Saturday 8 May: By rejecting identity politics, Hartlepool exposes the cracks in Labour

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/05/07/letters-rejecting-identity-politics-hartlepool-exposes-cracks/

642 thoughts on “Saturday 8 May: By rejecting identity politics, Hartlepool exposes the cracks in Labour”

  4. More woke witterings on points while wearing pointy hats – mental connections with screwdrivers, pigeons and tans lions:

    SIR – The Hartlepool by-election result confirms that voters want a party that respects the Brexit vote. They also want a party they believe can level up the country, rejecting the “us and them” of the identity politics of the Labour Left. No amount of Boris Johnson’s furnishings can paper over the cracks of this present Labour Party.

    Jeremy Thompson
    Braintree, Essex

    SIR – The result is a crushing defeat for the BBC news team, which had spent two weeks trying to make Wallpapergate the No 1 election issue.

    Anthony Cutler
    Malvern, Worcestershire

    SIR – Hartlepool follows a trend that came to notice with the wipe-out of Labour’s Scottish heartlands in 2015, rolled through Derbyshire in 2017 and shattered the Red Wall in 2019.

    The “Hartlepools” constituency dates from 1863, and had been Labour since 1945, with the exception of a Macmillan-era shock Tory majority of 182 votes in 1959. In such seats Labour was represented mostly by working-class MPs rooted in local communities. That came to an end when middle-class candidates from the metropolitan Labour bubble were foisted on the constituencies. Tony Blair, Ed Balls and his wife Yvette Cooper and, of course, Peter Mandelson were prime examples.

    This time, Labour complacently selected for Hartlepool a defeated MP and avid Remainer.

    Labour in Britain is following the path of devastated socialist parties on the Continent – a 20th-century phenomenon, destined for oblivion.

    The question is what new party will replace them as a potential alternative government.

    Jacques Arnold
    West Malling, Kent

    SIR – The by-election shows why Boris Johnson is a remarkable politician. He is considered gaffe-prone but can be photographed riding bicycles, eating ice cream or stuck on a zip wire without political harm. Bacon sandwiches and bananas hold little fear for him.

    It is easy to be jealous of Boris, who did well in journalism before being the only truly successful Mayor of London. This may explain why many criticisms in politics and the media have come from his own side.

    It’s time to let him get on leading us out of the pandemic and into financial recovery with less carping over younger partners and wallpaper.

    Mark Robbins
    Bruton, Somerset

    SIR – Jill Mortimer polled more at Hartlepool than all the other candidates combined. This is rare.

    Derek Wellman
    Lincoln

    SIR – Surely the function of a by-election is to let the electorate lodge a protest vote against the government of the day, not against the opposition.

    Peter Yarnall
    Milnrow, Lancashire

    Trying to see a GP

    SIR – Recent correspondence on access to GPs in person, rather than by telephone (May 7), highlights differences in the triage process being practised by surgeries.

    Many “gatekeepers” have been adequately trained, but others less so, which results in unsatisfactory service. The scrum to phone at 8.30am, then wait to speak to a receptionist, is typical. No commercial business that valued its customers would do this, but patients have to put up with it.

    There is an obvious disparity between good surgeries, where a patient who specifically requests a face-to-face appointment will probably receive one, and others where the receptionist is keeping in-person appointments to an absolute minimum. I am unfortunately registered at a surgery falling into the latter category, when only four miles away the opposite seems to be true.

    GPs who challenge patients’ horror stories may just be speaking from their own experience and should not generalise.

    Harry L Barker
    North Berwick, East Lothian

    SIR – My dentist has leaned in to treat my root canal for an hour, so why can’t I consult my GP in person, masked and distanced, for seven minutes?

    Field McIntyre
    London SW3

    SIR – Access to doctors is essential, so why do care-home residents have to isolate for 14 days if they attend a GP or hospital appointment?

    The guidance for unlocking care homes should be the same as it is nationally, with immediate effect.

    Professor Martin Green

    CEO, Care England
    London E1

    SIR – On Wednesday morning I rang my GP surgery and was asked to ring back at 1.30pm to arrange a triage consultation. Having done this, my doctor rang at 3.30pm and two hours later I saw him in person at his surgery.

    I have just given blood samples and an MRI scan has been booked. I am greatly impressed by this service.

    Michael Hendry
    Market Drayton, Shropshire

    Pointless restrictions

    SIR – It is time some Covid restrictions were lifted. Our local library, for instance, shuts for an hour at lunch time for “deep cleaning”, which I bet we will later be told was pointless.

    Meanwhile, we are still allowing foreign travel into the country, which is how the virus first got here.

    Kevin Platt
    Walsall, Staffordshire

    SIR – How wonderful to experience a pint of beer, served in a plastic glass at an inflated price, in freezing outdoor conditions. Never was so much anticipated by so many for such disappointment.

    Lovat Timbrell
    Brighton, East Sussex

    Roar deal

    SIR – I am outraged that the new England football logo has a male lion and a female lion, but no trans lion.

    Nigel Cowan
    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    SIR – The FA’s proposed three lions redesign sets an awkward precedent for Wales. Is there such thing as a dragoness and what is the correct term for a young dragon to parallel the cub for lions? Or are all dragons asexual and ageless, and thus perfect for modern sensibilities?

    Christopher Glynn
    Selsey, Gloucestershire

    Jersey and the Navy

    SIR – Given EU, particularly French, hostility over fishing rights, is it wise to send a carrier battle group – including a third of our naval escort capability – to the Far East, which seems designed only to antagonise the Chinese?

    Equally, why are we becoming embroiled in Mali and possibly Chad? The purpose of these French-led military interventions is to halt the flow of migrants north towards the Mediterranean and hence southern Europe. Would we not be better to employ our forces to counter illegal immigration operations at home?

    Colonel S C H Ashworth
    Lichfield, Staffordshire

    SIR – The threat to pull the plug on Jersey’s electricity shows how vindictive EU members can be when they do not get their way.

    The resurrection of Irish trade issues, threats of a vaccine embargo and now this fishing row all reveal the bullying EU bloc to be the leading protectionist organisation in the world.

    If Remainers still wonder why we voted to leave this jealous cabal, they now have their answer.

    Jim Sokol
    Woodcombe, Somerset

    SIR – Do the French co-operate in any agreements that they sign? To threaten to cut off Jersey’s electricity is not the act of an ally or economic trading partner.

    At what point will French ministers act within international law when protecting their own interests?

    Gavin Howard
    Warminster, Wiltshire

    SIR – President Macron’s attendance at a ceremony marking the 200th anniversary of Napoleon Bonaparte’s death (report, May 6) gave credence to a monstrous dictator who was responsible for perhaps six million deaths, military and civilian.

    He also installed his family members as dictatorial heads of state in several European countries and was intent on invading Britain, which was put to huge trouble and expense to assist in his defeat and capture.

    Sam Bee
    Lindfield, West Sussex

    Silenced soapbox

    SIR – The short answer to G W Doggrell (“Can one still speak freely at Speakers’ Corner? Letters, May 6) is “no” – and I spoke there more than 300 times between 1965 and 2010.

    Christopher Horne
    Former Chairman, Hyde Park Tories
    Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire

    In defence of the brave and intelligent pigeon

    SIR – Clive Aslet (Comment, May 6) describes pigeons as “filthy pestilent birds” and wishes them to be culled.

    In their defence, pigeons are among the most intelligent birds on the planet and one of the few species able to recognise themselves in a mirror test. They can also recognise all the letters in the alphabet and differentiate between photographs.

    Pigeons have saved human lives in wartime and helped to find sailors lost at sea. Pigeons “serving” in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War received the Dickin Medal – the animal Victoria Cross – for delivering messages that led to the rescue of aviators.

    Richard Barclay
    Backwell, Somerset

    SIR – Clive Aslet reminded me of the simple but effective culling method used in Aylesbury some 65 years ago.

    Nets were placed on the county office’s roof overnight. The caretaker coped with the resulting piles of pigeons and the canteen offered cheap pigeon pie, pigeon stew, and roast pigeon – tasty variations on the usual fish or shepherd’s pies.

    Jenny Shelby-Green
    Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

    A search for the hiding place of missing deeds

    SIR – When my father died, I remembered his instructions to look in
    the fireproof box under the stairs, where I believed I would find useful
    items (Letters, May 6).

    Following his demise, I opened the box to find passports and traveller’s cheques, but no deeds for the house or share certificates. Without the deeds I could not prove the house belonged to Mum. Dad looked after all such matters, so Mum was unable to help.

    I searched the house, looking in and under drawers, flicked through books for any papers with hints, and contacted all organisations (banks, solicitors, county archives, insurance companies) that might conceivably have what I sought. Nothing.

    At one point I looked at the bath and noted that the side panel was secured by Pozidriv screws. I made a mental connection with the Pozidriv screwdriver I had seen in his bedside locker. Behind the panel I found another fireproof box with all the paperwork I sought.

    You can imagine my thoughts. Before he retired my father was a solicitor dealing with conveyancing for the county council.

    Ken Davies
    Kettering, Northamptonshire

    SIR – My mother adored her dogs. When she died we found wooden boxes of cremated remains of several.

    I discovered two weeks ago that these have been in our own attic since she died 11 years ago. My husband is incapable of throwing anything away in case it might one day be useful.

    Paddy Manning
    Epping, Essex

  8. Good morning, all, and a very happy V-E Day. Seventy six years ago today I saw for the first time a fire in the village that had not been started by the Germans.

    I see BPAPM is saying his “victory” yesterday will allow him ten more years in which to destroy the country completely.

  10. ‘Morning All

    I trust you’re all familiar with EPC ratings??

    “Energy Performance Certificates

    Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are needed whenever a property is:

    built

    sold

    rented

    You must order an EPC for potential buyers and tenants before you market your property to sell or rent.

    In Scotland, you must display the EPC somewhere in the property, for example in the meter cupboard or next to the boiler.

