for years so why the sudden condemnation now ?
        Many of us were being castigated
        for belonging to a party that has been pointing out the odious facts regarding the eu for years.

    3. Too late, Matey.
      The ‘Irish Protocol’ has been exposed as the C21 version of flapping a piece of paper at Heston Aerodrome.

    4. The betrayal of Northern Ireland was, I am sure, augmented and initiated when Gove went into the fray a couple of days before the disastrous ‘deal’ was struck. Johnson should have stood firm on fishing and the Irish border and the fact that he did not do so is going to cause many more problems over the years until the EU collapses completely and ceases to exist.

    1. Living forever is one thing; but living forever looking like an exhumed cadaver (like Keef) is another thing altogether.

  40. Interesting trip to the market today. It is compulsory to wear a mask and follow a one-way system and police are constantly patrolling.

    There were about 20 protesters, mostly sans masque, objecting to curfews, masks and other restrictions on liberty.

    There were significant numbers of police, certainly sufficient to break up the protest, but they did not intervene.

    Lots of people were agreeing with the protesters, but retaining their own masks.

    I get the feeling that the tide might be changing.

    1. Toy Boy is up against it. His interior minister has problems with #moiaussi; Marine Le Pen is vying with him in the polls; the Gilets Jaunes haven’t gone away…. Many of his MPs have defected from his En Marche party. His handling of the plague has many critics. There is a paucity of vaccine. The MR’s Loopy Friend has received an appointment for his first jab in May 2021…..

      The police are unpopular and, I suspect, are keeping a lower profile…

      Apart from that….

      1. Oddly enough, we knew one of the protesters, a bit of a beatnik type that we often see around town and chat to at summer night markets. An absolute screaming lefty and general all round protester, but someone I would normally have thought might be pro masque, to protect the workers.

        1. I think with these lefty types it is always ‘me first’ and he finds the masks an imposition on his freedom (which they are). Protecting the workers – a concept he exploits to draw attention to himself – is just further down his list of priorities. At this moment is time. Protesting about what is going on is also being exploited for that reason.

          1. He’s a perennial protestor, certainly, but from what I’ve seen of the chap he tends to keep himself to himself and even at protests he’s not a shouter, merely handing out leaflets and speaking pleasantly to anyone who speaks to him.

            He certainly doesn’t seem to be a “me first” type at all.

            He only started speaking to us when I acknowledged him at one of the marchés nocturne, where he usually eats alone.

      2. Apart from that, he’s doing really well?? This is the same creep who blocked the export of PPE when the virus got going. I wasn’t going to mention the war, but I feel obliged to point out that he conveniently ignores the immense sacrifice of British and Commonwealth troops (amongst others) who played their full part in ridding his country of the Krauts. He obviously has a very short memory, and absolutely no sense of history. Yet another grubby little ‘me first’ politician.

      3. Apart from that, he’s doing really well?? This is the same creep who blocked the export of PPE when the virus got going. I wasn’t going to mention the war, but I feel obliged to point out that he conveniently ignores the immense sacrifice of British and Commonwealth troops (amongst others) who played their full part in ridding his country of the Krauts. He obviously has a very short memory, and absolutely no sense of history. Yet another grubby little ‘me first’ politician.

    2. How wonderful. I do hope you’re right.

      We’ve just heard from our daughter that grand-daughter, who’d started at Birmingham University in September, is conflicted by the news from the U.K. (she’s at home in Dubai) and wondering about coming back when eventually allowed. She will have to quarantine for 10 days at the moment but it’s after that she’s concerned about. Will she be alone in her accommodation- and that would be awful, as most of the course is now online, so there would be little or no social interaction at all. It’s a dreadful situation for many of the students. This government has a lot to answer for

      Edit : Btw all four of them have been vaccinated.

      1. She should stay where she is and not commit to university until they offer better value for her money.

        It’s a good opportunity for the government to withdraw funding from a lot of the “new” universities unless they can offer practical skills courses, as they used to when they were tertiary colleges.

          1. Goes to show how easily a country goes from a beacon of civilisation, democracy and tolerance to a Fascist / Nazi state almost in the twinkling of an eye. One now has a greater understanding of how it all went so badly for Germany in the 1930s.

      2. Normally our local police are really hot on mask wearers, that was one reason why the lack of any reaction was so surprising.

  41. Oof,Dexy
    We’ve bankrupted your businesses
    And wrecked your Christmas feast,
    But we’ve got to pull together
    To defeat this rona beast,
    And by now you should have realised:
    Your lives ain’t owned but leased,
    So take your jab and board the train
    For resettlement in the East.

  42. The headline I would love to see in the MSM and on the BBC:

    Dominic Grieve, Hilary Benn, Kenneth Clarke, Lord Adonis (who the f… is he?), Michael Heseltine and Anna Soubry all admit that the EU is a tyrannical, dishonest, treacherous and despotic organisation and sincerely apologise for the fact that they were instrumental in causing all the delays to leaving it that their disgraceful behaviour has caused.

    However I shall never see it. It takes a far greater person than any of these people is to admit that they are wrong.

    1. …and the Poison Dwarf, Hammond, Gauke, Letwin, Greening, Stewart, Fatty Soames, Spelman..it’s a long and sordid list. All strangely silent now.

      Edit – Grieve removed, one was more than enough…

      1. Good afternoon, Bigbum

        My list was not very exhaustive and there were serious omissions in it – but I agree entirely with your additions.

    2. 328905+ up ticks,
      R,
      “They” did NOT get there under their own steam “they” in many recurring cases were voted for time & again, through thick & thin,
      mass treachery, mass paedophilia, mass mayhem, “they” & their ilk were returned to power under the evil encapsulating cover of ” the party” comes first & foremost in ALL things regardless of consequence.

  43. We watched “The Dig” last night. Apart from a stupid, unnecessary sub-plot involving some totty who always has her mouth open when in repose – it was a jolly good film. The two leads were excellent and convincing, as was the very talented Monica Dolan who played Fiennes’s wife.

    Worth a couple of hours on a wet day.

    1. Thanks Bill, we are viewing this evening. Another I can recommend – The Light Between Oceans (iPlayer). We both stayed awake, so it must have been good.

      1. Have you read All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr? I strongly recommend it.

      2. We watched that. Quite disappointing. A really tragic story beautifully told but mangled at the end in order to make it softer and happier.

    3. Over recent days I’ve watched ‘Noah’ and ‘The Revenant’; both films are comparatively short stories stretched over almost three hours of film.

      In the case of ‘Noah’ it was unsurprisingly a bit of a CGI-fest; ‘The Revenant’ was nature in all it’s glory.

    4. We enjoyed The Dig, not sure what relevance the sub-plot had as their characters had no part of the original story. Otherwise I thought it was excellent.

      1. I have to confess to being wrong – Peggy Piggott was part of the original dig and she certainly led an interesting life, it was the Johnny Flynn character that was simply introduced in the film for a bit of romantic interest.

        1. Quite.

          But Peggy Pigott was NOT the daft totty portrayed by a woman who always plays herself – a daft totty.

