Sunday 17 January: Speedy vaccination centres should be encouraged to keep up the pace

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/01/17/letters-speedy-vaccination-centres-should-encouraged-keep-pace/

766 thoughts on “Sunday 17 January: Speedy vaccination centres should be encouraged to keep up the pace”

  2. Good morning all! Where are you? I have a covid test and X Ray at 10am and didn’t sleep much! Cold and clear this morning! See you later.

          1. Belle, my BP was sky high when I went in but fortunately managed to get it down 70 points! Haven’t been sleeping much and the pain is a bit much! Just keeping everything crossed that the test is negative!

        1. Fingers crossed for you, Sue. Hope the outcome is whatever is best and makes you happiest.

  6. Good morning all.
    Uneventful night 22 hours after getting the novel mRNA vaccine yesteday..
    It was a relief to be vaccinated by a doctor who was more aware of the sort of drugs that more senior patients are likely to be on and took special care during injection because of my anticoagulant treatment.
    Some expected soreness at injectiion site but so far not aa bad as a pneumonia jab.

    1. My wife and I were offered the pneumonia jab along with the flu jab in October last year. We both accepted, and both ended up with really sore arms for two or three days afterwards. Never had that with the flu jab alone.

      1. One of the prequisities for the mRNA jab is not to have had a flu jab in the last seven days.
        NHS is being very thorough in health screening for those accepting the mRNA vaccine.
        I am beginning to think that multiple simultaneous jabs for different purposes may be risk compromising the intended response of the immune system.

  7. Bailout plea as Eurostar faces collapse

    Eurostar has been left fighting for survival after travel restrictions triggered a 95pc plunge in passengers since March 2020

    By Oliver Gill 16 January 2021 • 9:30pm

    Very simple. The Froggies own it so the Froggies bail it out.

  9. Albanian criminal twice deported from Britain boasts on social media about his return to the UK. 17 January 2021.

    A prolific Albanian burglar twice deported from the UK for his crimes has sneaked back into Britain as an illegal immigrant – and posted Instagram pictures of his high life drinking cocktails and driving a Porsche.

    His flagrant breaches of immigration controls are to be investigated by the Home Office following a series of damaging deportation rows where the Government has struggled to remove foreign nationals.

    Morning everyone. I would hope all Nottlers would know the realities of deportation from the UK. Few are actually expelled and of those most return. It is just not in the interests of the PTB to draw attention to it! The reality is that we are pretty much the Doss House to the world! Tens of thousands of foreigners have come here and live off clandestine earnings and the Benefits that accrue to them.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/16/exclusive-albanian-criminal-twice-deported-britain-boasts-social/

    1. Not tens of thousands. Tens of hundreds of thousands. Well over 20 million unnecessary, wasteful additional illegal mouths to feed are here.

  10. Albanian criminal twice deported from Britain boasts on social media about his return to the UK. 17 January 2021.

    A prolific Albanian burglar twice deported from the UK for his crimes has sneaked back into Britain as an illegal immigrant – and posted Instagram pictures of his high life drinking cocktails and driving a Porsche.

    His flagrant breaches of immigration controls are to be investigated by the Home Office following a series of damaging deportation rows where the Government has struggled to remove foreign nationals.

    Morning everyone. I would hope all Nottlers would know the realities of deportation from the UK. Few are actually expelled and of those most return. It is just not in the interests of the PTB to draw attention to it! The reality is that we are pretty much the Doss House to the world! Tens of thousands of foreigners have come here and live off clandestine earnings and the Benefits that accrue to them.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/16/exclusive-albanian-criminal-twice-deported-britain-boasts-social/

  11. BREAKING NEWS

    Following Home Secretary Priti Patel’s warning, “If you leave home for a coffee you could die!”, a series of new social media ads have been commissioned – aiming to shock Britons into staying locked in their homes and avoid interacting with other people – and will stress that buying a cup of coffee could “cost you your life.” The first of these ads will appear this week.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f15fc395161cf9658ccd60b078069429af24efd31cfda166d8de96cdf913fb1.jpg

    3. What a waste of time and money.

      You’re going to annoy those who are wavering and properly tick off those who think the lock up unnecessary. For those of us already fed up with the pointless and obviously failed response of lock up will rail at the waste of money and the hubris of a government intent on lecturing us to obey *it’s* failure.

  12. Morning all

    SIR – Here in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight the vaccine rollout was going really well, but it had to stop because it had got ahead of other parts of the country and the Government would not supply more vaccine.

    To use the kind of wartime analogy favoured by the Prime Minister, this is like travelling in a convoy: you move at the speed of the slowest ship.

    I thought that avoiding this sort of situation would be one of the advantages of leaving the EU.

    Jamie Sheldon

    Freshwater, Isle of Wight

    SIR – My 88-year-old father with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has not yet had the vaccine, since his local surgery did not receive any until this week.

    I am therefore delighted that some areas where the over-70s have already received their vaccinations have been ordered to pause. Let’s get the vaccine to the most vulnerable first.

    Jeannie Long

    Wisborough Green, West Sussex

    SIR – Upon receiving my letter from the NHS inviting me to book a vaccination appointment, I went online to do so.

    Advertisement

    Once I had submitted my postcode, I was offered four venues ranging from 20 to almost 100 miles away. Taken aback, I dialled the phone number provided and was told that the closest centre was indeed 20 miles away. I was advised to keep trying.

    Surely the NHS should be trying to protect the most vulnerable members of society, rather than expecting them to drive half-way across the country so that an ambitious vaccination target can be met by February.

    Rosemary Dane

    Walton-on-Thames, Surrey

    1. Do folk really not understand? I’m truly confused. The NHS is, at heart, a failure. It is inenfficient, expensive and badly organised.

      Vaccinations won’t be distributed, they’ll be heavily centralised – you go to them. As for not getting enough vaccine – why did the individual hospitals not buy it, or even the local surgeries? Because that removes the power from the trusts.

      That we are still in lock up is because the NHS hasn’t changed. It hasn’t adapted. Hasn’t improved. It is still a giant mess of bureaucracy, expensive and cost. It hasn’t got any better. We will stay in lock up until the NHS is satisfied there is no further risk of disruption to itself. Only when the legions of pen pushers, clipboard wielders and administration see no risk to their jobs will they allow the status quo to return.

  13. Morning again

    SIR – On Thursday, I drove my 92-year-old friend to Newbury Racecourse to get her first Pfizer vaccination.

    It was a cold, wet morning and, having just read a letter in the Telegraph about someone who spent five hours queuing at a super-hub, I was a little concerned and went early.

    I need not have worried. The volunteers directing and parking cars were cheerful and efficient. I was sent to the entrance, where I was able to drop my friend and her wheelchair off, then shown the Blue Badge parking.