    An EPC contains:

    information about a property’s energy use and typical energy costs

    recommendations about how to reduce energy use and save money

    An EPC gives a property an energy efficiency rating from A (most efficient) to G (least efficient) and is valid for 10 years.”
    A government committee has just recommended that no property with lower than a C rating may be bought,sold or let…………….
    That’s 20 million homes folks but hey I’m sure the government will step in as a buyer of last resort,sure the price is a bit low but it’s not as if you have a choice is it??
    “YOU’LL OWN NOTHING AND YOU’LL BE HAPPY

    1. Last time I had to get one of those in order to claim a grant for my solar panels, I was told that any home not on mains gas automatically dropped to a D rating. Does this mean that nearly every rural home cannot be sold or let?

      1. If the committee recommendations are adopted then yes,it’s utter madness

      2. If the committee recommendations are adopted then yes,it’s utter madness

        1. No excuse, so I was told.

          A bit like Sadiq Khan making all pre-2005 cars subject to the daily fine if driven within the North/South Circular, because they didn’t have EU emissions tests before then. Never mind that a 1987 Citroen 2CV must be more carbon-friendly than any 202x Chelsea tractor. Khan just doesn’t like poor people who drive bangers – they lower the aspirational tone.

    2. A cynic might think that the whole point is so that there is an excuse to demolish older larger houses with gardens so that several much smaller ones can be built on the plot.

    3. If my wife or I live past 2030 my children will have a problem disposing of the house come in to play as new Scottish EPC Regs.
      Due to it’s current EPC rating it will not be allowed to be sold as a house, it can be sold as a building BUT the buyer must put in the “correct heating & insulation” before it can be occupied. Within 5/6 mile radius there are perhaps several hundred similar houses put up by the builder over a period of say 5-7 years decades ago.

      Lots of insulating & heating changes to the local Council Stock – re-roofed, loft insulated, walls stripped+insulation before being re-harled ………. about £40K per house. Interestingly the gas meter makes insulation tricky so a square of say 6 sq feet would be uninsulated – the Greenies cannot have that! The meter is disconnected, walls insulated, re-harled, meter reconnected – the contractor charges £1,000 for each meter connection/re-connection – 1,000 meters in1 year i.e. £1million borrowed to insulate the meter – a wooden/plastic “tea cosy” would have had the same effect & cost £30? £40?

      My new next door neighbour has been doing the insulation/heating etc etc for 2 years – 6 months till he moved in & on/off since then – he estimated £30K as he knew plenty trades at “mates rates” but spent that within 6 months and now Quote “I have given up counting”

    4. That’s us stuffed then! Not that we have any intention of going anywhere. A stone cottage with solid walls, oil fired boiler and a wood burner is probably G minus. Since Stroud was voted the best place to live the prices have shot up.

    5. Morning Rik and everyone.

      Well I guess there won’t be any more churches or chapels sold then for developers to make millions on. These government committees are useless interfering idiots. Another SAGE committee.

    1. Morning Bob – hardly a cloud in the sky up here and sun beating down……chilly though

  13. Good morning from a cold & damp South Hampshire.
    Van is loaded, luckily in yesterday’s fine weather and will be departing about 10ish, initially to Derby to drop off my late Father in Law’s workbench at t’Lad’s.

    A petition for those so minded asking the Government to include the behaviour of the Press during the Wuhan Epidemic:-
    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/575336

      1. Thank you, Sir!
        Now ensconced in my chair at home with a mug of tea after a pleasant drive up via Stratford on Avon and t’Lad’s at Derby to unload his bench and some other things.
        Horribly wet on the way up so opted for not going on the motorways as much as possible.

  14. I see the brain dead in the colonies have most voted the same way as last time

  15. I commented just now on an old Spectator article about the state of the Labour Party. Here it is again, a little bit higher up the heap. I do wish we didn’t have to keep scrolling to eternity to find anything!

    “For me, the predicament of the country is demonstrated by what happened for Worcestershire County Council. A useless council that spends £1000 of my council tax each year funnelling money to good causes i.e. executive bonuses, corrupt contractors (who commission the work, set the budget and allocate the work at the same time; all the councillors do is to raise the Council Tax to pay for this) and Equality, Diversity & Safeguarding consultants, while closing down public services charged to their remit. Hard choices must be made when bills are to be paid from the public account.

    The local F.E. college in Malvern loses £100,000 a year because of lack of public support, and the County Council does nothing. It was down to the Independent-run District Council, which claims £150 of my council tax and has to clear the bins and much else, to attempt a rescue bid before the whole site is hived off cheap to developers. The best the Tories can offer is to push for a restrictive covenant (since the site was originally donated by a local landowner a century ago for the education of good townspeople in perpetuity) and apply for a share of the national support grant, which might get a few hundred quid the college’s way if it asks nicely and jumps through enough diversity hoops.

    The sitting councillors should be panned by the Opposition for this. What does representative democracy deliver though? 45 bloomin’ Tories, 4 Liberal Democrats, 3 Labour, 3 Green and 2 Independents. The Labour Party lost seven councillors despite having an open goal to take the Tories to task over public services.”

  16. BBC Weekend Weather Forecast:
    A gay start 🌈 with gayles ☔ setting in later.

        1. Good morning, Minty.

          I do all my shopping online so i don’t get wet !

    2. The Breakfast weather presenter is so camp he reminds me of a row of tents.

  19. Labour has ‘lost trust’ of voters, admits Keir Starmer after landmark Hartlepool defeat. 8 May 2021.

    Sir Keir Starmer has admitted that Labour has “lost the trust of working people”, as he vowed to reconnect the party with voters.

    The Labour leader said this afternoon he took responsibility for the “bitterly disappointing” local election results and pledged to set out plans to rejuvenate his leadership within days.

    “We have changed as a party but we’ve not made a strong enough case to the country, we’ve lost that connection, that trust, and I intend to rebuild that and do whatever is necessary to rebuild that trust.”

    Morning everyone. No! Labours had it! There will be some residual support for them; after all there’s no one else out there for non-Tories to vote for, but in essence it’s had it! It will eventually split into two with the London branch becoming the Metropolitan and Muslim Labour Party (MMLP) and the rest just making a nuisance of themselves. This is not however all good news because it leaves the Conservative Party with a monopoly of power, and since it is just as much Woke as its former rival nothing much will change. The Police State will continue to expand, Freedom will vanish, immigration will actually increase and eventually the UK itself will fragment into its constituent countries and the English People will disappear into the Pages of History.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/05/07/local-election-news-results-hartlepool-london-scottish-boris/

    1. I wonder if Starmer realises that no one trusts Boris – or any politician?

      I wonder if:

      * He’s thinking, look, if we had equal constituencies, while that’s bad, it’s also ‘fair’.
      – If he’s thinking… then we could change politics properly. We could give everyone a genuine say through more, direct local representation
      – Then perhaps… if people were to feel engaged, would they then become so, and stand against us – and shouldn’t that be right, to remove laws they disagree with?

      – Should we not stop telling people what they should have, and offering them the choice, as their servants given the responsibility of leadership rather than taking them for granted?

    1. 332495+ up ticks,
      Morning Rik,
      A coalition campaign manifesto to be sure.

    2. Looks about right.
      Any chance of working the word ‘boIIocks’ into it for extra impact?

  21. 332495+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Saturday 8 May: By rejecting identity politics, Hartlepool exposes the cracks in Labour.
    I can only see it as rejecting one third of the problem whilst giving one third an encouraging boost in point of fact they are condoning the DOVER illegal intake governance campaign, even risking another monkey being in amongst the potential paedophiles & allsorted felons.
    What has happened is, they, the peoples of hartlepool
    hanged the monkey, the dad of the three polling booth
    residents and in remorse have made the trio role models
    for the future.

    To put it bluntly, nobody is safe under a lab/lib/con
    coalition governance, this is especially so in regards to the rape / abuse of children due to paedophilia,a plague of which was unleashed on these Isles in mass form by
    one anthony charlie lynton ( lab) & continued via the tory (ino) party.

    Plain to see now that more of the same is being called for.

  22. LNER and Great Western London trains have been withdrawn from service for checks on suspension bracket cracks on their coaches. Coaches built in Japan. According to a report on BBC Radio 4 this morning a spokesman said these checks will take some time

      1. That was the monicker of a psychiatrist when I was training.
        I doubt she felt the cold in her home country.

          1. Her husband was a a clinical psychologist. All patients – regardless of their condition – were diagnosed as schizophrenics.
            We always reckoned it was a case of projection.

          3. 🙂
            I think we all just laughed and came to our own diagnoses. Psychiatrists are usually pretty grounded; psychologists are mostly indistinguishable from their patients.

    2. So that’s what that noise was, “Clacketty clack, clacketty clack.”

      1. “Don’t go back…”

        (Sorry – it is raining and cold – again).

          2. Enough energy restored to think – just think, mind you – about tackling the reorganisation of my play room.

          4. Sorry to be boring. Stacked full of arty farty stuff and bloody office detritus.
            I’m trying to make space so I can actually get to grips with the sewing machine. I much prefer sewing by hand, but there are times when it is necessary to use a machine, preferably without the stitching going awry or the needle snapping.
            Question to all NOTTLers. I have a couple of boxes of WWI women’s, children’s and general reading magazines. Any ideas as to whom I might offer them? They are fascinating and a good source for social history, but I doubt I will be using them.
            The boxes are heavy and high up on a shelf, so a list will only be made if interest is shown.

    3. Japan? Surely Hitachi will have subcontracted the work to China?

    4. Was it poor welding, either through skill level and or materials used: faily unlikely if it has happened repeatedly, that would be a Defect

      or

      Bad design, in which case it is a Fault and Hitachi should pay for ALL rectification and redesign the item

      PS Knowing how this Government works , it will (try to) fix the Defectand not place the blame on Hitachi

      1. Way back in the 80’s some clown in the UK designed rolling stock with lightweight bogies – they changed out the materials from steel to aluminium, but didn’t redesign based on different fatigue, yoeld and stiffness. Amazingly, these bogies were failing almost immediately… Probably the same clown who designed the Millenium Bridge in london – the one that has a fit of the shakes, until damn great shock absorbers were fitted. Steel design executed in aluminium isn’t a success.