          1. Indeed not, she was an incredible archaeologist in her own right. I don’t know why film makers are so intent on introducing romantic subplots into films which are more often than not simply tedious and irrelevant. It’s usually the time to go and make a cup of tea.

    5. We watched it last night and it was really good. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Ralph Fiennes was particularly good.

    6. Monica Dolan played a very realistic, extremely scary and highly convincing Rose West in Appropriate Adult.

    7. It just shews how typical it is that the fat fuck from Ipswich Museum, seriously stuck his oar in to claim the glory from Basil Brown.

    1. Verey interesting because on the Al Jazeera news lunchtime they stated that the EU has said that exports of all vaccines outside the EU are banned.

  45. While we are enjoying having a go at the French, there is a sordid, sex scandal brewing involving lots of famous people and many in powerful positions.

    There are claims of lots of underage sex.

    One of the people “demanding” action, is Toy Boy’s former teacher – who seduced him when he was at her school ad under her care.

    You have to smile.

  46. I’m not holding my breath…

    Dear xxx,
    You recently signed the petition “Release the Home Office’s Grooming Gang Review in full”:
    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300239
    The Petitions Committee has rescheduled the debate on this petition for Wednesday 3 February. MPs will debate e-petitions 300239 and 327566, relating to grooming gangs.
    Tom Hunt MP, a member of the Petitions Committee, will lead the debate. The Government will send a Minister to respond.
    This debate was originally postponed due to the closure of Westminster Hall, and will now take place in the main House of Commons Chamber on the afternoon of Wednesday 3 February, after business relating to statutory instruments.
    Watch the debate (following business relating to statutory instruments, Wednesday 3 February): https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/a6ac5191-f789-42ba-a63f-71e9c65ffbb6
    Read the debate transcript (available shortly after the conclusion of the debate): https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-02-03

    1. On past performance, the politicians will agree to ‘debate’ but other than agreeing that it should be debated will carry on regardless.

      1. That’ll lead to even more lumps shoved under the political classes carpets, i assume there are many more of the Sick SOBs who have indulged in the filthy crime of abusing minors.
        There is no excuse for covering it up unless it might discloses others who have partaken in this filth.
        Life imprisonment is far too good for any of the perpetrators.

        2. That’s why, Eddy, I advocate hanging for murder AND rape. ‘cos that is what it is, in the case of these minors.

  47. Former high court judge to take over Dawn Sturgess inquest. 30 January 2021.

    The retired high court judge Lady Heather Hallett is to take over the inquest of Dawn Sturgess, who died in the Wiltshire novichok poisonings, the Guardian has learned.

    Hallett will preside over what will be a high-profile and politically sensitive hearing after Sturgess’s family successfully challenged the way a local coroner had planned to limit the scope of the inquest.

    It’s obviously proved impossible to either bribe or intimidate the local coroner so they’ve brought in a retired apparatchik to shut the whole thing down!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/29/former-high-court-judge-to-take-over-dawn-sturgess-inquest

      1. It’s amazing how much of Government in the UK is held in secret! Even the most innocuous subjects are discussed in closed session!

        2. In Norway, keeping stuff secret is the exception, and has to be justified. Otherwise, it’s open to the citizenry. Even things like the names of the applicants to government or council jobs.

          2. Inquests, in normal circumstances, are open to the public. Reports can be obtained from the Coroner’s Office (England and Wales) after the event.

            I suspect that televising would be a) expensive and b) encourage a lot of grandstanding.

            The Procurator Fiscal, in Scotland, does not conduct his/her investigations in public but may call for a Fatal Accident Inquiry, which would be held in public.

    2. Hmm, the lack of English Grammar detracts somewhat from the thrust of the message.

      The first thing that struck was the clumsy construct of ‘a Anthony…’

          1. Given some of the posts I routinely see here, including some made by some of your upvoters, yes.

          2. What, you thought your joke was funny or that some of the upvoters seriously support the mail-bombing of vaccine producers?

            Either way, it shows you up for what you are.

          3. I have little doubt that in the coming weeks some of the more batshit crazy people who post here, will be making claims about this having been a black flag operation and / or generally being sympathetic to the alleged mail bomber.

            However, the fact that my post was accompanied by a smiley face should have altered you to the fact that it was meant in jest. i couldn’t less whether or not you think it funny because you and your sad obsession with me are an utter irrelevance.

          4. Ooh! Temper, temper! And that conceit! I respond to very few of your idiotic pseudo-liberal messages these days but to suggest that on the rare occasions that I do it’s a sign of obsession really does demonstrate how unhinged you’ve become in recent months.

          5. Uh,oh, here he goes again, “…my post was accompanied by a smiley face should have altered you…” altered you to my way of thinking or should you, having allowed predictive text to rule you life, at least check it before posting. I suppose that there is no cure for lazy.

          6. Actually I suffer from both dyslexia and crap typing. But keep up the ignorance; posted any calls for piano wire and lamp posts lately?

  49. This past week on some of the news channels the clips showed hundreds of people arriving back into the UK from the middle east and Africa. No one checking their right of entry checking for Covid. WTF is actually going on, people are arrested for throwing snow balls and then this. Does our lunatic government really and seriously expect all of these people to self isolate for 14 days ? If they do, they are making a complete and utter farce of the whole raft of safety regulations.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/25/why-are-people-still-flying-into-the-uk-despite-covid-rules

    1. The problem really is that the government doesn’t actually ‘run’ the country – the Civil Service does, especially the Home Office. Ministers can’t run their entire departments, so ‘policy decisions’ are then ‘interpreted’ by the top civil servants, whereby via each level downwards of proverbial Chinese whispers, those ‘policies’ get diluted, changed or even binned. They effectively do as they please, as the only people the minister can sack is the top civil servant reporting to them.

      I had a ‘frank discussion’ with a leftist on another forum about why are manegerial level civil servants required at all if every decision must be from a minister. They didn’t have an answer, knowing full well that the vast majority of decisions – essentially ‘policy making and putting into action’ is via instructions from other civil servants with no reference to ministers.

      Imagine how many civil servants would need to be sacked (especially at the Home Office [or whoever is ‘responsible’ for Border security]) because of their regular failing to implement policy, etc. They’d be hardly anyone left.

      1. The problem really is that the government doesn’t actually ‘run’ the country – the Civil Service does,
        Unfortunately Andy this is something that has been apparent for many years. There were eve comedy programmes on TV about it, that shows how serious this really is.
        With out the ‘advice’ of their masters in Whitehall how can any person for instance the Housing secretary suddenly and over night become the secretary for Transport.

    3. I’m still getting my head round the Grauniad having a comedy writer. Risible, yes; funny, I’ll get back to you.

    2. Best Beloved has taken out about 500 grams of oxcheek and 350 grams of kidney. Having quizzed her, she reckons to get 3 – 4, 2 person, Kate and Sidneys out of that. She’s a good cook.

    1. The same happened with MIL. She died on November 1st but we were charged for her room for the whole month, just like the agreement with the home said.

      The odds on that room remaining empty for most of the month are not very high so no doubt they made a nice profit.

        1. Well she could have given up the day before I suppose.

          It was something that we noticed when we signed the contract and received the “standard practice ” excuse.