    No one objected to me going in with my friend, who was nervous about being alone as she is severely partially sighted. The staff were organised and friendly. Ten minutes after arriving, my friend had received her jab, and 20 minutes later we were back in the car.

    The same was true of the centre I drove my husband to last week, in a hall in Pangbourne. In and out in half an hour. Who needs super-hubs and their inevitable delays?

    Susan Ellis

    Midgham, Berkshire

    SIR – I phoned Guy’s Hospital on Wednesday to make a vaccination appointment.

    I was given one at 1.15 pm the following day, and was in and out in 45 minutes. Well done Guy’s and the NHS.

    Jenny McCarthy

    Orpington, Kent

    2. 329593+ up ticks,
      E,
      May I say well done Sue on your good deeds.

      By the same token it is worth bearing in mind they had an orchestra
      in Auschwitz

  14. Route out of lockdown

    SIR – The Government should heed the advice from the Covid Recovery Group that, if the vaccination programme progresses as planned, people will rightly expect changes by mid-March.

    Sherelle Jacobs points out the dangers of aiming for zero Covid by imposing further lockdowns. We will soon have been living under restrictions for a year, and are in danger of seeing permanent changes to the fundamental structures of our daily lives.

    Unless we see some real progress towards normality, I fear the economic and social fabric of our society may never recover – and it is the less financially secure who will suffer most.

    Al Matthews

    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    1. Vaccines vaccines vaccines always vaccines. Not a word about life saving cheap drugs. Every day they die for want of a tablet or two. For want of ethical commitment.

    2. 329593+ up ticks,
      Morning E,
      “Route out of lockdown”

      If I rightly recall the peoples were offered a route out of the eu under the title
      ” The road to freedom” penned by Gerard Batten in 2014, a credible exit plan.

      Totally ignored in 2016 when the righteous
      gained victory on the 24/6/2016 triggering
      the pretendee tory party first brigade.

      For many of us looking forward with any degree of confidence was definitely NOT
      on the cards.

      I do make “call me Al” right in his feeling of fear adding that routes of common sense fall foul of the party first mindset.

  15. Good morning, all. A lovely morning – blue skies and sunshine in the offing. Snow still lying. Must get on with the chores.

      1. Hullo, Maggie.

        At least another 10 days before they are allowed out. They can’t wait – and neither can we!

  17. Keir Starmer outlines ‘optimistic’ future for UK with Biden as president. 17 January 2021.

    Speaking before Biden’s inauguration on 20 January, Starmer said he was “incredibly optimistic about the new relationship we can build” and that Britain must once again be “the bridge between the US and the rest of Europe”.

    The speech marks Starmer’s first full remarks on UK foreign policy since being elected Labour leader.

    He described himself as “pro-American but anti-Trump”, saying he was committed to a new US-UK relationship, consisting of “a strong future together, on everything from security, climate change, aid and trade”.

    This could equally well have been said by Boris or for that matter anyone in Westminster. The only scary part of it is that some of them might actually believe it!

    Let’s be clear; what they are advocating here is friendship with a paedophile and not to put too fine a point on it, a crook, with much closer links to China than Trump ever had with Russia! There is also the not inconsiderable point that Biden doesn’t actually like the UK. He’s a dyed in the wool Fenian. As if this were not enough we have now left the EU and they are certainly not going to allow the UK to be any sort of bridge with the US! In essence unutterable tosh!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/16/keir-starmer-outlines-optimistic-future-for-uk-with-biden-as-president

        1. Every house and outbuilding will be searched. The VIPs will bring their own armed guards. Movement of the locals will be by permission of the “security” guards. That is what happened in Edinburgh on a previous occasion. They can’t hold these meetings in Watford or Brixton (London) can they?

        2. Morning Phizzee,

          Cornwall will be ruined .

          Carbis bay is so small .. so small that it has a mobile visiting post office!

          What selfish sod decided that the tiny Cornish roads and small communities need all that fuss in the middle of summer?

          1. Security reasons I imagine – terrorists will get stuck on the A38 (?) and never reach Carbis Bay.

          2. Good morning, Belle.

            There is a mini series presented by Rick Stein on Cornwall. On iplayer.

            He visited the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan. Stunningly beautiful.

            As BB2 says below it would be easy to secure because of the tiny roads.

            I doubt any of the locals will welcome that circus coming to town.

      7. ‘Morning, Maggie

        Would you kindly tell me where your enclosure was from – with this new laptop I periodically get blanks, and I have got one where your content should be. If I know what it is it might be easier to fix.

        Hope you and R are thriving!

          1. D is still working (just) but when we are together we love reading together and playing Scrabble. Boring old f*rts, aren’t we? :o)

      8. I think the local farmers will have an absolute ‘field day’ during June with their tractors in those narrow country roads.

        1. While the troughers are there the police will either close roads or ensure all such traffic is kept away from them.

          1. You’re probably right but I speak from experience from holidays in Cornwall and Devon. The tractor boys don’t slow down or back up. A ten minute drive can take 45m.

    2. (Kneel) Starmer’s utterances in addition to his periods of silence in these trying times place him at best in the third rank of political hacks. As for being a leader, he’s a nowhere man. The Beatles’ lyrics are very apt except for, “Isn’t he a bit like you and me?”

  18. Against assisted dying

    SIR – The three letters (January 10) in support of “assisted dying” ignore the risk of abuse.

    Discarding the 1961 Suicide Act, which outlaws helping people to die by suicide, would mean that the very vulnerable (the only ones who need such “help”) could succumb to pressure or persuasion to “end it all”.

    If there is insufficient palliative care, that is surely an argument for more palliative care. The only power that the proposed legislation would give the vulnerable is the power to be killed.

    The argument about choice sounds attractive, but the biggest argument for changing the law – and the most persuasive one when health provision is under pressure – is that it would be cheaper, not to mention more convenient for everyone else. We already have humane dying laws. We do not need inhumane killing laws.

    Ann Farmer

    Woodford Green, Essex

        1. Couple of month ago a nurse told me she had been doing the paperwork that morning while the chap was cutting into the dead bodies to find the cause of death. One body brought in was actually someone she knew had died of a heart attack – she actually knew the person when they were alive. The wizard with the knife said “Covid” – the nurse explained that she actually knew him and knew that he’d died of a heart attack. She was gobsmacked when the doc/surgeon or whatever turned and snarled “Covid – -and if you don’t want to do the job, plenty do”.
          So your comment is nearer the truth than the govt would admit to.

  19. One of my heroes.

    What Scruton can teach us in the age of Covid

    SIR – Madeline Grant, who regrets that she 
never met Sir Roger Scruton, wonders what he would have made of the present Covid-19 crisis, though she hints that he would have considered the reaction of the authorities to be unconstitutional.