        1. I recall that London Transport Executive bought steel wheels for the Victoria Line from Brazil which damaged the rails throughout the line.

          The Brazilian foundry had not appreciated that the iron tyres had to be cast with ‘chills’ (blocks of steel in the sand bed) to control the rate of cooling and thereby affect the structure of the cast iron.

          Our own foundries would have made light work of the contract but some ignorant whizz bought cheaply.

          Much of the track had to be replaced because of the damage caused and all of the wheels had to be replaced.

      2. To be pedantic, both are faults. The first is a result of defect and the second of a design error. I was a maintenance engineer for over 20 years where the distinctions in wording were often critical.

        2. To be pedantic squared.

          Fault: a failure in an otherwise serviceable system

          Defect: a failure because of incorrect design.

          If you have recurring similar Faults, sensibly you would query whether the design specificatios were correct, or the equipment was being used in a way other that what it was designed for.

      3. Hmm, knowing how the state works it will attempt to fix the fault, do a bad job at incredible cost, then do another bad job which will keep the vehicles running at immense cost to the tax payer over a long period of time.

        And no, it won’t go back to Hitachi for resolution as it cheaped out in not buying a service contract because that contract was many millions of pounds higher than the cost of the bus in the first place.

    5. Was it poor welding, either through skill level and or materials used: faily unlikely if it has happened repeatedly, that would be a Defect

      or

      Bad design, in which case it is a Fault and Hitachi should pay for ALL rectification and redesign the item

      PS Knowing how this Government works , it will (try to) fix the Defectand not place the blame on Hitachi

    7. The DE has the story captioned as ‘Breaking News’ . . . at which I cracked up.

  23. Good morning, everyone. Walked the dog for an hour at 0700. We returned looking like cross-Channel swimmers.

    2. What, clad only in minuscule speedos and greased up to the eyeballs? Weird…
      Morning, Delboy!

        1. If that was a radio programme, would it be a “tell”?
          I’ll get me coat…

  24. Denmark tells Syrian refugees it’s time to go home. 8 May 2021.

    Radwan Fouad Jomaa lives in Denmark with his wife and three kids. He moved there from Syria where he was born and raised. After opposing the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he fled, fearing the worst. Now Denmark is saying his hometown, Damascus, is safe again and he and his family must go home. What will he and hundreds of others like him do?

    Now that’s a policy you could get elected on! Did Labour have this in their manifesto they would now be in Downing Street!

    https://www.aljazeera.com/podcasts/2021/5/5/denmark-tells-syrian-refugees-its-time-to-go-home

      1. Very wise.

        The benefits here are never ending, and they aren’t required to find a job.

        1. Nor are they required to learn our language. Free interpreters for life so no need especially as a sound grasp of English might mean they had to get a job.

      2. Very wise.

        The benefits here are never ending, and they aren’t required to find a job.

  26. Calamity

    At dawn the telephone rings,

    “Hello Señor Bob? This is Ernesto, the caretaker at your country house.”

    “Ah yes, Ernesto. What can I do for you? Is there a problem?”

    “Um, I am just calling to advise you, Señor Bob, that your parrot, he is dead.”

    “My parrot? Dead? The one that won the International competition?”

    “Si, Señor, that’s the one.”

    “Damn! That’s a pity! I spent a small fortune on that bird. What did he die from?”

    “From eating the rotten meat, Señor Bob.”

    “Rotten meat? Who the hell fed him rotten meat?”

    “Nobody Señor. He ate the meat of the dead horse.”

    “Dead horse? What dead horse?”

    “The thoroughbred, Señor Bob.”

    “My prize thoroughbred is dead?”

    “Yes, Señor Bob, he died from all that work pulling the water cart.”

    “Are you insane? What water cart?”

    “The one we used to put out the fire, Señor.”

    “Good Lord! What fire are you talking about, man?”

    “The one at your house, Señor! A candle fell and the curtains caught on fire.”

    “What the hell? Are you saying that my mansion is destroyed because of a candle?!”

    “Yes, Señor Bob.”

    “But there’s electricity at the house! What was the candle for?”

    “For the funeral Señor Bob.”

    “What Bloody Funeral??!!”

    “Your wife’s, Señor Bob. She showed up very late one night and I thought she was a burglar. I hit her with your new Ping G15 204g titanium head golf club with the TFC 149D graphite shaft.”

    Silence………..

    Long Silence………

    Very Long Silence…………

    “Ernesto, if you broke that driver, you’re in deep shit.”

  28. Yet another letter writer blaming the GPs’ receptionist for his not be able to make an appointment.
    THE RECEPTIONIST IS CARRYING OUT THE DOCTORS’ INSTRUCTIONS ffs

    Sorry for shouting but it really does annoy me.

    SIR – Recent correspondence on access to GPs in person, rather than by telephone (May 7), highlights differences in the triage process being practised by surgeries.
    Many “gatekeepers” have been adequately trained, but others less so, which results in unsatisfactory service. The scrum to phone at 8.30am, then wait to speak to a receptionist, is typical. No commercial business that valued its customers would do this, but patients have to put up with it.
    There is an obvious disparity between good surgeries, where a patient who specifically requests a face-to-face appointment will probably receive one, and others where the receptionist is keeping in-person appointments to an absolute minimum. I am unfortunately registered at a surgery falling into the latter category, when only four miles away the opposite seems to be true.
    GPs who challenge patients’ horror stories may just be speaking from their own experience and should not generalise.
    Harry L Barker

    1. Maybe, maybe not. Our doctors gatekeepers only arrange appointments for those that they know, through school, family friends, that is locals. for the rest of us, we may get a call back, from a nurse.

      1. If you can prove that I should report them to the CQC if I were you.

        1. CQC is England only, research suggests. We can complain to thr cat, if we have one.

      2. Sounds like a good place to set up an internment camp to accommodate all our new f(r)iends from across the channel, Horace.

        1. and impose Sharia Law. The idea of pushing illegal migrants, ginger beers trans teddies off tall buildings would gain support

        1. That depends whether you think StorminDefairycake is as descriptive…

        2. Thank you, Mrs Peddy.

          The word refers to a thread yesterday when our Doughty Feminist entered the fray about the vacant slammer woman who was moaning about the TV “Pretend to join the SAS” programme.

          You were unwell, I expect..

          1. I do remember the correspondence. That’ll teach the Telly Tubbies to go woke and invite a ‘diverse’ female onto the programme.
            That has really bitten them on the bum.

          2. And I understand that – instead of telling the woman to shut up and stop moaning – they have isshooed some sort of “apology”.

            WTF did the daft bint expect?

    1. The old Labour party was, in a different way, as patriotic as the Conservatives; in fact the wartime government was a coalition.
      It was the Attlee government that helped to set up NATO and agreed to Britain having the nuclear deterrent.
      Aneurin Bevan on banning the bomb:

      “I knew this morning that I was going to make a speech that would offend and even hurt many of my friends. I know that you are deeply convinced that the action you suggest is the most effective way of influencing international affairs. I am deeply convinced that you are wrong. It is therefore not a question of who is in favour of the hydrogen bomb, but a question of what is the most effective way of getting the damn thing destroyed. It is the most difficult of all problems facing mankind. But if you carry this resolution and follow out all its implications and do not run away from it you will send a Foreign Secretary, whoever he may be, naked into the conference chamber … You call that statesmanship? I call it an emotional spasm.”

      speech at Labour Party Conference, Brighton, 3 October 1957.

      1. I recall that he never called for its destruction after Stalin had developed a nuclear bomb

    2. The USSR troops had entered Berlin on 16th April so effectively,the war was over.

        1. Leningrad and Stalingrad weren’t exactly holiday camps either.
          They had a score to settle.

          1. If the World held a minute’s silence for every Soviet citizen who died during WW2,it would be silent for 50 years.
            Sobering thought.

          2. Then if you add all those murdered on Stalin’s orders before the war – another 50 years.

          3. I know they were hit hard but

            50x365x24x60x60 = 1,576,800,000

            Are you sure?

          10. Well.. ummm… The Soviet Union did rather support Hitler in the early stages. It was only when Hitler turned on them that Stalin got a bit ticked off.

            Even then the real killer of the German army was the cold. Whether the Soviets were ill equipped I don’t know, but the troops were spent like water.

      2. off topic, re yr school chum, feedback I got was he moved to the Coast [Nyali or Malindi]. No one here in Nbo or Mombasa has heard from him since late 2009. Rumour is he headed back to UK

        2. Cheers for your efforts.We had people from all over the World.
          We even had our token Jew and German…not bad for the 60s!!

      3. Which I find a bit weird, as previously the Russians invaded Poland just after the Germans.

        The Poles were doing ok against the socialists until the communists attacked them – but then, that’s the deal Hitler did.

        If we’d kicked the Communists back at that point, perhaps WW2 would have turned out very differently.

        Hell, if we just kicked the socialists and communists in the face before they got a toe hold there’d be far less conflict in the world generally?

      1. Both Con and Lab Govts had been attempting to join since 1961. It was only the demise of De Gaulle, politically, that gained the UK (Ireland, Denmark and Norway) Accession in 1970…mere hours after the CFP had been cobbled together to take advantage of our fishing grounds. The CAP already dealt with our farming in favour of the French.

        There’s a speech on YouTube from 2 Jan 73 where Heath explains that he was fully aware of the direction of travel on the Brussels/Strasbourg gravy train.

  31. Frigjøringsdag (Liberation Day) – an official “Flagging Day. Flags flying everywhere, including at our place.

    1. So that’s why they are called “The Petersens”….

      Shalom, Hatman.