          Not that it really mattered, she had received exemplary care when she was there and a few thousand more was neither here nor there – especially since an annuity was paying most of the fees.

    3. Send them a bill for the use of wheelchair – even if no-one uses it. £500 per day.

    2. Seem to remember a similar study conducted into SARS-1 by the Japanese RIKEN Tsukuba Research Institute. Three rhesus monkeys were exposed to the infection and closely monitored over a period of one week.

      One went blind, one went deaf, and one was struck dumb…

    3. A brilliant video from the sort of excellent doctor we could do with in the UK. To be honest, I’m suprised that YouTube hasn’t deleted some of her COVID-19 related videos or even deleted her channel entirely, given she’s pushing back hard (but fairly and – unlike many – with the science to back her up and without any political agenda) on the claims made by those currently in charge of the medical/public sector response to COVID.

      It also gives credence to the claims about what happened with the pandemic that wasn’t (#2) in 2010/11 – Swine flu, given there seems to be a distinct pattern of slapdash science and political & economic power agendas at work in both of those and our response to COVID-19.

      It doesn’t come as much of a surprise to me (in terms of the agenda stuff and how scientists aren’t thorough enough in their work more often than most people realise), given I’ve been dealing with scientists, clinicians, management and politicians throughout my career as an engineer. The unfortunate thing for us is that many of them who normally would have different agendas now are all pulling in the same direction, helped this time (unlike in 2002/3 and 2010/11) from a very naive, grateful sensationalist or similarly-mided mainstream media.

      BTW – she can be my doctor any time. 🙂

      1. As far as we can ascertain the Astra Zeneca concoction is a conventional vaccine. It has been rushed and has not been tested to the full extent as were other vaccines, many of which proved dangerous.

        The Pfizer and Moderna concoctions do not fall within the definition of a vaccine. These are artificial genetic modulation implants. Immunologists have described them as ‘operating systems’ and say they will cancel the immune system and infect every cell in the body. Others have described the application of such therapies as genocide and predict many will die.

        It is clear that the narrative of vaccinations for all is driven by those with financial interests in pharmaceutical companies and globalist bankers. The patents for many drugs are running out and the Pharma companies and investors need to establish new money streams.

  56. It would be dangerous and foolish to try and help out the EU with vaccines as Charles Moore suggests.

    Does he not understand that a good deed is never forgiven? Remember that the French have never forgiven the British for saving them from Hitler and de Gaulle tried to get his own back by blocking British entry to the Common Market.

    The irony of course is that he did get his revenge – but not quite in the way he planned: his revenge came when Heath took us in to it but by then de Gaulle had died.

    He will be gloating in his grave that it will be at least ten years after the referendum before the fishermen get their fishing waters back.

      1. They do not want to be British – they come here because they want to live in Britain – with all its infrastructure built already. Flood here, use violence to force their rule – and they have a place already for them.

      2. 328905+ up ticks,
        Afternoon Anne,
        Lotta,lotta scope there, the whole world, once they set foot for instance on Dover soil then that is the first short step towards the governance coalition party claiming them as British.

    3. 328905+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Are those seated at the table an example of old Brits Og ?

      Courtesy of the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration coalition party &
      supporting members, if not now they will be considered the norm. in the very near future.

    4. So, deport them all back to their original shiteholes to practise their ‘Sharia’ law – illegal in UK.

      1. 328947+ up ticks,
        Morning NtN,
        I do get the distinct impression that the governance party’s & supporting cast are not on our side, how many members are resident in parliament within reach of an instruction manual resting between the two dispatch boxes ( a ticket to lie to non believers) and halal on the parliamentary canteen menu ?

        In England we seem to have morphed into a one armed tribe with the other stitched up the back.

      1. However the luvvies at the BBC are feathering their nests by transferring assets to businesses that can be separately and easily privatised.
        Obvious example is Britbox. The licence payers (aka “mugs”) paid for many of these programmes to be made years ago.

    4. That Telegraph ‘article’ today about the now deceased Sir Humphrey being the real power in No.10 during Dave’s time as PM doesn’t exactly make him look great either.

    5. So what happened to Dodgy Dave’s scepticism during his pathetic sham of a ‘renegotiation’ with the EU?

      What a pillock.

    6. The same one who was sooooooo eager to leave that he said he’d trigger it if it was a LEAVE vote? – – The one who then walked away? Mr Trustworthy?

    7. The same one who was sooooooo eager to leave that he said he’d trigger it if it was a LEAVE vote? – – The one who then walked away? Mr Trustworthy?

    1. I assumed [yes, I know] that the leader of Folkestone council would be some pinko LimpDumb or Green, but to my amazement [and despair] he claims to be a Conservative!

      1. Folkestone and Dover are very down to earth places. I love Folkestone, it has a very nice beach. There is an arty-farty quarter, but I think a lot of ex service people live round there.

      4. This daft, inept bint took office in July 2019 – over 18 months ago. She promised, at that time, to stop the illegals and deport them.

        None of the rubber boatists are asylum seekers. They are ILLEGAL ECONOMIC MIGRANTS seeking to sponge on the UK’s ridiculously generous benefit system.

        For Priti Awful to say that she is going to do something this year – that is, two years after she started – shows why she should be sacked immediately.

    3. tripadviser recommends some nice inexpensive hotels in calais, I am sure that they would be welcome/

  65. January is a boring month and I am skint. Think I might try doing Dry
    January. I’ll set up a GoFundMe account and my fellow Nottlers can donate.
    Once I finish this crate of Stella, the bottle of single malt and the
    hand sanitizer, I promise to not drink alcohol for the rest of the
    month.
    Deal?

      1. Not a clot. Narrowing of the artery in groin and just above the knee. Foot still like an ice block.

        Doc referred my blood test from Vascular to Haematology for more tests. The consultant is calling me 11.15 A.M Monday and i also have an appointment with him at 1P.M.

        Still yet to have the CT scan for Vascular but i don’t believe it is going to be good news on the blood front.

        I’ll get me wheelchair. (Not a joke really as it is arriving this afternoon).

        🎵 Always look on the bright side of life 🎵

        1. Clot was a shorthand..{:¬))

          Hope they sort you out on Monday. Get vaccinated while there…

          1. Strangely enough i received a pro forma letter this week from NHS England and NHS Improvement to arrange for the annual flu jab as i am between 50 and 64 years of age.

            Only took them 6 years so there is hope yet. :@(

        3. I really feel concerned for you Phizzee.

          Why are they delaying your scan.. Have you got the means to go privately .. No Nuffield hospital etc ?

          How is Dolly coping with you , and how , more importantly how are you coping , can you stand , have you got a set of crutches , are your neighbours helpful…

          Please be careful , and keep trying to wiggle those toes .

          1. I thank you for your concern. Itis your nature but please don’t worry over me.

            The scan isn’t delayed. The consultant said it would be within 10 days.

            This is another consultant i will be seeing from a different dept’.

            Dolly is fine and i have neighbours i can rely on so no problem there.

            Mornings are worst and i have to hop but as the meds kick in (like now) i can almost walk old normal.