    I wrote an article on that very subject for the website The Conservative Woman in December, explaining precisely why he would have been appalled.

    I knew Sir Roger for many years and read his many books. It is possible to determine from just one of them, Confessions of a Heretic, that he was passionately opposed to what he described as “health fascism”. He recommended a virtuous life of courage, as opposed to the “cowardly” option of prioritising physical health over all other moral values.

    Sir Roger would have been appalled by the authoritarian zealotry of both the police and the Government – and he would have condemned with every fibre of his being the impugning and censoring of those holding contrarian opinions.

    Dr Frank Palmer

    Twickenham, Middlesex

    2. And the Conservative Party’s treatment of him should condemn the Tories to perpetual hellfire!

    2. Good morning DB

      Blue sky here , sun before 7, rain after 11.. or if the hat is high it’s going to be dry , if the hat is low , it is going to blow!

        1. Morning VVOF

          “When the wind is in the east, it’s good for neither man nor beast. When the wind is in the north, the old folk should not venture forth. When the wind is in the south, it blows the bait in the fishes’ mouth. When the wind is in the west, it is of all the winds the best.”

          Ooh argh!

          1. “Frogs croaking in the lagoon, means rain will come real soon.”

            As you know, not a common Dorset saying!

            Morning to you.

          6. I remember when I was a student, many years ago, a friend and I were in a pub on the Dorset/Devon border.

            A couple of old boys were playing table skittles. One of them, each time he had his turn, would go “argh” when he let go of the ball.

            Eventually the other old boy said to him ” ‘argh’? what d’you mean ‘argh’? “. That nearly killed us.

  22. Be Very Quiet

    A young man moved into a new apartment of his own and went to the lobby to put his name on his mailbox. While there, an attractive young lady came out of the apartment next to the mailboxes, wearing a robe. The boy smiled at the young woman and she started a conversation with him.

    As they talked, her robe slipped open, and it was obvious that she had nothing else on. The poor kid broke into a sweat trying to maintain eye contact. After a few minutes, she placed her hand on his arm and said, ‘Let’s go to my apartment, I hear someone coming.’

    He followed her into her apartment; she closed the door and leaned against it, allowing her robe to fall off completely. Now nude, she purred at him, ‘What would you say is my best feature?’

    Flustered and embarrassed, he finally squeaked, ‘It’s got to be your ears.’

    Astounded, and a little hurt she asked, ‘My ears? Look at these breasts; they are full and 100% natural. I work out every day and my butt is firm and solid. Look at my skin – no blemishes anywhere. How can you think that the best part of my body is my ears?’

    Clearing his throat, he stammered …. ‘Outside, when you said you heard someone coming…. that was me.’

    2. Good morning, my friends

      When sailing in Antigua we met a strange, shaven-headed American drummer who had a very beautiful wife and a lovely boat. He wore a T shirt with a picture of his boat on the front. Also on the Front was written:

      UNIQUE IS WHAT WE SEEK

      but on the back there was:

      BIZARRE IS WHAT WE ARE

      He gave me one of these T shirts which is now in the wardrobe of my son, Christo.

    3. I love fantasy: “Scotland the Nation” does it for me. though maybe the title should be “Scotland the Solvent Nation”.

      1. Er I don’t know if you’ve looked lately but our charming new chancellor has been at the magic money tree big time – if it wasn’t for zero interests rates the entire UK would probably be declared bankrupt right now…..

      2. Written in the 1930s and published in 1942, Rosaline Masson’s book is a history of the nation of Scotland not a nationalist or separatist book.

        Scotland was and remains a nation, whether or not is united with other parts of the UK. As a historian you should understand that.

        Personally I hope it stays within the union, but as an ex-pat I don’t (and shouldn’t) have a say in the matter.

    4. When I first watched The Naked Civil Servant, I thought that everyone in London was like Quentin Crisp.

  24. Edit: I posted this in good faith but haven’t been able to verify the contents. There is no mention of this on the Danish Parliament’s news site – so please treat with caution

    Denmark has dropped its Pandemic Law after persistent citizen protest outside parliament: Not reported in the MSM anywhere!

    https://newtube.app/WorldView/tZ394Vm

      2. It’s getting worse, and then worse.
        A pincer movement with Big Tech. Apple sneakily removed one of my Apps when I put the device on for an update.
        The app was alternative news.

    2. Is this true?
      It’s easy to get caught out reposting these videos only to find they are fake.

      1. One hopes so but I don’t have any contacts in Denmark. Perhaps our Norwegian or Swedish branches might shed some light?

        1. No mention of it on Berlingske or Politiken that I can find. I think there would be.

      1. On the other hand, I, who have been doing The Times crossword since 1954 – was unable to get more than 3 clues yesterday; and practically none on the DT – and very few on the “baby” one in the DT.

        I suppose it was a sign that having a great day doesn’t mean one can be carried away!

        1. 🙂 I have joined the DT Thursday crosswordophobes. It’s either that or admit I’m cr@p.

          1. I used to do the Telegraph crossword everyday until we moved to France. Now we have books of DT crosswords on the boat in Turkey which, up to a point, keep us free from brain death.

            I was at school with a chap called Donald Manley who used to write crosswords for many different publications. All his pseudonyms were based on the name Don or Donald – thus his crosswords were attributed to Giovanni, Duck, Bradman, Quixote, etc. I don’t know if he ever got round to compiling is puzzles under the name of Trump.

  26. While taking the opportunity to wish everyone a good morning, I find it apt to mention new developments in the US, making many people wonder how Joe Biden ‘won’!

    Here are three examples.

    1. Joe Biden held an Inaugural Celebration on Saturday night. Several Hollywood stars participated in the event. But only 24,000 tuned in to the “celebration” on his YouTube page — three hours after the event played live on his page.

    President Donald Trump delivered remarks this week at the Trump Wall at The Alamo. Over 804,000 tuned in to YouTube during the first 45 minutes.
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/joe-biden-holds-inaugural-celebration-youtube-24k-tune-channel-trump-hold-youtube-speech/

    2. The LA Times reported “During his first days in office, President-elect Joe Biden plans to send legislation to congress that would provide a pathway to citizenship for 11 million immigrants who are in the country without legal status.”

    The message has arrived south of the border and already there are caravans forming of potential Dem voters, including some forcing their way across the border from Honduras to Guatemala.
    https://twitter.com/i/status/1350549147313700875

    3. A list of President Trump’s achievements has been issued by the White House. Although this is, of course, only a list of positive developments, I wonder if anyone would care to refute them. Unfortunately it will take them a long time because I estimate that there are approximately 800 achievements on the list!
    During the election there was so much noise and distraction that they were barely mentioned!
    https://www.whitehouse.gov/trump-administration-accomplishments/?utm_source=link

    God Help America (and the rest of the world) with Biden and Harris in charge!