    2. that’s how Tower Hamlets, Willesden, Brent, Tottenham, Walthamstow therein Mayor of London etc. will be ruled in a few years through pre-appointing successors. And the plan will be gripped nationally

  34. London now is apparently on a knife edge, not the election
    Just London in general.

      1. Was it Van Tams wife who suddenly set up a company providing PPE? No experience before, obviously one to tender a huge contract with a subsidiary he knows about, which he would then bung a contract to.

        Fecking corruption, all at the tax payers expense.

        1. remember “the Sting” job done on him resulting in losing the England manager’s job? What goes around comes around

    6. As long as it stays in the edge, and doesn’t stick the blade into each other.

    1. It suggests there are 1210 comments but I can’t see any – I wonder why?

      1. Not sure on that front. Even with my filters I can see them?

        First most popular is ‘I wonder what sort of world I am living in’. Mine has not been posted, as it raises the racism of the woke Left, and the Mail doens’t like posting things like that.

    2. I was very popular with the black boys in my classes who used to come and chat with me affably after lessons as they responded well to my odd, self-mocking sense of humour. One of my favourites was a boy called Jimmy Ayodele – who was known to his friends as Jimbo.

      We were studying Othello and were looking at the speech in which Othello describes how he wooed Desdemona with his bravado stories of the
      “Anthropophagi, and men whose heads/ do grow beneath their shoulders”. As Othello said of his successful wooing: “She loved me for the dangers I had passed And I loved her that she did pity them. This only is the witchcraft I have used.”

      “Was this Mumbo Jumbo Jimbo” I asked. Jimbo loved the remark and laughed out loud. I suppose nowadays I would have been described as being racist.

      1. you’d have probably been stabbed. and if buried they’d have turned up at funeral to pay respects and when everyone else left, they’d have broken the coffin open and stolen your clothes and shoes

        1. Not by Jimbo who was a gentleman and a delightful young man.

          Indeed the well-educated black boys who went to the public school in which I taught and who came on our courses were from good families. They were always very polite, very well brought up and well behaved. The white girls loved him and so I would ask him: Who’s the Desdemona this week, Jimbo?

          When I sailed to the Caribbean I wrote a song about sailing around the Windward and Leeward Island entitled Hey Skip, the lyrics of which I posted here. One verse contained:

          The white girls smiled at the rastas
          But the rastas were too classy
          They did not want the white girls at all
          They wanted Hylas Selasse.

  36. from Burnside@BurnsideNotTosh

    I struggle to think of a single Labour MP who could work as a teaching assistant at a primary school without eating the crayons and being sent home in the spare pair of piss trousers. An absolute zoo.

    1. the comments are fairly blistering too. Paul Embery’s piece certainly gives the impression he’s been put on the scrap heap and only fit for paying his Union fees. He could have gone for the jugular with mention of Kneel Smarmer renouncing the inheritance of his late father’s title – Lord Stansgate, which in true form, he renounced in order to become an MP

        1. Not only did he drop the Stansgate and the Wedgewood he also amended the ‘Antony’ to plain ‘Tony’ as another prominent Labour politician called Blair did! And of course Cameron liked to be known as ‘Dave’

          The plebification of their names is something politicians think will give them more popular appeal but I do not think that Jacob Rees-Mogg is in any hurry to be known as Jake.

          4. I disagree. All they did was perpetuate the problems Labour created.

            The real crooks are Brown and Blair. Brown especially. His destruction of savings and pension investment will last for centuries. His ruination of the banks created a comfortable blame culture that he used to cover his own destructive mania.

        2. Not only did he drop the Stansgate he also amended the ‘Antony’ to plain ‘Tony’ as another prominent Labour politician called Blair did! And of course Cameron liked to be known as ‘Dave’

          The plebification of their names is something politicians think will give them more popular appeal but I do not think that Jacob Ree-Mogg is in any hurry to be known as Jake.

    2. What made me happier than anything was seeing Shami Chakrabalti’s face look at the results and just not understand. She couldn’t see why her demented, backward, vicious politics was being rejected. She just could not put A and B together. So arrogant, so self assured, so statist she saw everything she was thoroughly rejected.

      And RIGHTLY BALLY SO!

        1. Fundamental problem is the poor people are kept deliberately ignorant so they don’t realise that the solution to their predicament is solved by precisely the opposite policies as Labour endorse.

          5. Nowt stopping them from educating themselves – the interweb is there for all.
            Just that they don’t want to, it’s easier to receive handouts.

    3. Saul D is right, Labour should be contrite. However they believe that the state should pay for that.

      They’ll then walk away, leave a big sign that they were there and head off to sit on a council meeting to talk about what they might want to do. They will sincerely think this is the right approach, never realising how completely it isn’t.

    4. Perceptive comment below about the green socialists – wrapped in nice green wool.

      1. There’s no interest at all. Democracy is an annoyance to be bought when required and squandered when given.

        1. “Democracy” is label used by political entities to fit their moral narrative not agenda. It’s coming down the pipe and it will bite them

          1. Some twit suggested that Patrick Stewart pushing his dislike of Trump was democracy. Folk don’t know what it means, the root or the spirit.

    2. Working classes fair enough, but not from those who came to this country to skive, rob and live off the UK tax payers. It seems they are the only people left who support labour. Let’s just keep and eye on the London mayoral result east London is filled with people who have no cultural connection with the country they live in and would do anything and i mean anything, to get Kahnt back into office. The police, such as they are, should be keeping a very close attention of the amounts of votes names and addresses and all etc’s casted in favour of Kahnt. Last time he became mayor it was made sure that the Jewish communities of London could vote against him, it was famously known as an Admin Error……….

      1. With the large percentage of Muslims in London plus a few “leftie” fellow travelers voting, you can be assured that there will always be a Labour mayor of London,

        It’s the future.

        1. As soon as his name and notes on his background were published i just knew he’d bring over the Pakistani asian way of election cheating.
          I also understand he help in the defence of the 7/7 London bombers.
          Frankly I wouldn’t trust a muslim as far as i could throw one, they have only one common goal and that is to destroy western culture.

      2. With the large percentage of Muslims in London plus a few “leftie” fellow travelers voting, you can be assured that there will always be a Labour mayor of London,

        It’s the future.

  39. Morning all, huge eruption and burst watermain yesterday at the junction of Milton Road and Crabtree Lane Harpenden, extensive flooding. It looked as if a bomb had exploded in the road the whole of the surrounding district is now suffering quite severe water shortages. Free bottles of drinking water available to those who ned it.
    Number two son and family just been here for showers.

  40. I was told I was guilty of tax fraud. If only! And that I’d be arrested shortly.

    I found this quite funny, as they screwed up the grammar, not to mention in the speed of response and bothering to contact me.

    I had a lot of fun speaking to the ‘operator’ who was a daft Indian. After half an hour of their drivel demanding my bank details I said ‘look, I’m just wasting your time because if you’re talking to me, you’re not bothering some other innocent person who might believe your lies.’

    Then they hung up.

    1. You are Gary Line acre and i claim my 5 million pounds………

      The best thing to do when they phone is laugh they soon clear off.

  41. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9555347/JOHN-HUMPHRYS-wife-helped-die-time-helped-too.html Aaah, are our politicos starting to feel a little hot under the collar? Is this damage limitation, going to be offered in mitigation for the treatment of those elderly seen off in the care homes by govt covid action? So they have wheeled out John Humphrys as the thin end of the wedge to the thicker end? I am expecting a Euthanasia Act to be passed in Parliament sometime soon.

    1. Morning Poppie’s Mum. I of course support euthanasia; albeit for purely selfish reasons! I would like the option for myself. The problem is that we know that like Abortion it would become a tool for state sponsored murder!

      1. Good afternoon Ms Minty! Yes, my concern is that the mission would canter very swiftly into all sorts of other areas; coercion from relatives, state sponsored murder as we have seen with the govt in the care homes and nhs. With Hancock’s mooting of the subject a few days ago and the re-appearance of manipulative opinion pieces such as Humphrys (expect more in the next few months) I feel they are seeking to legitimise and minimise their past creatively murderous actions. They knew what they were doing.

    2. …and now for something completely different, Mum.

      You indicated, as did others, Paul (Oberstleutnant) and Anne (Allan) that you’d like something further to read after the end of Not A Bad Life.

      It is not yet published as a Kindle e-book but this link will let you download a .PDF version of Passing Three Score Years And Ten.

      https://www.mediafire.com/file/baqio6l3dlnefpq/Passing_Three_Score_Years_and_Ten_%2528Rev_05%2529_-_A5.pdf/file

      It may be slow in downloading but it’s not too big.

        2. Good to know but please, please remember, although I’ve proof-read it, it is still unfinished and bits and pieces may be changed, moved or even erased.

          1. Isn’t that how Windows and BL launched their products? ;-))
            Good to know I’m the beta-test bunny… I’ll advise of any typos (if any), facts I can’t check.

          3. Just had a quick look, Paul, and as of now, there have been 11 downloads – never knew I’d be that popular.

            I wonder if it’ll boost the Kindle sales of Not A Bad Life?

          5. I’ve just downloaded it, Tom, and rapidly skimmed down the pages. It looks fascinating and I look forward to taking the time to read it in full. But first I want to go to Amazon.uk and get a Kindle copy of Not A Bad Life. More on this at a later date.

          6. Thank you, Elsie, I’ve checked the recent sales and (wow) sold 5 in the last 90 days – but it was never written for profit – rather for my descendants in 200 year’s time as a marker of how we really lived.