          6. Just a scratch, that. Mine went from the ankle to my crotch then recommenced just above it (thank God) and ended at the top of my sternum. I only went in for a flu jab!

            I tell a lie, I had a triple heart by-pass yonks ago – and still going strong.

          7. Hmmm, Ped, three major MCIs (Heart attacks) and still alive, the femoral arterial by-pass was just a milestone on a long, long road to termination.

            Who knows?

            I’ve told Cambridge Labs that they can have my body when I’ve gone, to give their students a laugh.

    1. I hovered the mouse over your downvote to find that you and I had downvoted you. What is going on?

        1. I get that when using my phone but not on the laptop. If you click the D for Disqus you don’t need to put in your password each time.

  70. Here is happy story! Good News!
    Dr Catherine Calderwood, you will maybe recall was the Chief Medical Officer in Scotland. She broke lockdown on two occasions by driving to her second home in order to “check on it”. Why she had to take her husband and their three children on the trip was not explained.
    This was a breach of the lockdown law and she was “warned” by police – not prosecuted.
    After “discussion” with the First Minister, she resigned. She was not fired. This is a very important distinction. It is not known if she was given a pay-off but I think it likely – as is routine in these circles because it is taxpayers money.
    Well, now for the Good News.
    Dr Catherine Calderwood has been given a new job! She is to be the National Clinical Director for Sustainable Delivery *at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Glasgow. Presumably it is only possible for the NHS to hire her because she did not get fired but “resigned” after a cosy chat with the the First Minister.
    She will now have a very well paid sinecure until she retires on a large pension. Between then and now she will cost the Scottish taxpayers more than £2m in salary, expenses, employment costs and gold plated pension contributions.
    Not bad for a borderline offender who messed up big time, eh?

    “NHS Golden Jubilee confirmed the doctor’s appointment following “a stringent, values based, recruitment process”.
    Jann Gardner, the hospital’s chief executive, said: “Dr Calderwood brings a wealth of experience in medical leadership, where she has held a variety of roles within the NHS and in government.
    “Part of NHS Golden Jubilee’s values is about recruiting the best people with the knowledge and skills for the role they apply for”

    Believe that she “applied” and was the top candidate and you will believe anything. In the real world people who make” mistakes” like Calderwood, you know, a factory worker for example, get sacked. They will never be rehired by the employer and will find difficulty in finding any employer.
    The clique looks after its own. Scotland is a small place.

    *No, no one knows what that means, but there are a few clues in the similar job advertised below.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-55870559
    https://www.s1jobs.com/job/national-associate-director-centre-for-sustainable-delivery-16925706

          1. Hmmm. You do know that these calculations are futile. In the limit, as mathematicians say, you’d have to do a tax paid/benefits received analysis for every individual in the UK.

    2. Ah, the Public Sector merry-go-round! I used to work at a PFI organisation with a an engineer who’d only worked for them as a public sector employee. He was useless as an engineer and his knowledge of using computers was using green screen ones.

      He was always antagonistic, even when offered help to improve his skills and when I gave him a below par review (deserved and I was being generous), he threatened me with his union, and I was told by a more senior person to just give up and make sure he got transferred by with an ‘average’ review (which is all he wanted to get his pay rise and keep his job). I had no choice but to comply. I spoke to his new boss a few months later and, like me, knew he’d been handed the bad egg. Apparently this wasn’t the first time this had happened or an unusuual occurrance generally. I suspect the same happened again with his next posting.

      Needless to say, I left the organisation not long after, having a bitter taste in my mouth and vowed never to work for a public sector type organisation again. Too many jobsworths, bad management and those who get to stay in place because of the unions, not because they are up to the job.

    3. Ah, the Public Sector merry-go-round! I used to work at a PFI organisation with a an engineer who’d only worked for them as a public sector employee. He was useless as an engineer and his knowledge of using computers was using green screen ones.

      He was always antagonistic, even when offered help to improve his skills and when I gave him a below par review (deserved and I was being generous), he threatened me with his union, and I was told by a more senior person to just give up and make sure he got transferred by with an ‘average’ review (which is all he wanted to get his pay rise and keep his job). I had no choice but to comply. I spoke to his new boss a few months later and, like me, knew he’d been handed the bad egg. Apparently this wasn’t the first time this had happened or an unusuual occurrance generally. I suspect the same happened again with his next posting.

      Needless to say, I left the organisation not long after, having a bitter taste in my mouth and vowed never to work for a public sector type organisation again. Too many jobsworths, bad management and those who get to stay in place because of the unions, not because they are up to the job.

    4. I did harbour thoughts of applying but was so afraid I might get it. At 76, rising 77, I’d rather stay at home with Best Beloved and continue to laugh at these might bes, if they could bes. Carry on, Clowns.

  72. It is difficult to keep up.

    A Scotch bloke called SOPHIE XEON – a transgender music producer – has died aged 34, following a “terrible accident” in Athens, after she had “climbed up to watch the full moon and slipped and fell”. D Express

    She? Her entry in Wiki uses ‘their’. Sophie Xeon, better known mononymously as SOPHIE (stylised in all caps), was a Scottish musician… Sophie, who initially remained anonymous and later came out as a trans woman,… Their debut album.. earning them a nomination… After their accidental death in 2021, Pitchfork (a US music publication) called Sophie “the influential British producer who…

    We are talking about one person here folk. And what happened to the mononymous SOPHIE (all in caps)?

    She was in her/its/their apartment when she fell… must be bluddy great stairs in Athens apartments.

    1. Blues-based bands, like the Animals, were a breath of fresh air to me in the 1960s. So many other groups tried to perpetuate the tired music of the 1950s and still had ridiculous greased quiffs.

      The Animals were new and exciting and had proper talent. R.I.P. Hilton Valentine, you canny gadgie, and thanks for the memories.

      1. Eric Burdon’s aunty was “in service” to my Gran from the age of 15! She (Hannah) was so proud of him and he adored her!

        1. Love it, FA. Is that a live recording, or is there some sequencing involved?

          My plan for this year, having moved, and brought a f-off organ console with me, is that I’ll complete my virtual organ project later this year. To make things work properly, I need to spend another £500-ish on the electronics.

          What is then possible, can be heard at Contrebombarde.com/browse…

        2. Well played, Sir.

          I remember working out the chords:

          Am C D F
          Am C Em
          Am C D F
          Am E Am

    2. Wow. Those suits – did they have second jobs selling ice cream?
      Much better when you can’t see them trying to look interesting… a video best played on the radio.

  75. This blow-by-blow account of the vaccine row is a lengthy but rather pleasurable read, and the finest vindication of our decision to go it alone:

    Pressure mounts on Ursula von der Leyen as shortcomings brutally exposed by EU vaccine fiasco

    Decision to invoke the Northern Irish protocol is the culmination of a disastrous week for the Commission president

    By
    James Crisp,
    BRUSSELS CORRESPONDENT
    30 January 2021 • 2:04pm

    Brussels was determined to force AstraZeneca to its knees at the start of the week but by the end of it, it was the European Union which was left humiliated.

    Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, today faces calls to resign amid accusations of a “vaccine nationalism” and fierce criticism in her home country of Germany.

    Mrs von der Leyen, who had taken personal charge of the AstraZeneca issue, badly botched the response to the pharmaceutical company’s failure to fulfil EU orders of jabs.

    She had moved to impose a “vaccine border” on the island of Ireland as she stepped up threats to impose an export ban on jabs to Britain. At a stroke, she trashed the bloc’s reputation worldwide and sacrificed the moral high ground the Commission had taken over the Irish border during Brexit negotiations.

    Her decision to trigger Article 16 of the Brexit treaty’s Northern Irish protocol achieved the once unimaginable feat of uniting an unimpressed Michel Barnier, Irish prime minister Micheál Martin and Boris Johnson against her.

    Mrs von der Leyen ordered a U-turn late on Saturday and blamed the crisis on “an oversight” – but the damage was done. Brussels had spiralled out of control, turning its own member states against it and ignoring their instructions.

    It should have been very different. How had Mrs von der Leyen managed to turn a week that should have been a crowning moment for her administration into such an unmitigated disaster?

    Brussels had planned for the first AstraZeneca jabs to be rolled out across the bloc once the European Medicines Agency approved the vaccine on Friday.

    The European Commission, which negotiated the supplies on behalf of the 27 member states, would use the delivery as a symbol of the benefits of EU unity.

    The inconvenient fact that the EU’s vaccination rollout was lagging far behind Brexit Britain would soon be forgotten in a flood of up to 400 million jabs; enough to vaccinate about half of all EU citizens.

    The day couldn’t come soon enough for the EU’s heads of state and government, who had decided not to use the emergency authorisation procedures Britain used to fast-track the approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

    Commissioners in Brussels sneered that this was a safer, more responsible route than that taken by Boris Johnson.

    Many EU governments had chosen not to buy doses of rival vaccines, preferring to wait for the cheaper and easier to store jab from the British-Swedish company, which had seen the bloc fall further behind in the vaccination race.

    The slower pace was, however, exacting a political price on the bloc’s national leaders.

    Polls in France showed Marine Le Pen trailing Emmanuel Macron by just 48 to 52 in second round voting intentions for next year’s presidential elections.

    While the UK has distributed 11.86 jab doses per 100 people, France, where anti-vax beliefs have taken root, has only managed 2.08. In France, four-fifths of those hospitalised with Covid are more than 65 years old.

    European newspapers were reporting that Mr Johnson’s vaccine gamble had paid off, which they said was a source of great frustration to the French, amid wall to wall coverage of the battle in Brussels.

    Perhaps that is what motivated the French president to trash the AstraZeneca vaccine. Mr Macron said the jab was “almost ineffective for those over 65, and some say over 60”.

    The cynical ploy came on Friday, the same day that the European Medicines Authority approved the vaccine for all ages, despite an earlier decision by German regulators to restrict it to the over 65s.

    That decision, based on a temporary lack of data for the AstraZeneca vaccine, made sense for Germany because it had enough Pfizer vaccine for the older age group not to take the slight risk. Mr Macron had no such excuse.

    But the German government was also facing questions about why it was lagging so far behind the UK, US and Israel.

    German Health Minister Jens Spahn, still smarting after being overlooked as a successor to Angela Merkel, was determined to dodge the blame for the supply shortfall. He would soon be on manoeuvers.

    The strain was showing elsewhere in Europe as well. The normally docile Dutch erupted into days of rioting, their worst in 40 years, in protest against the imposition of a coronavirus curfew last weekend.

    The Italian government was tearing itself apart over the handling of the second coronavirus wave and funds from the EU’s economic stimulus package. On Tuesday, Italy’s prime minister Giuseppe Conte resigned as his coalition government collapsed.

    Hungary had got tired of waiting for the EU collective purchasing plan to bear fruit, which Budapest bluntly described as “too slow”.

    It became the first EU country to approve and order Russia’s Sputnik V jab and later in the week, also authorised a Covid-19 vaccine from China.

    Spain announced that its vaccination programme would be delayed and were said to be increasingly impatient with the slow roll out.

    The pressure was on the European Commission to deliver, which explains the furious reaction after AstraZeneca broke the news that there would be a shortfall in the supply.

    The company would only be able to deliver a quarter of the jabs promised in the first quarter of the year, it said. There would be about 75 million vaccines missing because of production problems at its Belgian plant.

    Mrs von der Leyen was determined that the member states would not point the finger of blame for the delays at her commission.

    She had long insisted that the answer to the health crisis was “more Europe” and so the decision was made to launch a full frontal, and unprecedented, attack on AstraZeneca.

    Over the weekend, suspicions grew in Brussels that AstraZeneca may have sold reserved EU vaccine stock to countries such as Britain which had paid a higher price for the jab.

    Despite the fact that AstraZeneca was providing the vaccine at cost price, the story was given legs by the Brussels spin machine. Their message was clear; this was not our fault.

    On Monday, the European Commission’s chief spokesman bristled when the Telegraph suggested this could be a resigning matter for Mrs von der Leyen.

    “Things are actually going very well,” he said at the commission’s regular press briefing. Those comments would come back to haunt him.

    Diplomats in the Belgian capital began circulating news stories from last year, when the UK had signed a deal with AstraZeneca three months before the EU.

    AstraZeneca had imported millions of vaccines from its EU plants to compensate for a delay in production of UK supplies of the jab. Perhaps these were jabs meant for the bloc, the anonymous briefers suggested.

    The commission, which prides itself on its legal expertise and respect for the rule of law, turned the screws on AstraZeneca, accusing it of breaching its contract with Brussels.

    Mrs von der Leyen gave Pascal Soriot, the CEO of AstraZeneca, a dressing down in a morning phone call. It was the first of three grillings for the boss, who was summoned to further two video conference meetings with the EU and national officials later that day.

    Stella Kyriakides, the EU’s Health Commissioner, left the meeting and addressed the press. AstraZeneca’s explanations for the shortfall in supplies were “unsatisfactory”.

    She demanded AstraZeneca provided a list of how many vaccines it had provided to each country, which the company, and the British government, has been desperate to keep secret.

    The Cypriot commissioner dropped a bombshell. Brussels would introduce an “export transparency mechanism” by the end of the week, Ms Kyriakides said.

    Cyprus’s EU commissioner said that manufacturers in the EU would have to ask Brussels for permission before exporting vaccines out of the bloc.

    The threat of an EU export ban was clear. Britain, less than a month out of the Brexit transition period and expecting almost 3.5 million vaccines from Pfizer’s Belgian plant, was in the firing line.

    It was the first of many signals that, as far as the commission was concerned, British public opinion of Brussels simply no longer mattered.

    In Germany, Mr Spahn broadcast his approval of the plans for the export ban. Although German government sources strongly deny it, many suspect his ministry was responsible for incorrect stories in the Handelsblatt newspaper that the AstraZeneca jab was only 8 percent effective in the over 65’s.

    On Tuesday, AstraZeneca’s CEO hit back. There was no contractual obligation to supply the vaccines beyond an obligation on the company to make “best reasonable efforts” to provide it, he said.