    3. This is part of the problem – the positives were deliberately drowned out by the hysterical media abuses.

      You won’t solve the border issues with guards and barriers. You solve it with economics, by raising wages and jobs in the other countries.

      1. But then you have to persuade the people to vote for sensible non-corrupt politicians, like they do in prosperous Chile, but in struggling Argentina they don’t.

  27. Priti Patel is under mounting pressure to give a full account of a police computer error, which may have affected more than 400,000 crime records.

    The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, the former director of public prosecutions, highlighted the gravity of the issue on Saturday and that some of the lost files pertained to live investigations. He urged the home secretary to take responsibility for the fiasco.

    The blunder, in which records for serious offences supposed to be kept in perpetuity were accidentally deleted, left police fearing criminals may not be caught – with officers already suffering what they term “near misses” for serious crimes.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/16/priti-patel-faces-increasing-pressure-over-deletion-of-police-records

    Who else believes that there could be a suspicious motive behind all of this.

    We need to know what has been going on, because if there has been suspicious activity, well, what else could be nobbled that is in the public interest?

    1. I don’t think Starmer is in any position to throw stones, given his performance as DPP.

      2. He made it disastrously more difficult to get convictions in rape cases. Then came the Mark Pearson and Ched Evans cases that made it harder again.

    2. The idea of blaming Patel for this is absurd. She is no more responsible than Hancock is for the NHS blunders over PPE.

      I appreciate he’s scoring political points but this is just desperate reaching. Patel is responsible for the policy the navy are following over bringing the illegal immigrants into this country.

      1. I take your point, but the buck does have to stop somewhere. It is up to Priti to trigger any action; given she is dealing with the Home Office blob, I don’t envy her the task.

        1. I think it would be fairer to say that the Home Office is forced to deal with the blob who is Priti Patel. An ignorant, arrogant bully.

    3. 2 more boats yesterday – 36 people for us to cherish and pay for. I wonder if any of these will run round a park slashing people with his knife?

      3. I thought that Boris said that the borders are closed.

        Should I assume that doesn’t include Kentish beaches?

    4. Morning, Maggie.
      As was suggested yesterday, the wipeout was probably triggered by words such as ‘Dinghy’, ‘Kent’ and ‘Calais’.
      I wonder if snivel serpents are expected to sacrifice their weekend to sort out/investigate this matter?
      How many of the records were DNA results that the police were hanging onto out of sheer bloody mindedness?

      1. ‘Morning, Anne.

        A large proportion, I should think. Same goes for obsolete finger print records.

    6. Having worked in IT since the mid 70s, I find it literally unbelievable that so much important data could be permanently lost. Even if the data currently on their servers had been lost, has no-one ever heard of off-site backups? It’s standard practice in business. Equally, do they not have a Disaster Recovery plan? Every business/organisation worth its salt should have one.

        1. I’d agree except for the fact I had to run DR exercises when I lived in Jo’burg so maybe only parts of Africa 🙂 I think it’s down to incompetence, pure and simple.

    7. Starmer doesn’t appear to understand the difference between responsibility and accountability – and I’ve probably spent too much time building RACI / RASCI matrices…

  29. 328593+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    I see today’s events as a successful warm up act for what is to come ie meetings between starmer,johnson, ( two top
    coalition hydra heads) with miden the potus candidate, it is my honest belief that we ain’t seen nothing yet.

    Biden to visit UK first as he plans to work closely with PM

    1. After all that has obviously been going on in the US, how on this entire planet could anyone in their right frame of mind, including confirmed sanity would trust him and his cohorts. Ever.

      1. 329593+ up ticks,
        Morning RE,
        I do totally agree with you on the USA issue but,by
        the same token looking at the political pedigree of the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile umbrella party over the last three decades, the very same can be said of the UK, again,again,& again.

        1. How far back do you want to go ?

          I will always wonder what ‘someone’ (the ‘THEY’) had on Heath for what he did to the whole of the UK. Knowingly flushing it into the stinking EU sewage system.
          To a reasonably sane person, its hard to imagine or actually believe that he didn’t know how the future of the UK would change with alarming consequences, he knew what he was doing. Same could possibly apply to many other people in politics who have signed documents on the basis they know better and on the behalf of the millions of ordinary hard working people whose lives have been effected and still are.

          1. 328593+ up ticks,
            RE,
            As I posted, three decades, ie major, cameron clegg, may, johnson, seems to me the trend is the
            party before Country mode regardless of the actions of these leaders going back decades.

            As I mention in prior post we could NOT have got into such an odious bog of sh!te as a Nation without their continuing input.

          2. But it started with Wilson and Callaghan.
            The union disruptions that eventually led to the demise of our globally respected heavy industries.

          3. The union disruption started long before Wilson & Callaghan. When the Aircraft Factory at Castle Bromwich was built, the industrial unrest, despite the War being in full swing, almost cost the RAF it’s Spitfires and the only reason the RAF had the number it did was due to Supermarine’s “Shadow Factories” manufacturing parts for assembly at Southampton.

          6. He got Supermarine to take over the Castle Bromwich Factory, which had been run by the Nuffield Organisation. Lord Nuffield was William Morris (of Morris Garages).

          7. Really, i hadn’t heard of that. I’m sure you will remember various incidents one comes to mind at Ford Dagenham, were during a hot night shift someone opened a window. And it seemed that person was not entitled to be opening windows, so the union officials called a strike.
            In the early 70s my business partner and i went to Scunthorpe Appleby Frodingham rolling mill works to do some shut down maintenance inside one of the furnaces. We formed the shuttering to rebuild a damaged concrete nose arch for the burner blocks. My word it was hot in there, the furnace had been off for two weeks but you still couldn’t put your hand on the floor.
            We spent about ten straight days working two shifts in 24 hours. every mill worker had at least one mate standing along side him and if we needed any thing cutting and welding metal wise 6 of them would turn up an oxy cutter and his mate and a fireman. At the same time we needed retaining bolts and nuts welded onto the back plate. A welder his mate and their own fireman. Some times on the very late shifts as we were practical chaps, we did our own welding and cutting. The equipment was left close by. After we had finished the job and high alumina cement concrete poured successfully. We pack our tools into our van and were about to set off home to North London and a union rep stopped us in our tracks, he went ape shonet as he by then had found out that we were not in any sort union. And was not at all grateful when we explained that the now completed job would allowed the furnace to be back in commission at least a week earlier than thought. He must have been apoplectic as we shouted “Too late mate” his eyes popping out as we swerved around him through and the open gate.
            No problems with the payments either. A good earner. We also did some more repair work at the large power station near Birmingham.

          8. In many industries the Unions cut their own throats by insisting on overmanning and “ghost” workers sitting alongside outside contractors.