          7. Let us know when it’s out on Amazon, will recommend to others.

          8. You will certainly sell more than Meagain. Not to mention Bill Thomas. :@)

      2. Thank you for that NtN. I will spend a happy few hours catching up on your life.

    3. after G7 circus and next jab wave. Entwined with emergency measures under Coronavirus Act and Internet Security Bill [ISB]

  42. Britain should be generous to the EU: a civil Brexit is still worth fighting for. 8 May 2021.

    Britain ought to be the more generous party here. It was obvious bad blood would remain after Brexit and we’d have to go out of our way to compensate. The fishermen of Brittany and Normandy have been shoddily treated, and deserve a break. But more importantly, post-Brexit relations risk being poisoned by a failure to overcome inevitable problems that we’ll discover as the terms of the deal fully come to light.

    What is best Minty?

    “To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/05/06/britain-should-generous-eu-civil-brexit-still-worth-fighting/

    1. Definitely. The Eu must be punished. The easiest way to do this is also the simplest.

      Cut corporation tax to 5%. Scrap all stealth taxes. Especially green ones. That’ll send all the Lefties absolutely nuts, drive the big state wasteful EU in an absoute paroxuym – it’s worst fears made manifest.

      1. “Sink me the ship, Master Gunner; sink her and split her in twain…”

    2. Come Fraser you know we are never going to get fair deal whilst the Brussels mafia are still running things.

    3. Every act of generosity which Britain has shown to the EU has been rewarded with vindictive nastiness from the EU.

      Just look at the concessions Gove and Johnson made over fishing and Northern Ireland. The EU would have had far more respect for us if we had stood firm.

    4. Crush them, and laugh while doing it. This is their doing, not ours. If you set fire to your neighbours house, don’t complain about getting a bit scorched yourself.

  43. Letters, BTL:
    Angus Long
    8 May 2021 1:31AM
    Below is an extract from my colomn this week for Trinity Mirror. I’d welcome comment from supporters and detractors alike. Enjoy:

    Is the Climate Bill too much – too soon?

    It seems the past few weeks the media has been focused on who paid for the redecoration of the PM’s Downing Street flat and who the mysterious “H” is in Line of Duty. More worryingly, far less scrutiny and debate seems to being directed to the Government’s recent announcement of its new Climate Change Bill.

    From what I’ve been able to find out, the key element is to reduce emissions by 78% by 2035 and Net zero by 2050. This carbon budget will incorporate a wide range of initiatives covering almost every aspect of how we live and work.

    The government has said they want to continue to raise the bar on tackling climate change, and that’s why they have set the most ambitious targets yet to cut emissions in the world. They also hope other countries will follow our path.

    When it comes to dramatic and sweeping changes to how we exist, there needs to be a balance on the impact such things will have on our livelihoods. Like everything, we must weigh the benefits with the consequences such changes will have and then ask ourselves if the price is worth paying.

    For example; everyone tends to equate CO2 emissions with things like heavy industry and fossil fuel cars. I was intrigued to learn that the CO2 created by sending one tweet was the equivalent to power a 60W light bulb for 17 seconds and an hour-long video call creates 170g of CO2 which is about the same weight as a pack of gravy granules.

    The West enjoys a comfortable existence, taking for granted things such as healthcare, education, transport, quality built housing, central heating, clean water, abundant food, and let’s not forget all the modern technology and gadgets we have become so reliant on. All of these things we take for granted cost money and for them to remain sustainable requires a strong and stable economy. The public sector and government subsidies are funded by the private sector economy. If that crashes, then so does everything else. So I do worry that the green utopia outlined in the climate bill, while noble and beneficial to the environment, is too much – too soon.

    We need to acknowledge that the percentage of the world’s greenhouse gases emitted by the UK is just over 1%. The top five: China, USA, India, Russia and Japan collectively emit about 60%. So the government is right when it says if other countries, these five in particular, don’t follow suit then our efforts, sacrifices and costs will be in vain.

    Developing countries that are now attracting investment and industry are starting to enjoy a better quality of life and may not be willing to risk going back to being third world again because of western virtue signalling on climate control.

    However, like most people, I accept that mankind is polluting the planet and that in turn is causing a wide range of problems. I don’t think anyone would argue that reducing pollution is not a good thing to do. The effect of the cleanliness of air, water and soil on the health of the Earth’s fauna and flora is relatively easy to understand and, to a degree, act upon.

    Yet, when it comes to climate change, it’s not so clear. We are regularly told by the likes of Sir David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg and numerous celebrities that if we don’t radically curtail greenhouse gas emissions it will cause mass extinctions and the end of the world. There are many scientists that have published papers that illustrate a correlation between manmade greenhouse gases and climate change. Correlation though, does not necessarily prove causation.

    My main issue with the more extreme elements of the climate debate is the idea that we can control the climate. Humans, while an advanced species, are a relatively recent addition to this planet and we mislead ourselves on the subject of controlling it. Mother Earth has been around for over 5 billion years and during that time has undergone many changes from extreme cold, to fiery hot. She has introduced new species and rid herself of others. In the grand scheme of things, we are nothing to her and nothing we do will change that.

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

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

    1. Minor point. Canute was making the point to his advisors that even the King couldn’t stop the tide from coming in.

    2. Précis:
      The Government greenies haven’t a clue how this will affect most Britons.

      Précis of the précis.
      The Government greenies haven’t a clue.

      1. I think you underestimate their capacity for evil. They know perfectly well what they are doing.

        1. You might be right, but I still think they don’t realise how hard it will hit them and their cosy middle class lifestyles.
          Greenery is like socialism, it can only really be enjoyed by the very rich who are insulated (ho ho) from the outcomes.

          1. That is true of the useful idiots like minor university academics, but the politicians are creaming off millions, so I suppose they feel safe.
            On a normal trip to Britain, how much money would an expatriate coming home or a visitor spend in shops, restaurants, tourist attractions and other small businesses?
            Whatever it is, you now have to deduct about 170 euros per person for the quarantine tests. That’s money that would have gone to British businesses, i.e. to the middle and lower middle classes, that is now being channeled directly into the pockets of whichever crony is licenced to sell these tests.
            This makes me very angry indeed.

        2. Green has nothing – not-a-thing to do with assisting the environment. The entire scam is simply a mechanism for taking money from one group and giving it to another.

      2. The same report also state the following emission per capita:
        Canada 15.67
        US 15.57
        Australia 17.27
        China 8.12
        UK 5.45

          1. “China emitted more greenhouse gases in 2019 than all of the world’s other developed nations put together”
            Sorry I can only see the above on my screen! Another Disqus ?

          2. I meant to say ‘It did go on to say’.

            And that was in the link in my original post.

    4. Correlation. When I was studying marketing at night school the lecturer pointed out that when the temperature in New York fell below -5 degrees the numbers turning up for his class in Edinburgh inevitably fell. There was a direct correlation, a coefficient of +1.
      (The reason was the common factor of its being winter in the Northern Hemisphere.)

  44. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/72f24617013c5219f2833c3978943d79888afe9744cfcb621247d0a0bdccd4cc.png I think the main question that is begging an answer is this: If you were to turn up at Speakers’ Corner and … speak, then who is going to (physically) prevent you from doing so?

    If you are arrested for doing so, then what section of which Act of Parliament have you transgressed?

    Section 17(5) of PACE 1984 abolished all powers of a Constable to enter under the common law with the specific exception (subsection 6) when dealing with or preventing a common law breach of the peace. This “offence” definition and power of arrest are contained under the common law definition of “breach of the peace”. Breach of the peace powers are unusual in the fact they originate from the laws Alfred the Great consolidated into the common law approximately 1,000 years before the modern Constable was thought up. The first legislative reference to the common law breach of the peace was under the Justice of the Peace Act 1361.

    Freedom of speech is not a breach of the peace. Arrest me for simply exercising my time-given rights under Common Law then be prepared to suffer the consequences in a court of law.

    1. You’ll get a right beasting first. Especially if you are female, and even more so if you are elderly.

    2. The problem is ‘freedom of speech’ is now trumped by hate crime laws. At least it is in the eyes of Plod when Whitey is trying to make a point about colonisation, or even reading from the Bible.

      1. I wonder what would happen in a truly race-blind court if Mrs Lammy brought a hate crime charge against her husband.

    3. Sorry, but if you think that you won’t be arrested and that the state will let you get away with it, I doubt your soundness.

      Besides, there’ve been countless acts (of law) since that point of freedom to ensure the state can silence you.

  45. The real disaster about these election results is that the paramour in residence will convince the prime minister that his popularity is the result of her influence on him and his policy announcements and he will persist with her green nonsense and ignore the promises he made before the election such as: reform of the BBC, no prosecution of NI veterans, no border in the Irish Sea, reclamation in full of our fishing waters etc. etc.

    Johnson is probably now convinced that he and his fiend-like mistress can get away with anything.

    1. he knew that last year. They’ve played this runaway train so long they neither have the interest nor how to stop it as that admits defeat

      1. I think they mean furrin aid – not handouts to the great unwashed tide of, er, British people.

        1. nothing. Money’s shifted sideways into Foreign Office’s Commonwealth Dvelopment Corporation [CDC] aka private sector arm for “Development”

          1. It probably bought all those anti-tank misiles for the Jihadists in Syria!

          2. you’re a lot closer to the truth than may realise. Joint US / UK op which brought about problems for septics in Benghazi taking Gaddafi’s missiles for “Syria Defence Force” and support for it’s civil arm “White Helmets” and not paying full whack. You can add the mercenary force with Turkey’s help supplied arms to cause problems in Azerbaijan, hence the President rail roading the BBC [yesterday’s post]

          3. Mrs Allan’s confusion (understandable – she has been unwell) was to think that the article referred to UK benefits.

    2. The more easy money those stone age countries get, the more they breed. Enough is enough. All the £millions they have had over the years has done nothing to end the cycle or even improve the situation. I suspect most were better off under the various empires, certainly kept the warring tribes/factions in check too – how very un-pc of me.

      1. There is a link in this chain missing. I doubt if as much as this gets through. Where is the black politician?

        My cousin in Zimbabwe says that Aid payments are referred to as Mercedes Money.