    The company’s two production plants in Britain could help with the EU supply but, under the terms of the supply contract with the UK, only after a British order of 100 million jabs had been supplied.

    An infuriated Brussels hit back hard on Wednesday. It demanded that AstraZeneca divert supplies of millions of UK-manufactured vaccines to the bloc and accused Mr Soriot of breaching confidentiality by revealing details of the contract.

    It called on Mr Soriot, who endured another EU meeting that day, to agree to the publication of the bloc’s Advance Purchase Agreement.

    Ms Kyriakides said the firm had “contractual, societal and moral obligations” to use all its facilities to make up the shortfall, and that there was “no hierarchy of factories”.

    MEPs began to talk of a vaccine trade war unless the pharma company caved to the demands. Britain made clear its vaccines were going nowhere.

    AstraZeneca was under intense pressure and huge reputational risk in the EU. Boris Johnson wisely refused to be drawn into the row, insisting it was purely between AstraZeneca and his EU allies.

    The prime minister, long ridiculed on the Continent for his support of Brexit, was looking like the only adult in the room as the commission grew more and more shrill in its demands. In contrast, the Government called for constructive dialogue to solve the issue.

    On Thursday, Belgian authorities, acting on a European Commission request, raided AstraZeneca’s plant in the French-speaking region in Wallonia.

    The reason was to see if the company’s explanation of production problems was genuine but another motivation was to keep the pressure on the company.

    Having secured AstraZeneca’s permission to release a redacted version of the contract, Mrs von der Leyen had a devastating salvo planned for Friday.

    After the contract was released, the commission pointed to clauses that supported its arguments.

    In one, AstraZeneca appeared to confirm that no other agreement would interfere with its supplies. Another clause said that, for the purposes of the deal, the two UK factories should be considered part of the EU.

    Opinions were divided over who had the stronger legal case but eyebrows were raised that Mrs von der Leyen that very day had said there were no ‘best endeavour’ clauses in the contract. The published deal – accidentally released unredacted – had those clauses.

    She either told an intentional lie to 447 million people or she didn’t know what was in her own contract,” Germany’s Bild Zeitung said yesterday.

    EU officials demanded that Britain now publish its contract with the pharma company. This was followed up by the official announcement of the export transparency mechanism, which Ms Kyriakides ridiculously claimed was not aimed at any one country.

    The UK, US and Canada were not on the list of countries exempted from the notification requirement for vaccine exports but Israel, which has run a successful vaccination campaign, and non-EU Switzerland were.

    There was growing disquiet among some member states that the commission was going too far in its battle with AstraZeneca, although there were hawks who supported the Brussels muscle-flexing in the hopes of it signalling a new age of European “strategic autonomy”.

    What happened next was to see those supporters rapidly desert Mrs von der Leyen.

    The regulation for the export transparency mechanism revealed that the European Commission planned to trigger Article 16 of the Northern Irish Protocol.

    Despite the warnings of her own trade experts over the triggering of Article 16, Mrs von der Leyen was set on imposing the hard vaccine border between North and the Republic.

    Mr Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator and who is often called an “honorary Irishman” by Dublin thanks to his sympathies with the Republic and sensitivities over the border issue, was not in the loop.

    In an astonishing gaffe, Mrs von der Leyen only deigned to inform Ireland she was triggering one of the most sensitive clauses in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement after the announcement.

    It was a major breach of protocol, especially as Ireland is an EU member state and sensitivities over the border are so raw after Brexit.

    She also did not give notice to Britain about the move, which was meant to prevent Northern Ireland becoming a back door entry of vaccine supplies to the UK.

    Considering that the European Commission had spent the previous four years preaching the importance of open borders and peace on the island of Ireland, as well as criticising any suggestion from Britain of using the clause, it was an astonishing move.

    It wasn’t long before the Irish prime minister was on the phone to the commission’s Berlaymont headquarters, where Mrs von der Leyen lives in a converted flat.

    Boris Johnson was raising his concerns soon afterwards as the pressure began to build against the European Commission president.

    At 11.45pm local time, about eight hours after the announcement, a statement was released saying that Article 16 , the so-called safeguard clause, would not be triggered after all.

    The regulation was withdrawn to be amended but the transparency mechanism, and with it the threat of an export ban, entered into force yesterday.

    What Mrs von der Leyen planned as a show of strength and a reassertion of control had demonstrated anything but.

    “Lessons should be learned; the Protocol is not something to be tampered with lightly, it’s an essential, hard won compromise, protecting peace and trade for many,” said Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister,

    Carl Bildt, the passionately pro-European former prime minister of Sweden, said: “I had hoped not to see the EU leading the world down the destructive path of vaccine nationalism,” he tweeted.

    Trade experts were also unimpressed. “Disrupting the already fragile implementation of the Irish Protocol on the off chance that someone in the EU exports vaccines they don’t have, to a Northern Ireland that doesn’t need them, is folly of the highest order – and compounds a vaccine nationalist export control policy that is itself flawed and short-sighted,” said Dmitry Grozoubinski, the founder of ExplainTrade.

    The European press was equally unforgiving, describing it as the “Brexit own goal” and potentially Mrs von der Leyen’s greatest failure.

    In Berlin, the press and politicians discussed Mrs von der Leyen’s divisive leadership style, during her failed tenure as defence minister, which earned her the nickname “Shotgun Uschi”.

    “She told no one. After four years of tedious skullduggery over the Irish backstop. Surely the commission could have thought of the optics?” said one top EU diplomat.

    “This grandstanding goes against everything the commission was asked to do by the member states. They asked the commission to handle it but change the tone,” the diplomat said.

    Another EU diplomat told the Telegraph: “The pressure on von der Leyen is huge and increasing. This is not a good look.”

    2. The fact that it was written by the DT’s most EUphile journalist, James Crisp, makes me giggle a bit as well!

      2. I must admit it was rather amusing to hear about this, especially when I had the BBC TV News on (I was setting my PVR to record something later on) and saw the newsreader and their journos saying as much through equally gritted teeth. What’s amazing is that the DT replaced the equally europhile journo Peter Foster with this bloke.

        Is it me or is the DT being taken over by stealth by leftist/Establishment types? What’s worse is that so many readers don’t leave because there’s no comprehensive alternative that hasn’t gone woke/leftist/Europhile. Quite a few small outlets, but often limited news coverage and mostly commentary outlets like the Speccie.

        1. The DT and the Speccie have both drifted leftwards. I subscribe to both, but am perilously close to cancelling them. There is no mainstream alternative. I only keep them going for the comments.

          1. TBH that’s why I stayed on (as opposed to not even bothering at all) until my annual subs lapsed after I cancelled.

            I made good use of my time (including three bonus months where I could still access everything fine despite not continuing to subscribe) by bringing other readers’ attention to the many (and major) failings of the paper – going leftwards, becoming far more crony establishment, blatant censorship of legitimate reader opinions, wokeness and intersectionalism, and now support of Starmer – and that the best way to let them know of our unhappiness at it all was to hit them in the wallet by unsubbing.