            When I was hitch-hiking in the ’70s, one HGV driver told me of when he worked for a commercial electrical appliances supplier and had to go & install a replacement food mixer onboard a ship in Liverpool Docks.
            A labourer to sit alongside him as he drove from the dock gates to the ship.
            Another to walk alongside him as he carried the mixer to the galley.
            An electrician and shipwright to watch him disconnect & remover the old mixer and install & wire up the new one.
            Then another two labourers to walk & sit alongside him as he removed the old mixer to his van and drove back to the dock gates.
            He always tried to refuse loads to or from Liverpool Docks!

          9. I can well believe that. My younger BiL was a draughtsman and vack in the day between jobs his father got him a job ‘in the print’ during the strike the papers were loaded into van in London bound for Bristol. There wasn’t enough room for him in the cab so he was paid 3/4 of his allowance in cash and sent home. More than once.
            Most of the trips were take only by drivers alone. Quids in.

          10. The Commies were obstructive (and at times downright sabotaging) of the war effort until Operation Barbarossa. Once the Reds were on our side, they changed their tune.

          11. 328593+ up ticks,
            Afternoon RE,
            I have been in Construction for decades most sites
            ticket to work was needed there again power of the peoples was used in a non beneficial manner.
            Thatcher broke a great deal of that, good in some respects bad in other.

            I posted the last three decades because it is clearly showing a set trend in supporting / voting for the political close shop even after acknowledging they are acting as a coalition.

            The present inmates of the HOC/HOL have their own agenda and it is certainly NOT inclusive of the people.

            Back of my mind is their political actions are payback for 24/6/2016, we kicked a great many politico’s in the wallet with that result.

          13. 328593+up ticks,
            RE,
            Pipe-fitter Welder Foreman, overseas sup. Alligator skinner, all round inter-continental industrial tramp.

            Them roofers are MAD, seen them years ago pull up in cars still got women in, nigh on run up ladders with 8×4 sheet on the shoulder, load up a roof for next days play, then disappear as if they had never been.

          14. I had no idea you had been in construction and I asked because i once worked with roofer whose nickname was Ogga. He was an absolute slime bag.
            I was, well still am I guess, a bench joiner by trade but i found site work more interesting. And the pay was double. I emigrated to South Africa with a mate i’d met at tech college. We worked on the then famous Carlton Centre in JHB, then in Port Elizabeth. I came back the the UK after 2 years he stayed for 35. Then went with my wife to Oz stayed 4 years i really wanted to stay, but the work had dried up in the late 70s, we lived in a caravan we towed from Adelaide right up the coast road in Gladstone QLD. Good adventure. I worked on the aluminum smelter at the construction stage. Became a section foreman.
            I’ve run my own business, extensions and the like, been contracts manager, fitted hundreds of kitchens, roofs, hung thousands of doors, you name it.

          15. 328593+ up ticks,
            Always regret not going to Australia years ago for Wimpey on a refinery construct do two years and
            if required they returned fare back to UK.

            Done a lot of Africa, Europe, Holland, Gib, offshore for the Dutch, was in Libya for months surrounded
            by Sahara, next up, on a rig surrounded by North sea.
            Work-wise travel the spice of life.

          16. The documents released under the Thirty Year Rule show that he had been warned about the consequences. He went ahead and lied to us.

    2. “…work closely…” He will tell Boris what to do, after he has been carefully briefed and rehearsed by Kamelarse?

      1. 328593+ up ticks,
        Morning HP,
        If a GE tomorrow then a good chance johnson would still remain the political ovis shepherd with the voting pattern unchanged, a good investment then would be prayer mats & burkas, then again china probably has the franchise.

        1. Prayer Mats

          A British Engineer just started his own business in Birmingham.

          He’s making land mines that look like prayer mats.

          It’s doing well…

          …He says prophets are going through the roof.

  30. Good Moaning. The sun is shining and Spartie and I will go out shortly to stock up on Vit. D.

    1. high dose please, VitD3 and don’t forget VitC and zinc. Quercetin too each day. If you really were ill Ivermectin would probably save your life but for reasons I don’t understand it is not talked about here in the MSM. A great crime has been committed. Someone must pay.

  31. Come on, ladies, middle‑aged men need a bit of positive discrimination too

    Rod Liddle – Sunday January 17 2021, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

    I saw a study a few years ago suggesting that when men pass the age of 50, women cease to look at them “with interest”. Instead, they don’t look at them at all — or, when forced, do so with pity, contempt, disgust or hilarity. Or, perhaps more pertinently, with outright mystification: “Why are you still here? Haven’t you gone yet? What on earth is the point of you?”

    Being about 55 at the time, I was not surprised by any of this. The best I can hope for when a woman looks at me is revulsion gently tinged with pity. Fair enough — I get that. If they can control their gag reflex, I chalk that up as a win.

    I think Neil McClements gets it, too. Mr McClements, 50, went for a job interview at that most sainted bureaucracy, the NHS, where he was to do something high-techish, God only knows what. He was interviewed by a panel mainly of millennial women. He was the best candidate, on the scoring system — but didn’t get the job because the women thought he wouldn’t have fitted in with a team composed mainly of people of a different age and sex.

    A member of the panel, Dr Charlotte Lee, rang the unsuccessful candidate and, either out of honesty or incalculable dimness, explained the reservations. Most of the team were women in their early thirties. And how could she, the boss, give instructions to a man with an 11-year-old daughter?

    Mr McClements took them to a tribunal on the grounds of age and sex discrimination — and won. He got more than 7,000 quid. But not the job.

    A member of the team called Rose, whom he met, was revealed to be interested in “social justice” and “inequality”. I bet. Though she seems to have had no interest in social justice and inequality when Neil McClements hove into view.

    You can see their point, I suppose. What on earth would they talk about around the water-cooler? “Did you see Midsomer Murders last night, Rose? It was one of the old ones, with John Nettles as Barnaby.” No, she bloody well didn’t, Neil. He would be excluded from office gossip, the lubricant of every decent workplace. He would be estranged — a weird beast that the rest of the staff approached with trepidation.

    You can imagine, too, their shock when he turned up to the interview — that aforesaid mystification. What the hell are you doing here? We thought we had expunged your sort from the workplace. The ageing white male as a kind of unwanted exotic.

    The irony being that this is the NHS, an institution that prides itself on equality for all staff — and yet under this rightly enlightened creed has ended up as a place where, in general, women do one job and men do another. How many female thoracic or cardiac surgeons are there? How many male speech therapists? Even in institutions with the most progressive mindset, the gender differentials assert themselves and stubbornly refuse to equal out.

    So maybe Charlotte, Rose and the rest were right: this isn’t a place for you, Neil. You’d hate it. We wouldn’t get on, able though you undoubtedly are. Problem is, you’re not quite like the rest of us.