    2. Te state will swiftly move in to shut it down, then. Big state will not permit disoebedience.

  48. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/drivers-warned-their-everyday-actions-could-see-them-issued-fines-penalty-points-or-ban/ar-BB1gstg4?ocid=msedgntp

    This what happened in south Australia in the early 2000s when the state government effed up the state fiances the police were told the nick every one that moved on the roads. And they did. 2 k over the speed limit 200 dollars.
    Mind you the standard of driving in the England has without any doubt seriously deteriorated over the past ten years. It is appalling.

    1. A 30mph sign which lights up every time a vehicle approaches at over 30 mph has recently been set up on one of the approach roads into my town. I find that most vehicles are going above the speed limit and very few slow down. If the police set up a trap and prosecuted drivers doing 31mph and over, they would make a fortune. Fortunately they haven’t done that so far. It is disconcerting for cyclists like myself to have them passing us at the speeds they do.

      1. We have one of those at the bottom a hill at the T junction of the main road as we drive out of the lane from our house, over 90% of drivers are speeding many well into the 40s, MPH. The 30 from 40 limit sign is over 200 hundred yards before the flashing sign and there is a ruble strip.
        A couple of weeks ago i pulled out of the T junction having seen a cyclist at the top of the hill,………he was trying to over take me before i’d traveled 20 yards. I’m quite convinced he was traveling well over 30 miles an hour.
        Quite often if you do take the speed limits seriously as i do, people tailgate.

        1. Good afternoon Eddy. One of my University chums told me that he had been cautioned whilst doing more than 30mph downhill on his bike.
          I try to keep under the speed limit but 20mph is difficult.
          Incidentally my diesel Astra has an “Auto Stop” facility which shows on the rev counter close to the zero rev sign. I have come to a sudden halt recently for, to me, no reason. The road was relatively quiet but a car had to brake and halt behind me, until I got underway again.
          I was quite shaken by the experience. In the owners manual there is a list of situations which could halt the car including a cold engine, ambient temp below – 5degrees C and others. It seems a dangerous feature to have in a car.

          1. I’ve never come across that on a car that before Clydie. But it is a Vauxhall though eh 😉
            The thing that annoys me about cyclist more then anything else, is most of them don’t have any form of audible warning device as in a simple bell. The times I’ve been close to being knocked over on footpaths as they charge about and ride past your shoulder from behind. It’s pure ignorance and self indulgency. That’s why I now carry a stout stick walking my dog on foot paths. Just in case.

          2. “Auto Stop” should never stop the car when it’s moving. It should only cut in when you have come to a halt and depressed the brake and clutch pedals. Or on the case of automatic transmission, the vehicle is at a standstill with the brake pedal depressed.

        2. Serves you right for driving on the cyclist’s race track. You were lucky you didn’t get a YouTube posted and a summons from plod. Cyclists have no legal responsibility to obey speed limits except where required by local bye laws eg in Royal Parks and I’ve not met one showing moral responsibility either.

          1. I saved the stupid prats life, I could have quite easily have knocked him off.
            I call them BoBs. Especially when they ride through our 20 MPH village as fast as they dare and not stopping when people are using the Pedestrian crossing. I also take a stout stick when walking the local foot paths.

    2. It’s a cr@p article. Daily Express motoring articles are almost always rubbish. It says eating or drinking at the wheel is illegal but that is wrong: only any resulting careless or dangerous driving is illegal, which is a different matter.

  49. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/drivers-warned-their-everyday-actions-could-see-them-issued-fines-penalty-points-or-ban/ar-BB1gstg4?ocid=msedgntp

    This what happened in south Australia in the early 2000s when the state government effed up the state fiances the police were told the nick every one that moved on the roads. And they did. 2 k over the speed limit 200 dollars.
    Mind you the standard of driving in the England has without any doubt seriously deteriorated over the past ten years. It appalling.

    1. Afternoon Belle. Yesterday Nothing! Now an arrest. They’re fitting this guy up!

      1. They were looking for a mixed-race chap whose picture they showed on the TV last night.

        1. There’s some confusion as to whether it’s he who’s been arrested.

      2. Police arrest British man in his 20s from Canterbury area over murder of PCSO Julia James, 53, who was found bludgeoned to death in field 12 days ago

        Kent Police arrested a man in his 20s from the Canterbury area at 9.30pm on Friday and he remains in custody
        Women frightened to walk their dogs on their own and the local running club has told members to run in pairs
        53-year-old Julia James was killed in Snowdown, Kent, on April 27, in brutal attack where she was bludgeoned

        Police shared photo of man Friday before they identified him and said they did not need any more information
        It came hours after Mrs James’ husband Paul broke his silence to write on Facebook ‘I miss you so much Luvly’

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9556661/Julia-James-neighbours-scared-leave-home-fear-killer-know.html

      1. Yes, a picture on yesterday’s local BBC TV news.

        He looked North African so I suspect that we won’t discover his name.

  52. Putin’s glamorous troops prepare alongside Russia’s deadliest weaponry in Moscow’s Red Square as they rehearse for Sunday’s WW2 Victory Day parade. 8 May 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/60955ab9ad7588e793a9b031280fb686b57b24c0a25165aed8d3129954b8079e.jpg

    Preparation for Russia’s extravagant annual victory day parade have been held in Moscow’s Red Square on Friday ahead of the 76th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender and the end of the Second World War.

    Vlad’s bodyguard! Lol!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9554265/Putins-glamorous-troops-rehearse-Sundays-WW2-Victory-Day-parade.html

    2. But we all know that Germany & Japan won WW2, the proof of that is the stupid Americans rebuilt them from scratch whilst the Yanks let their ally Britain rot away & get taken over by the dregs of the 3rd world.

      1. Afternoon Hatman. A part of US strategy during WWII was to undermine the British Empire. A policy they pursued with more rigour afterwards!

          1. Eisenhower liked us a lot less than the MSM would have us believe! It didn’t help of course that we had Eden as Prime Minister. A man without a spine! If I remember correctly the Israeli’s asked him if we were still proceeding to which he replied I’ve already told the Americans we are withdrawing!

      2. If you now compare where the US dropped the two A bombs to parts of once thriving industrialised post war America the contrast is startling.

      4. It goes back further to WW1 where Woodrow Wilson was determined to sideline Britain and undermine its Imperialist Empire.

        2. Gave the US the Colossus computer at the end of the war

          Also access to Bermuda

    4. Listen very carefully

      Squelsh, Slurp, Squelsh, Slurp, Squelsh, Slurp, Squelsh, Slurp,Squelsh, Slurp, Squelsh, Slurp, Squelsh, Slurp, Squelsh, Slurp,

      2. Sounds a bit like the women’s’ 110 metre hurdles, squish squish squish, slurp, squish squish squish, slurp, etc.

    5. Listen very carefully

      Squelsh, Slurp, Squelsh, Slurp, Squelsh, Slurp, Squelsh, Slurp,Squelsh, Slurp, Squelsh, Slurp, Squelsh, Slurp, Squelsh, Slurp,

      1. So is Snow White, she should be depicted as bloody sh1t black, Shirley

  55. Today is VE Day – ‘Victory in Europe Day’ – the day towards the end of World War Two when fighting against Nazi Germany in Europe came to an end. A day to remember those who died serving their country and helped rid the world of an evil despot.

    BBC Radio 4 has marked the occasion by broadcasting a celebration of the life and achievements of Napoleon Bonaparte

    If lies were flies the BBC would be a vast heap of maggots waiting their turn to transform into parasitic infectious predators and swarm over the enfeebled body of defenceless licence payers.

    https://www.thevintagenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/1280px-maniac-ravings-gillray-640×481.jpeg

    I am not a fan of the BBC.

    1. I am not a fan of the BBC.

      Who is? A cesspool of perverts, liars and traitors!

      1. Video unavailable
        This video contains content from Mosfilm, who has blocked it from display on this website or application.
        Watch on YouTube        ……….. ???

          3. So do I. I have it on DVD. There was rash of “Battle” films at the time and most of them, despite having the Russian Army as extras, are fairly unimpressive

          1. Napoleon’s greatest achievement was to modernise the French State. Ironically we could do with someone like him in the UK right now!

          3. Two hours…………..whoops i just remembered my hair needs a wash.
            I once read that the reason why yer Froglés eat so much crap i.e. snails, frogs, ducks gizzards, tripe offal etc.Is because Napoleon’s army stole all the food from the locals as they march through France.

    3. Not only and but also,……. the ‘old stick in the mud’s’ are still at it.
      Agincourt Wikipedia.
      The field of battle was arguably the most significant factor in deciding the outcome. The recently ploughed land hemmed in by dense woodland favoured the English, both because of its narrowness, and because of the thick mud through which the French knights had to walk.[60][61]

      Accounts of the battle describe the French engaging the English men-at-arms before being rushed from the sides by the longbowmen as the mêlée developed. The English account in the Gesta Henrici says: “For when some of them, killed when battle was first joined, fall at the front, so great was the undisciplined violence and pressure of the mass of men behind them that the living fell on top of the dead, and others falling on top of the living were killed as well.”[62]

      Although the French initially pushed the English back, they became so closely packed that they were described as having trouble using their weapons properly. The French monk of St. Denis says: “Their vanguard, composed of about 5,000 men, found itself at first so tightly packed that those who were in the third rank could scarcely use their swords,”[63] and the Burgundian sources have a similar passage.