        2. I dropped the Telegraph about eight years ago when they had an article about the latest fashion in hijabs, followed by extolling an “islamic” garden at Chelsea flower show. That and various vacuous columnists made it not worth reading, even for Normal Tebbit.

    3. ““The pressure on von der Leyen is huge and increasing. This is not a good look.””
      HA HA HA!
      breathe…
      HA HA HA!

      1. I think she is one who will not be easily prized off the gravy train, and as Spiegel pointed out, there’s nowhere higher for her to go now!

    5. Frau Mrs von der Leyen brilliantly shoots the EU ship below the waterline; she is truly our friend and neighbour …

    6. My dear leader was not prepared to order vaccines in the US and risk losing out when they stopped exports.

      The EU threatening export controls sure makes him look like (even more of) an idiot.

    2. As I have said before, if BBC ‘presenter’ and politicians can get haircuts, we should all be ableto.

      If I do not get one soon, I will need a perm

      1. Best Beloved has done a buster on this 76 year old head. Eat your heart out, you BBC drones.

    2. Dream on, Bill, there is no normal, only NEW normal. All bollox. You, me and a few others, despite our decrepit years, need to stand up against this new tyranny.

    1. Yo, Grizz. Have to say that I prefer these to the “eco” wicker/basketweave variety. On the rare occasion we’ve had them at funerals in the parish, it’s been a case of opening every door and window beforehand…

      2. Mother has paid for a wickerwork basket, and to be buried under a tree. Hopefully she doesn’t croak soon, ‘cos she’ll be awfully alone.

        1. Quite. The odd thing is that, despite the pandemic, I played for only four funerals in the whole of 2020. Most years, there would be two or three a month. None were Covid deaths. I accept that there have been restrictions on funeral attendance. But I also edit and print the parish weekly newsletter, and even if they go straight to the Crem, deaths are usually listed in the “We pray for” lists. Which have also disappeared.

          2. I was at a funeral last Tuesday morning at Knebworth. I have been several times in previous years and it’s always been busy with both buildings being used. But not one other poor soul was seen arriving for the next service. But the lady who funeral i attended died two days before Christmas. I can’t believe it would take much of an effort to ‘sterilise’ the inside of the seating area. It’s just something else that when you try to analyse it, none of it seems to add up. There is an almost single track road in and out of the area taken up by the Crematorium but not one other car passed be in the opposite direction both to and from the Crem.

          3. That’s so sad – nobody even turned up for her funeral.
            There was a story (in Sweden, I think) that an old man died, was put in his coffin in church, and nobody came until a tourist visited the church and wrote the only condolence in the book.
            Some months later, the tourist was contacted by a Swedish law firm who said that the old man wwho deceased had no family, and put in his will that his estate should be left to be divided amongst all those who signed the book of condolence, and the tourist was the only one who had, so he got the lot – about $10 million.

          4. There were 29 people Obs, including myself, my younger sister who would have made made the allowed numbers up, lives in Lincolnshire was unable to travel.
            But although numbers are restricted, there should have still been others waiting to get in to line for the next service. It’s always been busy.

          7. You’re allowed 30 at a funeral? I was under the impression it was fewer. Any chance of a wake?

          8. It was ten at the beginning of all this virus stuff. But we did sit and watch a funeral of a relative last May through a video link on Face Book.
            It was set up by the funeral directors.

          9. Perhaps there are longer gaps between funeral services to allow for the air to clear? I was thinking only last week (a friend’s mother had recently died) that my recollections of Cambridge Crematorium were of streams of people, walking the paths, arriving, departing, walking to the chapels leaving trails of condensing breath in the cold wintry air behind them, walking back to the car parks, just masses of people. And of course as people do their best regardless of how unwell they are feeling to wave goodbye to their departed ones, funerals are very much a place where one will pick up ‘flu and winter viruses.

          12. Hi Geoff – have you seen or heard anything of Conway? I haven’t seen him here for two or three days now – not since Peddy upset him. I hope he’s ok, and his poorly wife. I don’t have contact details and wondered if you have.

          15. Hmm, could it be that you, and every subsequent funeral are contributing to the funeral parlour/crematorium’s overhead cost every time against a one-time payment for the poor oik who has to disinfect the area, 12 times a day for the princely sum of £50?

        2. I have made sure that my body goes to medical science. Best Beloved will profit from the death policy and Cambridge medical students will get a good laugh.

  82. It’s warmed up to -16C! Been a lovely day, warm in the sunshine but cold out of it. Best weather to go skiing, as long as you don’t work too hard – all that cold air dries you out something shocking.

    1. A balmy -4ºC here, Paul. But it was a bit parky having to stand next to the wide open garage door as I fried my fish and chips in order to have the smell of frying go outside [I am forbidden from frying fish and chips in the kitchen!].

      They tasted damn good, though, with mushy peas and pickled onion (and lots of salt and Sarson’s malt vinegar!).

      2. Be careful, George, by frying fish and chips you are definitely going against nig-nog culture and therefore need a very comprehensive re-education course on English culinary history to include pineapples, pau-pau and bananas. Get back in those trees, you jungle-bunny.

    1. Interesting video, thank you for posting. However there are two issues with it, firstly the claim made a few weeks ago, was that 2020 saw the biggest rise in excess deaths (measured as % rise over the 5 year rolling average) since the war, not the largest number of deaths. But, the more important problem is that the number of deaths in 2020 was after lockdown and the whole point of lockdown was to prevent a far higher number of deaths, so he’s based his entire video on the wrong number!

        1. You’re missing my point. I’m against lockdown and would prefer the UK to have followed the original ‘mitigation’ strategy, rather than ‘suppression’ (aka lockdown) as the Swedes did (although Sweden has a considerably higher death rate than its Nordic neighbours). But, that’s missing my point, which is that you can’t quote post-lockdown death rates to argue against lockdown!

          1. Indeed.
            We’ve had lockdowns in Norway, and a much smaller death rate even when adjusted for population, so it seems to have some effect. Problem comes when you release the lockdown – the virus hasn’t gone away, it was just on hold, and so you get a flare-up again. No surprise there. My feeling is that Sweden has got close to the final numbers of dead from the virus a lot quicker than the other countries, who will be locking and unlocking for a while yet – eventually (unless the vaccine is any good) arriving wher Sweden has already.

        1. That is what is stated in the clip. The graph is ‘percentage’. It should have (sarc) after the opening statement.

    1. It is surprisingly simple.

      Large institutions are the “owners” of the shares, usually on behalf of pension funds and the like, which they manage.

      They try to earn more money by lending those shares to allow settlement of short transactions, while retaining the ownership.

      One day it will all go tits up.

      1. It’s when one of the parties can’t pony up that the fun will begin. The report quoted above lists all the parties involved in the lending and shorting of shares and it ain’t straightforward….

        1. The link you posted is unreadable for me for some reason, unless you are referring to:

          “It’s Not Just Robinhood, Reddit Rebellion Has Clogged Entire Financial System’s Plumbing”

          Which is also essentially unreadable, because I am not convinced that the authors really understand the subject and are over-complicating the transactions.