    It is still, probably, the case that women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds suffer the brunt of employment discrimination in this country and Mr McClements is an outlier to whom reactionaries like me cling for a kind of gleeful succour. But positive discrimination is still discrimination and cannot but inculcate in those who propound it a prejudice against someone or other on account of their age, colour or gender.

    That’s what happened with Mr McClements — and yet so imbued were those bright, youngish women with the shibboleths of the creed, that they were incapable of seeing it as discrimination. To them a 50-year-old white male doesn’t deserve protecting.

    Fergie writes for Mills & Boon

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Fsundaytimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Fb152bf1e-5810-11eb-9cb6-04801b0cacdd.jpg?crop=1500%2C1000%2C0%2C0&resize=1022

    Arc of a disease
    The new Brazilian strain of Covid is exciting, but only surely for a while. In reality it is just another example of the Covid team’s brilliant marketing strategy.

    “Kent Covid: it does what it says on the tin!” was intended to appeal to traditionalists. The South African Covid tapped into the goodwill many feel towards this vibrant democracy. The Brazilian variant conjures up Ipanema beach and rhythmic music, and may well appeal to the young. It says: while you cannot travel abroad because of Covid, you can experience the world right here, through Covid.

    Soon there might be a more imaginative variant: “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Covid!” And then, maybe a few years down the line, marketed in its original livery but with a pangolin’s spleen embossed on the wrapper: “Classic Covid – you can’t beat it!”

    Baa humbug
    A book called Brenda Is a Sheep has been given to five-year-old pupils in Scotland. Brenda isn’t, actually, a sheep. She is a wolf who wishes to be a sheep and so dresses like one.

    The happy denouement is that the sheep do not merely accept her as a sheep, but think she’s a brilliant sheep. The message, of course, is that everybody can be anything they want to be, regardless of realities. I look forward to the sequel, perhaps aimed at six-year-olds: Brenda Feels a Pang of Hunger. Plot: the few sheep who suggest Brenda might be behind the mysterious disappearance of members of their flock are denounced as lycophobes and barred from giving speeches at sheep universities.

    Now that’s what I call Dutch courage
    The Dutch government has resigned en masse. It presided over what might seem to you a fairly middling scandal, something that implicated lots of innocent citizens in child welfare fraud.

    If the same scandal had occurred in the UK, here is exactly what would have happened.

    First, a minor civil servant called Bob is held accountable and suspended from his job for six months.

    Two years later, the government disinters a law lord who died in 1968 to preside over an “official inquiry” into the whole business. After eight years of deliberation and a cost to the taxpayer of £62m, the inquiry exonerates the government.

    In 20 years, a second inquiry is announced and raises certain pertinent questions about senior governmental involvement in the matter.

    Forty years on, the third inquiry finally lays the blame on ministers and the prime minister, all of whom have long been stiff as a stoat.

    Fifty years later, the scandal is regarded as a stain on British democracy and the relatives of those implicated are pilloried in the press.

    Harry and Meghan a laugh a minute
    The world’s most likeable and down-to-earth people, Harry and Meghan, may fund their own situation comedy programme.

    Good news, I suppose, as we have been funding the show for quite a while. But what to call it?

    To the Manor Born, maybe? Or how about Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em?

    1. The astonishing thing about that case was the low level of the award, only £7,000. Sexism by women in appointments is just normal, standard, they consider it virtuous.

          2. Thank you, Anne, both for the smile and the edit. That formation used to really confuse me in my early days in Sweden.

        3. No, it would be similar. Awards for being pushed out of a job can be high but there is a cap – currently £88,519 or one year’s salary (whichever is the lower).

          Awards for not being given the job are much lower – the claimant has suffered only a potential loss, not an actual one. As long as the candidate appointed met the criteria for the post (even if the one not appointed was marginally better) then the appointment can’t be reversed and compensation awarded is to cover costs and a bit for lost dignity… whoever is losing their dignity.

      2. This case combined two unpopular causes; sexism against men, and ageism.
        I have been through a similar experience being interviewed by younger men who set the interview up so that I would fail. If he had been a young, suitably humble and apologetic soy boy showing no signs of masculinity, he’d probably have got the job.

    2. When I worked at Raleigh cycles in Nottingham, on their security team, a vacancy arose for a position of personnel officer. The personnel department was over-bloated and comprised a personnel director, two personnel managers (one staff, one works), and two personnel officers (again, one staff, one works).

      The post was first advertised in-house. I made a formal application. Weeks went by and my application was not even acknowledged let alone responded to. I bided my time. Eventually a young woman, fresh from university (with no experience of life, never mind dealing with personnel), was recruited to the post. I still bided my time.

      A few weeks later, the personnel manager responsible for staff happened by the office. His face reddened as soon as he saw me, “Hello, Grizz; er … I’ve been meaning to speak to you.”

      “Oh? Really?” I answered, staring intently at him.

      “Er … can you … er .. come up and see me… at … er … three o clock?”, he stammered.

      Without missing a beat or giving a blink, I glared back, “I’ll be there at precisely a minute to three!”

      To cut a long story short, I saw him in his office where he went into his usual trance-like state spouting all the well-rehearsed homilies about the ‘necessity’ to have a university education and how he could offer me ‘any supervisory job I wished’ for in the works. He went on and on and on.

      I told him that I knew I didn’t have a university education, but I did have a colossal experience in the teaching and training of personnel in various jobs, stretching back all my working life. This training experience was both one-to-one and in a team environment. I had been directly responsible for the welfare of my charges and their ongoing tuition and care. I explained that I had a vast wealth of personnel experience, hands-on, in fact much much more than someone who was fresh out of school with no experience whatsoever of dealing with the needs and demands of a mature workforce.

      It all fell on deaf ears and the young woman soon proved to be utterly out of her depth. She lasted less than one year.

        1. No, I moved to Norwich to run the screening at the airport; putting to good use my supervisory, training and administrative skills.

  32. Unless there is a last minute change of plan, there will be a smooth and peaceful transfer of power to Acting President of the United States Mike Pompeo at midday Wednesday, Eastern Time..

    1. I have a sack of popcorn in anticipation but is there any reliable info that confirms yr statement.

      1. There won’t be. It’s bonkers. If Trump mounted a putsch which he won’t and couldn’t, Pence would never ever agree to be part of it.

        1. 328593+ up ticks,
          Morning RtD,
          “If Trump mounted a putsch”.
          I would see any action taken ongoing via President Trump as being
          with peoples welfare in mind first & foremost.

        2. I think, Rodger, that I’d rather wait and see. Be sure that the BBC et al will blame any fireworks on Trump – so, what’s new?

    3. That would explain all the military there I suppose, but so far not one positive thing has happened since the election was stolen, so I’m resigned to expecting the worst.