      Recent heavy rain made the battle field very muddy, proving very tiring to walk through in full plate armour. The French monk of St. Denis describes the French troops as “marching through the middle of the mud where they sank up to their knees. So they were already overcome with fatigue even before they advanced against the enemy”. The deep, soft mud particularly favoured the English force because, once knocked to the ground, the heavily armoured French knights had a hard time getting back up to fight in the mêlée. Barker states that some knights, encumbered by their armour, actually drowned in their helmets.[64]

    1. Good for them and for blocking the cycle lanes whilst parking on double yellows.

  58. Watch out, Putin! Royal Navy deploys assault ship to Baltic – New era of operations begin. 8 May 2021.

    More than 1,000 sailors and Royal Marines will take part in the three-month mission to provide “reassurance to allies and deter potential adversaries”. The military operation is the first to be led by the Littoral Response Group (LRG) task group after it replaced the long-standing Amphibious section. The Baltic region has been the sight of increased Russian aggression in the last few months, with Vladimir Putin ordering military exercises on land and sea.

    Great God Almighty. Geopolitics for the under sevens!

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1433210/Royal-navy-news-royal-marines-Baltic-sea-atlantic-Russia-latest-Vladimir-putin

    1. The Baltic region has been the sight of increased Russian aggression.

      Sight?

      1. Afternoon Phizzee. They’ve pushed their borders right up against out fleet! The villains!

        1. Good afternoon.

          The way the article juxtaposes the two sentences suggests our response to the supposed aggression is to send warships.

          The MOD said at least 10 days ago that this was a planned exercise and had nothing to do with rising tensions in the area.

          2. I posted previously when the build up on the Russian side was ongoing it was Vlads show of strength in response to the abuse he was seeing from America and the EU.

            I also said unlike most of the headlines in our dreary media that it was unlikely to result in war.

      2. Sight. Site. Been. Seen. You expect the modern journo to know the difference?

        1. I found a web page about conjunctivitis – that was a site for sore eyes too!

    4. Those lads will love the Baltic…warm water,always calm,balmy temperatures.
      Why,it’s almost mediterranean!

  59. 332495+ up ticks,
    Which of the lab/lib/con coalition are the sheep skin party,
    the cons ( ino) are favs at this moment in time as in oath taking in parliament via the koran & halal on the canteen menu.
    Then again lab could make an unsavoury return on being sympathetic to the paedophilic cause as shown by triggering mass uncontrolled immigration and the rotherham cover up.

    Do the indigenous give any thought to the legacy they are leaving or does ” party first” have such a
    strong grip ?

    The next overseers I believe will only have one mask wearer it will be him with the big chopper.

    https://twitter.com/LeaveEUOfficial/status/1391006968291209217

    https://twitter.com/LeaveEUOfficial/status/1391006968291209217

    1. Doesn’t that just amply illustrate the government blindness to the jihadi, terrorist ideology?

      (and their hatred of the established church – Welby’s doing.)

      1. 332495+ up ticks,
        Evening NtN,
        I do not believe blindness but more an orchestrated campaign being run since 24/6/2016 what is being sucked out of society by this LLC coalition is decency, personal self respect & most certainly any political honesty has long gone.

        The electorate instead of being the answer are aiding & abetting the odious problem.

        Why was Gerard Batten / UKIP ( rhetorical truthsayer on islamic ideology) taken down by the party nEC / nige ?

        what is the farage stance on islamic ideology ?

        The electorate are their own worst enemy with their vote to keep in / keep out whilst another agenda is taking place behind their regular voting scene.

  60. Am (foolishly) watching BBC election programme. All I’ve seen so far is how well Labour have done (in Wales), together with SNP and Liverpool Labour Mayor successes.

      1. Referring back to the 2nd Covid jab the other day and persistent headache on one side of my head , I will be seeing an out of hours doctor this evening at our local hospital . The 111 team have had similar calls to mine .

          3. The last time I had flu was 26 years ago – but I didn’t bother with the jab till last year.

          1. Wednesday night /Thursday a real stonker of a headache , quite worrying, the same yesterday , but not a consistent pain , last night in bed yes , and this morning all on one side of my head .

            111 are saying that this is a not too common feature of jab but happens , and might vanish eventually , but they said I need a check up.

          2. Good luck with it, don’t be on your own for any length of time if you can possibly avoid it.

          5. You should have it looked at Belle. You’ve been crook for a couple of days now. Don’t take chances.

          6. 111 have made me an appt to see out of hours doctor at local hospital this evening . I have to get there , then ring them to be let in re Covid rules . I hope it is nothing serious .. am on blood thinners.

          7. How did the appointment go? Apologies if you’ve already told everyone – I’ve been outside most of the day.

        5. Oh bugger. I hope it’s nothing serious.
          One of two even older than me gentlemen chatting in the queue in the paper shop commented that he felt unwell and the other asked if he’d had the jab, to which the first replied, “Yes, three weeks ago. So I doubt if it’s that.”

          I interjected with I wouldn’t be sure about that and then told them I’d volunteered to be an unvaccinated control!

    3. I sort of have vague memories of seeing that film donkeys years ago, its in Italian & a sort of softcore sex comedy if I recall correctly. I’ll try & come up with a name for the film once I’ve got the time to research it a bit.

        1. They used to have an unbelievable number of “Wheel of Fortune” programmes as well.

      2. Must be early 60s – I remember the underwear very well and, yes, I’m still dreaming

  63. Well folks as my lovely little 15 month-old, into everything, grand daughter would say Cuppateee. Time. ☕

    1. He’ll get his Hooman riiaghts lawyer friends to sue the people who voted against labour.

  65. Lewis Hamilton wins his 100th pole at the Spanish Grand Prix. I put my tin hat on now.

    1. I guess suggestions as to in which end of Lewis H to stick a pole are probably not welcome?

      1. Good afternoon Sue – I admire him for his driving skills. I have problems in my little car with the multiple switches on the dashboard. LH has to deal with more complex computer programmes on his car as well as keeping his car on the road at 200mph. He does have some good points in his personality. He’s British and flies the flag for the UK. I accept that many people thoroughly dislike him.

        1. It is his knee-jerk reaction to matters totally beyond his intellect, and his smug, loud-mouth behaviour (among other things) that pisses me off. A wanqueur par excellence…. Apart from that, he is lucky that the cars he drives are well made.

          I don’t watch motor racing nowadays – but have always thought that the engineering difference between the top two or three brands of F1 car and the ones at the bottom is far too great.

          2. But at least the guys at the bottom sometimes beat the guys at the top.
            Does a constructor at the bottom of the pit ever win a Grand Prix, or even get a Podium finish?

    2. He’s a bloody good driver, but is too quick to jump on the nearest passing bandwagon.

      1. He seems to malign his mother as well.
        That’s why i no longer have any interest in him.

    3. a few years ago he did a publicity day with Valentino Rossi.
      Rossi is timed for one flying lap on his Yamaha and then a lap in Hamilton’s Mercedes.
      Hamilton does the same.One lap on the bike,one in the car.
      I won’t bore you with the outcome.

      1. With a bit of luck the BLM idiot fell off the bike and was marbleised.

        I can dream, can’t I?

  66. The rain has stopped- for a bit – and I went out to check the greenhouse.

    For the first time in weeks it is MILD out. Still a strong breeze but without the biting edge we have had for so long. Supposed to be 20ºC tomorrow… I wonder….

      1. Of course – you wouldn’t want them to be hindered in any way, would you?

    2. 332495+ up ticks,
      Afternoon TB,
      Sad to say the electorate think otherwise and the polling booth confirms it.

    4. If they are so enamoured of Palestine, why aren’t they living there?

    5. ‘Effin’ police escort an’ all.

      Are they there to just deflect the Molotov cocktails.

  68. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9555879/The-Good-Life-given-viewer-warning-offensive-racial-imagery.html

    The Good Life is given a viewer warning for offensive racial imagery after an episode featured the Golly badge for Robertson’s jam
    Episode four of the comedy featured a scene in which the character Margo wore an apron featuring Robertson’s jam since-banned Golly badge
    BritBox has now reportedly added a disclaimer warning viewers that the episode ‘contains offensive racial imagery’
    Robertson’s jam was axed in 2008 after becoming a symbol of controversy for its use of the Golly character
    It comes after numerous comedies faced calls to be removed from broadcast and streaming, including Little Britain and Gavin and Stacey
    By AISHA NOZARI FOR MAIL

    1. All right, I’ll come clean. I had a knitted golly as a child.

      Where do I report for re-education?

      2. At the infant school I went to, every little girl was taught to knit and to knit a golly. What did the black kids say? There weren’t any.

          1. And how many of those were African or Afro-Caribbean, rather than Chinese/Asian or Indian/Pakistani?

            Two communities which now appear to be worth a lot less than the sum of their parts, Pakistani and Afro-Caribbean.

          2. I can’t tell you. In those (good old) days, we didn’t embarrass people by asking their origin…

          4. Westernised Oriental Gentleman

            Someone who worked in the Indian Civil Service

          5. I can’t tell you. In those (good old) days, we didn’t embarrass people by asking their origin…

          7. The first non-white people I remember seeing were Caribbean nurses when I was in hospital, aged 10.

          13. Which reminds me —

            Anyone seen Gina Miller recently?

            I would have thought that she’d be busy interfering in the elections.

      3. As a small child I intensely disliked anything with a black face – a golly, a doll, even stuffed soft animal toys. Our little white dog doesn’t like black dogs or anyone dressed in black although at 11 years she is somewhat getting over the last. She also doesn’t like Jack Russells, but she loves, loves, loves golden retrievers and goes off bounding joyfully to say hello to any she sees.

        1. I do remember living in London in the late 60s and early 70s, when my eldest daughter, then about 3 or 4, was on a bus with her Mama and a black man sat on the opposite, side-facing seat. Sylvia pointed, turned her face up to her Mama and said, loud enough to be heard right across the lower deck of the bus, “Look, golliwog.”

          Suffice to say that Ann was mortified.

          1. I had a much loved golliwog which I called “wog”.

            A family story relates that I was out with my grandmother, and a black woman asked if that was my golly.

            I replied “no, it’s ‘wog’.”

            I was told that a stony silence ensued.

      4. My late sister had a cherished Golly and also a black plastic doll with curly hair.

        The Golly went missing and my dad discovered it drowned in a bucket of cement mortar (he was building a stone wall). The culprit my evil and estranged younger brother.