          I offer the caveat that it’s 15 years since I was last working in that area, but my last employers had Huge, with a capital H huge amounts out as stock-lenders and they made quite a pretty penny out of doing so, whilst retaining ownership.

          Where the authors might be correct is that people won’t be able to pay to settle the transactions. What they won’t be able to do is sell the stock.

        2. It’s certainly open to abuse.

          The ones who tend to be at greatest risk are the shorters, because in theory there is no upper limit to the value. Those who are buying can “only” lose what they have invested.
          As long as they are buying and not writing options the worst case is the premium. The real trouble brews when people who shouldn’t be in the markets start writing them. Black Monday 1987 saw numerous small players instantly bankrupted, some of the stories were very sad.
          As is so often the case one of the major underlying issues was credit control.

  86. Nothing on TV as usual. I’m going to get some photograph albums out of the cupboards and accompanied with a large glass of red liquid i’m going to be nostalgic.
    Slayders.

      1. I always find it hard to believe when I see the transition from when our three sons were babies and youngsters to where they are now. Big strapping Men. And now at least one of our soon to be a year old grandson, is the image of his dad as a toddler.

  87. Which newspaper, which editor?

    He said he was horrified after searching for xxx xxx front pages on Google shortly after accepting the job, only to see headlines such as: “At last! May gets tough on migrants!”, “How migrants snatched our homes”, and “Britain’s 40% surge in ethnic numbers.”

    “I just couldn’t sleep,” he said. “People had collated every front page which was anti-immigrant. It was certainly Islamophobic. This was not representative of the kind of society I think we should be.”
    .
    .
    .
    .Daily Express, Gary Jones. Voted remain, always voted Labour, had his son educated at Eton College. Sffincter rhefrol. Anal sphincter.

    2. Whatever, these kind of idiot don’t seem to realise that that type of comment is exactly what engenders Islamophobia and BLM and Antifa do absolutely NOTHING for race relations.

      Personally – and I know it’s probably a step too far – I would expel every Muslim, Black and Greenie, in order to make our country safe.

  88. Just been texted by our army sergeant nurse regarding Napier army base (She’s with the Gurkha regiment) . She said the (illegal) immigrants were disregarding distancing etc and they had a lot of positive tests. During this outbreak they kept going into town and into shops and scaring locals. The police eventually locked them down, which is why the poor souls set fire to their accommodation. The accommodation was earmarked for a newly arrived Gurkha intake of youngsters, who have been forced to double up with the resident Gurkha regiment.

    1. Take out the Kukri and don’t put it back until it’s drawn blood. Go Gurkhas, we’re behind you.

      1. It’s not as bad as all that. There is a rear-guard of Nottlers to defend the country when needed. Rear-guard being the operative word.

    2. For God’s sake – is that supposed to be an example of ‘modern’ music – it’s just (c)rap!

    1. This madness has to stop. BLM and their Antifa rivals should be proscribed organisations. The statues represent our history not theirs. We value our history, warts and all.

      Left to their own devices these idiots would still be shitting in the fields and failing to invent the wheel. They are sucking the lifeblood from our country and contribute nothing. They are takers not contributors.

      1. 328905+ up ticks,
        Evening NtN,
        Trace my comments history way,way back you’ll find a post saying the treacherous element WILL start dismantling the war memorials, and so it is coming to pass.

        The current governance party’s are not only odiously deceiving the living they have especially,openly, for the last 3 decades turned the dead of two world wars over.

        More of the same required ? make sure to support the lab/lib/con
        coalition party.

      2. 328905+ up ticks,
        NtN,
        They should be decorating trees,lest we forget rotherham council, many a child won’t.

  91. National Trust ‘used £100,000 of public money’ to fund campaign ATTACKING Britain….

    A CONTROVERSIAL study by the National Trust which besmirched British history was partly funded with almost £100,000 of Lottery money, it has been revealed.
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1391227/national-trust-lottery-lotto-arts-council-colonial-countryside-project

    First the British Legion (£100,000 spent on a new logo) and now The National Trust. Two charities I will no longer support. Who will be next? I will save a mint…

    1. Just write to the National Trust and tell them, that because of their behaviour, you have revoked a legacy to them of
      £25,000 from your will

      Which of course you were not going to give them in the first place

      2. We did not renew our subscriptions when denied access to local NT properties on account of the Covid heist.

        We would normally visit Ickworth weekly and take lunch in their refectory and walk the grounds. We would also regularly visit other great houses around us such as Wimpole Hall.

    2. You and me, both, Plum. And I’m ex-service but I’ll continue to support the RAFBF – for now.

    3. I have known that the National Trust was rotten to the core since the 1990s when I met a craftsman who supplied it. I will never visit one of their properties again. Their tentacles stretch over far too much of Britain’s coastline and countryside.

  92. There was a time when one could travel freely. A while back I navigated into Gloucester and moored for the night:

    “When in the middle of the night an agile youngster decides to climb stealthily onto the cabin roof of your boat, whilst you and your crew are fast asleep, and then proceeds to leap high into the air, landing with both feet on the roof, it really does sound as if a bomb has gone off! Although instantly awake, it takes a moment or two for the “what the fuck was that!” to be expressed by which time the athlete had fled the scene. Still once your ears have stopped ringing from the reverberations inside the boat you realise you are prepared and know what to do next time.
    What I didn’t appreciate was that next time would be just two hours later at 5:00 am to be precise. When there was a loud banging on the side of the cabin I was primed and ready. I leapt out of my bunk bed and shouted; ”PISS OFF” as I flung open the side hatch doors. In the circumstances the two police officers that greeted me were very gracious in their understanding of my reaction. Security cameras covering the area in which we were moored in Gloucester had picked up the amateur athlete practicing his high jump on my cabin roof and security had passed on details to the local constabulary to investigate. Apart from my obvious embarrassment, the lesson learned from this episode is – dare I say it – to look before you leap!”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/daba9e8f13a07357c5dbbaee4787a303726a36e5c92e058bc72e86588a740896.jpg

    2. I loved this group and their songs – Judith Durham’s voice is as good as ever and the others are still playing their instruments and harmonising as well as ever.

  96. I just checked my profile, open to all, and note that every single comment I have made about vaccinations for Covid has been downvoted.

    I find this peculiar because many now doubt the ‘science’ and even more question the efficacy of some of the vaccines. What is going on?

    Edit: Are folk in denial of the realities or simply thick.

    2. It’s not “folk”, John – it’s one poster. A sad individual who probably deserves our sympathy. She disagrees with everything we post here, yet still she comes. I don’t give a flying toss about downvotes. I take the view that they are worth at least two upvotes from ‘normal people’.

    1. We tried one of those drum exercise classes once.

      We were not seated and there was a lot of leaping around. Great fun but probably not very musical.

    2. MOH arranged for our elderly friend (who is now 96) to ‘play’ a full set of drums at a nearby church hall for her 80th birthday – she absolutely loved it.

  101. 328905+ up ticks,
    Exclusive: Britain ready to help out EU on Covid vaccines,

    The turkish delight & co going into action under the encapsulating shadow of the “deal” umbrella.

    Help out individual Country’s agreed,NO dealing with the eu,
    only eu assets would do that.

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