      1. So you don’t think it’s positive President Trump calling out 30,0000 of the National Guard and the Marines and closing down DC so nobody he doesn’t like can’t go in or out ?

        You surprise me !

        1. I’ve been following all these boom / habbenings for over two months now, all for nothing, I hope for the sake of the free world Trump does have a big surprise for all of us on the 20th.

        2. Polly, it’s not positive. It is very dismaying what is happening. The best course of action would have been an examination in the courts. Whatever happens now, the US will be deeply divided.
          It is appalling that the Democrats are still crowing and insulting Trump, and appear to accept a flawed election process without question, let alone the result. A democracy can only function if elections are properly organised – and UK elections couldn’t stand an audit either.

          1. Sure, but too many judges are bribed, blackmailed or intimidated now.

            I’ve always thought a very mild version of Pinochet occassionally is a natural part of every evolving democracy, and it looks like the US will have that for a very short period to repair the damage.

            China is behindf the present trouble.

      2. It’s reported that around twenty-five thousand troops have been deployed in Washington DC, the deserted streets have been cordoned-off, roadblocks with ID checks are in place and the only vehicles to be seen are military trucks, APCs and Humvees. Airspace over the city and surrounding areas has been closed, except for military aircraft and helos.

        All this to protect the inauguration of a “democratically elected” President, who is so popular that he won the election with the highest number of votes ever cast for a President in American history? Aye, right!

        Welcome to BelarUS 2021.

        1. Hell0 DM

          How about this …

          The tiny seaside resort of Carbis Bay in Cornwall has been chosen to be the venue of the G7 summit in June, with the village now expecting an influx of foreign visitors.

          The 125-acre Carbis Bay Estate – which encompasses a luxury hotel, an award-winning restaurant and a spa – will be the main location of the summit, but the seaside village will be supported by neighbouring St Ives a mile away, along with other towns across the region.

          The incoming US president, Joe Biden, is among those expected to attend the three-day summer meeting, along with leaders of the other G7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Japan – and representatives from the EUuropean Union.

          Boris Johnson said Cornwall was “the perfect location for such a crucial summit” and, after referring to the role the region’s tin and copper mines played in the Industrial Revolution, said: “This summer Cornwall will again be the nucleus of great global change and advancement.”

          The prime minister said: “Coronavirus is doubtless the most destructive force we have seen for generations and the greatest test of the modern world order we have experienced. It is only right that we approach the challenge of building back better by uniting with a spirit of openness to create a better future.”

          😁So far from everywhere, but … on the Atlantic .. and a flying route , oh yes and Russian submarines , and every other crazy piece of piracy imaginable .😈

          1. Strange as it may seem, we had to cancel our family holiday last September at Harlyn bay Cornwall, because we had elected to take our 10 month old grandson with us which brought the numbers up to 7.
            I am just wondering how many rules will be broken during the fiasco.

      3. It’s reported that around twenty-five thousand troops have been deployed in Washington DC, the deserted streets have been cordoned-off, roadblocks with ID checks are in place and the only vehicles to be seen are military trucks, APCs and Humvees. Airspace over the city and surrounding areas has been closed, except for military aircraft and helos.

        All this to protect the inauguration of a “democratically elected” President, who is so popular that he won the election with the highest number of votes ever cast for a President in American history? Aye, right!

        Welcome to BelarUS 2021.

    4. I admire your never ending optimism but can I have some of what you’ve been smoking?
      I am afraid to say the steal is complete, true and fair elections in the US is now a thing of the past, the Democrats can see their methods of vote manipulation works, they are never going to give it up peacefully.

      1. That’s why the National Guard and Marines are out in record numbers all over the US, especially in DC, and there’s a 3 metre high security fence at Trump Tower in New York.

          1. The Left. Once they realize their guy is not being inaugurated they’ll try and start trouble just as they did right through 2020.

            This time round, security is not being left to state governors. Now it’s a federal response and Donald is in charge of the military until Wednesday when I understand Mike Pompeo becomes acting President.

          2. I wonder if there will be any rioting here in the UK? our mainstream media has been radicalising people against Trump for years now.
            Are they making any preparations, I wonder. American Embassy for one?

          1. Sure that was shocking but it won’t happen this time.

            Not too different to some things in NI.

          3. Yes, remembrance of Kent State bring’s American condemnation of Bloody Sunday into sharp focus.

  35. “People think I’m a gambler. I’ve never been a gambler in my life. To me, a gambler is someone who plays slot machines……

    I prefer to own the slot machines. It’s very good business being the house.” Donald J Trump.

    1. Why would I want to read a Democrat hit piece, especially one linked to the ghastly Bilderburg Bloombergs ?

          1. I thought the following bit was more interesting, “One market in which the Trump brand remains a sure-fire money-maker is politics. Since Election Day, Trump has discovered he can monetize lies about election-rigging by soliciting contributions to an “election defense fund” from supporters. He raised at least $207 million before shutting that effort down, and he’ll surely revisit the same money geyser again. Running the long con is very much on brand for Trump — and pays better than mattresses or steaks.”

            It reminds me of idiot Remainers who were constantly shelling out on crowd founded attempts to overturn Brexit – I don’t suppose any of them ever got a breakdown of how their donations were actually spent. LOL.

          2. There are no ”lies” about election rigging.

            It happened, you just didn’t want to research or read any of the evidence posted on this site or anywhere else.

            Preferring to stare at the sky and whistle a little tune pleased that it looked like the Dems had pulled a fast one on Donald.

            It didn’t work. Nobody pulls a fast one on Donald and gets away with it.

          3. I note that you’re still keeping up the posts claiming Trump is about to release some explosive evidence about his opponents. Remind me when did he released ‘the memo’?

          4. Nottlers had the report on the Biden crime family a few days ago if you remember thanks to little me!

          7. When Biden has served 3 years and 8 months of his Presidency (which I think he will, although Kamala thinks he won’t) Polly will still be telling us about explosive revelations that are just about to be released that will now defo see Trump restored to the Presidency.

          8. The flaw in your logic is the idea that the source of doubts about the election result is Trump himself.
            But that is not true. Many people saw things they didn’t understand on election night.
            What is your explanation for the vertical steps in the graphs for Biden votes in swing states?

          9. Blackbox2, I leave investigating the claims of voter fraud to the authorities and they have consistently found no evidence of the claims Trump has made.

          10. That’s a cop out and you know it.
            Again, the claims are not being made by Trump. They are being made by thousands of concerned citizens.
            Maybe there is an explanation.
            But people want to hear it.

          11. No it isn’t a cop out. I have no access to the actual evidence. Hundreds of claims made on internet sites I hadn’t heard of before and YouTube videos by random ‘concerned citizens’ are not proof and most fail the evidence test as witnessed by the rejection of all but one of the claims by the US Courts.