        1. Are you and Phizzee Insert Nottler of choice related?

          Sorry Phizzee, too much of an open goal!

      5. My brother, now sadly deceased, made a point of collecting Golliwogs, despite living in N Carolina or maybe because of that.

        He found an absolute treasure trove in New Zealand but I’m sure their wobbly PM has confiscated them all by now.

        I’m going to google ‘Golliwog Dolls’ and see what I can find.

    1. But Ped, there’s hardly anyone there. They’re all “working from home”, which I used to think was a euphemism for taking time off but in the last year…

    2. Many immunologists believe the Covid virus to be made in a laboratory. It is now thought that it may have escaped from the Wuhan laboratory or else was seeded by the Chinese and given leave to their populations to travel all over the world thus infecting many nationals in other countries. We saw this in Northern Italy early on in the spread of the disease.

      It was recognised that the Spike protein made the virus particularly infectious and this fact was utilised by politicians and Pharma interests to create a panic and force ‘vaccines’ on populations. These ‘vaccines’ infect the recipients with the Spike protein by subtly different means between the competing Pharma giants.

      The virus has been touted as being a respiratory virus whereas it is likely vascular given the reported incidence of blood clotting. Whether those taking the ‘vaccines’ survive or not will depend as ever upon their innate immune systems.

      It is becoming obvious that we are dealing with a bio-weapon which is the first shot across the bows by the CCP. It is likely that further manufactured and more deadly viruses are ready to be released.

      The Spike protein is the actual weapon as it has been shown that it causes vascular disease and blood clotting when administered to rodents attached to a pseudovirus.

      The ‘vaccination’ programme should cease at once. This is important to enable proper evaluation of adverse effects and because we see in India that the ‘vaccinated’ are infecting the ‘unvaccinated’, many of whom are dying. The ‘vaccines’ do not give immunity and are of little if any positive use excepting the nefarious purpose to infect otherwise healthy populations and likely kill many.

      2. The timing and control, around Chinese New Year, makes me sure it was deliberate.

        1. Me too. Too many coincidences, too much evasion and subterfuge by the WHO and obvious notice and pre-planning by the Davos Mob of gangsters.

      3. I thank God that I refused the jab. Worried about Best Beloved as she already has JAK2 type blood cancer – produces too many platelets – and she has to take a capsule chemotherapy, 5 times a week. I just wonder what are the possible side effects of having the vaccine wandering around her immune system and does it nullify the effects of the chemo.

        China and big pharma have much to answer for.

      4. I have seen this suggestion (that vaccinated people can pass the spike proteins to non-vaccinated people) several times recently, but I have yet to see a really credible source – do you have any references, corimmobile?
        It’s tempting to dismiss it forthwith as nonsense, but we are being asked to believe far less likely things by the government, so who knows?

          1. Thank you for the link!
            OK, I have read it, and the first part deals with a research paper that shows that the spike protein on its own causes significant damage to the human body (details are described in the article).
            This would appear to be the vascular damage caused by the vaxxes, the blood clots etc.

            But the claim of the vaxx companies is that by injecting these spike proteins or stimulating your body to make them, then your body is forced to develop resistance, which as a side effect, gives you resistance against the coronavirus.

            (The question that nobody can answer is, what is the long term effect of having these spike proteins in your system? because apparently they don’t go away)

            So far, so good.

            The bit about shedding spike proteins comes towards the end of the article, and is not linked to any published research. (Of course, it is political dynamite which would hinder research and publication.)

            I have read about self-replicating virus research before (what a f’ing stupid idea!), but it isn’t linked specifically to spike proteins. The idea was, as I understood it, to make “empty” viruses that looked like enough to the real thing to fool the immune system, and that would get spread in the same way by infected animals or people.

            I cannot relate this to the mRNA vaccines that stimulate your body’s own cells to produce spike proteins though. Up til now, it’s just speculation whether vaccinated people can pass the spike proteins on – though a little alarming to me, as my dearly beloved has been jabbed, and I have not.

            I have read that babies are being born with immunity from mothers who have been vaccinated, and this is of course not normal for any previous vaccine. So are these babies being born with their cells making spike proteins? If the mothers were jabbed while pregnant, this would prove that the vaxx can cross the placenta – which I suppose it logical as it is in the blood stream which the baby shares. But this is a special case of transmission.

            I’m very interested to see any concrete research on this!

      1. And they will be allowed to.

        Too much Swiss opportunity knocks for those in power.

  71. Sturgeon said the Scottish referendum was a once in a generation event, then they went and vaccinated everyone for some reason.

    1. “The really good part is that it pays for itself.

      We people smuggle on the return journey.”

    4. Thanks, Plum, once again the stupidity of this government is highlighted for all to see.

    5. I actually considered that but I don’t think they would grant me a licence at my age. My old HGV licence expired a long while ago.

  74. It should be easy to sort the Scottish problem, split them into three regions like they have regionalised England
    and don’t let them have a Parliament

  75. Sky News reporting that it understands that Keith Starmer has sacked Angela Rayner as Labour Party Chair. She remains as the party’s Deputy Leader as that is an elected position.

  76. Just found out that the former Surrey PCC, whose alarm system maintenance bill was paid by us (£700), will have to pay the bill himself in future. Oh dear. How sad. What a shame.

    1. Hi Maggie. The incumbent PCC was David Munro. I voted for Kevin Hurley, who claims no political party, but is an ex-plod. He spoke at a UKIP Conference a few tears ago, and I was impressed.

  78. This evening Diane Abbott is going through the election results while wear a plastic face covering.
    She says that she wants to look at the results from a different perspextive

    3. Someone wrote a book about it – A hound in the BSA, Phil? PS: The first edition was in dog Latin.

    7. Did you know that the woof is the same as the weft and it goes in and out through the warp? Make of that what you will – a tablecloth or a blanket perhaps!

    8. Police can tell how fast the motor cyclist is travelling by watching the elevation of the ear spoilers.

  80. Not withstanding the slap in the face to the people of the UK on VE Day with a celebration of Nappy Bonefart earlier, the BBC are presently commemorating another really, really important date in history:-

    BBC Radio 4: Emeli Sande explores the impact of Marvin Gaye’s classic album What’s Going On explaining why this seminal work of art still has relevance and resonance in the 21st century.

    An hour of joy and thanksgiving for Gaye’s semolina work. Enough to make you throw up!

    1. Marvin Gaye’s life was rather sordid. Doubtless adds to his appeal.

      Schubert Mass in G in church tomorrow morning. The choir is now 12 singers. 8 professionals plus a private donor is paying for 4 choral scholars.

        1. Yes. With 1m distancing, the church will accommodate at least 100 and in recent weeks it’s been nearly full. Half the number who attended pre-Covid of course.

        1. I only sing in the vicinity of very loud machinery. Tractors don’t complain!

          1. When men begin to sow,
            Full well their corn they know,
            In the month of May.
            However Janyver blow,
            Whether high or low,
            God speed the plough alway.

      3. Good to hear, Sue. I direct 2 small choirs*. Both could be easily socially distanced, and the rules have allowed them to sing, since last Summer. Unfortunately, the Rector won’t hear of it, and I’m reduced to downloading recorded hymns from Amazon.

        *I doubt whether I have even one small choir, post Covid…

          1. Paul – I couldn’t agree more. Ironically, our Rector is relatively sceptical about Covid, Brexit, Climate Emergency and the like. But he has to go along with the Covibollocks.

            At the church with the most remaining choir members, they are keen to resume, but these were the same people I heard bemoaning the fact that their supermarket deliveries had to be disinfected, and left outside for three days…

          2. Mother-in-Law was talking about thousands dying every day in the UK from Covid… that’s what she gets from the BBC. (to end of business on 6th, it’s 151,533 or 0.23% of the population, being about 350 per day. If that’s the hysterical message, no wonder folks are frightened. As is daft teacher friend.

        2. The choir I joined organised a survey of members to find out who was willing to attend rehearsals wearing a mask. As I try to follow the science I declined to attend wearing (and trying to sing in) a mask as a result I can’t sing in the concert planned for the end of June…..so be it.

          1. I suspect that’s the future for my choirs, Stephen. Our Rector is sceptical where Brexit is concerned, but appears to be terrified of ‘the plague’. Legally, small choirs have been allowed since last Summer.

          2. Our church choir take their masks off when they’re singing. We had 24 of the 25 present the Sunday before last.

        3. The choir I joined organised a survey of members to find out who was willing to attend rehearsals wearing a mask. As I try to follow the science I declined to attend wearing (and trying to sing in) a mask as a result I can’t sing in the concert planned for the end of June…..so be it.

  82. Right, I’m away for a snifter and some mind-numbing TV to which I can fall asleep and appear here again, much, much later.

    Auf wiedersehn, Pet.

    1. Martin Luther King:
      “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” ~From the “I have a dream” speech

      1. judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
        I think a lot of people in the UK might well have been doing that for a few decades, then the knives, drugs and bad attitude came to the surface and they started blaming everyone else for their stupid problems. And bashing any one who objected over the head with a large ‘i’m black’ stick and that was when a complete change of reasoning and attitude set in.

    1. Perhaps Starmer should have done the decent thing, resigned and recommended his deputy …

    3. That’s the most outstanding and common problem all politicians seem to have………….when they eff up, it’s always everyone else fault.
      I saw her on TV a week ago and I quite liked her.

      1. I think she’s saying “What would you like for supper, M’lud? Fish and chips as usual, or truffles and trifle?”

        :-))

  87. Good night, dear friends and God bless – ’til the morning’s light.

      1. Thank you for asking, but the answer is, not good, unfortunately, and no news on the canine front. I saw a dog who would be suitable, but two others are going to view him before me, so the chances of my getting him are pretty near zero, I’d think. I just have to be as patient as I can, but the empty space is no easier to live with.

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