          12. The vote graphs are public information, and can be analysed by anyone with a statistics training.
            Speaking contemptuously of “YouTube videos by random ‘concerned citizens’ ” is a good way to belittle concerns without actually going to the trouble of explaining why you think the analyses are wrong.
            Of course statistical analysis is not a smoking gun – it says nothing about the who, or the how. However, it does throw up anomalies that are hard to explain if not by cheating.

          15. Business class flights to investigate the restaurant and 5* hotel industries in the EU.

      2. Obviously your choice. Personally I’ve always found that reading opinion pieces by people on the other side of a debate, to be very useful.

        1. I’ve read them in the past and it’s always one sided politically motivated hit pieces not worth wasting time over !

        2. Good morning, Cochrane

          I agree and I hope you deplore the MSM’s complete failure to show any impartiality at all as much as I do,

          1. Good afternoon Rastus. None of the so called MSM is under any obligation to be impartial with the one exception of the BBC. I agree with you re the BBC and John Sopel’s reporting in particular, but you exaggerate your point by complaining about the wider media.

  37. So far I’ve found two amusing lines in the parliamentary report about QinetiQ involving Tony Blair and John Major……

    https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmpubacc/151/151.pdf

    1) ”All their Christmases came at once”.

    2) ”Difficult to think you could have done worse putting it on eBay”.

    Shame they didn’t know about Mr Soros in the background as the $100,000,000 star investor at the purchaser……

    Then they might have said ”it looks just like 1992 !”

    It does, doesn’t it ?

    Polly

    1. Morning Rik and Nottlers all.

      Alf and I have just listened to your post and it is extremely scary. It brings together everything we have been saying for ages but to actually see it put together like this is something else Seems that we are sleepwalking into an awful world.

    2. Judging by the number of upticks few people have viewed this impressive video. It really is a very informative documentary showing the co-ordinated governmental efforts to cow the populace. Highly recommended.

    1. Chameleon woman? She can change her ethnicity at will.

      One day she is “Indian-American” [A Punjab Indian or an Apache Indian?] and the next day a black woman who is paler than me!

      1. Others might suggest that if you need to protect the incoming government from a small but violent tag tag bunch of sore losers, then they did somehow elect the right president.

        Personally I think that it just shows how sick the US has become, it does no credit to either side.

        1. Good afternoon, Garlands. It’s still snowing here but a bit warmer than yesterday’s -11ºC at a nice mellow zero!

          3. Slight breeze here , I dried off a duvet cover yesterday on the line , and am just about to put another washed cover on the line , so we shall see whether that is ready by 4pm, sheets and pillowcases go in the dryer, they dry off pretty quickly !

      2. I was told playing the oboe affected the brain. It used to be considered that the high pressure caused madness. It has more recently been discovered that anyone who plays the oboe is already quite mad (said a clarinettist).

        1. You cannot understand what the clarinet is until you have listened to Sidney Bechet.

          2. His best is his 1939 recording of “Summertime”. It’s on utoob. It is just sublime, and much better than his 1952 recording. Ira Gershwin said it was sad the George didn’t live to hear it as he was sure that was what George was trying to do with the music.
            https://youtu.be/Po8J4NBdiSc

            Bechet the man himself was a bit of an arse BTW.

          5. I once knew a woman who was turned on by the sound of an oboe – an oboesexual?
            Is an oboesexual a queer with a cold

          6. I was never a fan of Goodman, he just doesn’t do it for me.

            Edit: I should add to that his opening to “Rhapsody in blue” is quite wonderful.

          8. No, you wouldn’t. His music was greatly admired, although personally I never much liked him.

          10. ‘Afternoon, George, I was in a pipe band when I was a Boy Entrant at RAF Cosford 1960-61. All the band, pipes, drums and trumpets were billeted together and one, Leo Goodall was a very proficient piper but, when someone brought a clarinet into the billet saying he wanted to learn to play it, Leo, who’d never seen a clarinet, picked it up, looked it over, blew a couple of notes on it and then, without music, launched into Stranger On The Shore, quite as competently as Acker Bilk.

            Some people have that rare talent for music.

          11. Me too at Halton – I was a tenor drummer in the pipe band. The fingering is the same I think for clarinet and chanter. I can’t play any of those wind instruments because I have my hands reversed (right hand uppermost) from my recorder days at primary school which was never corrected.

          12. Hmm, I was so good as a piper, having to learn tunes by watching someone else’s fingers that, when I was posted to RAF Laarbruch, the Pipe Band made me Drum Major!

          13. Why were you taught right hand uppermost for the recorder? I was taught like all recorder players are from the books (I’ve still got mine), left-hand uppermost. Did you have a left-handed teacher?

          14. I used to know someone who played the recorder with reversed hands. She was missing the little finger on her right hand (which you need) but you don’t need the little finger on your upper hand. It looked awkward, but she was a very good player. I can’t think of any other reason for swapping though.

          15. I play the piano and guitar, but when I tried to learn the clarinet (at school), I was such a failure I couldn’t even get a note out of it!

        1. That’s its thought, Walter, ‘cos she’s never paid a penny in taxes but lives on bennies.

    3. And Bob that scene is not untypical of todays culture.
      Once again for an unexplainable reason I cant see your attached link on my PC but can on my android ?
      But the 2.5 mm high fine print on my phone is very difficult to read.

    6. At first sight I thought that it was a picture taken in a US Walmart but then I read the caption.

    7. A local wag ( or poo stirrer if you will ) posted this on our local Facebook group, my oh my did it ever bring out the snotty holier than thou virtue signallers.

      1. ‘Afternoon, Datz, then I’m another Poo Stirrer ‘cos it’s up on Ar5ebook and been ‘shared’ twice. I must have more realistic friends.

  44. What’s happened to Unballanced? Seems to have gone awol. Failed to toe the Project Fear party line?

          3. If I go to the fridge for my glasses and discover a dodgy scientist instead … I’ll have a heart attack – or, as it will be described on the sustificate – Covid.

      2. ‘Afternoon, Paul, I think Bill is talking about shitty Whitty’s sidekick, Vallance or something.

  45. It seems the ‘new comers’ have collectively now taken it upon themselves to go on a mass hunger-strike…….oh well there’s probably a nice place in Calais where they can get something to eat. Rubber boat taxis at the ready.

  46. What a lovely walk; sun shining, lots of people and dogs out and in most in a sunny mood. More like this, please.
    Wind a bit bracing, but nothing that couldn’t be dodged or tolerated.
    Maybe, if I’m very good and go to chur ……. ah …….. Excuse me while I kneel beside the bed, close my eyes, hands together and intone “God Bless Mummy, God Bless Daddy, God Bless Spartie ….”

    1. ‘Afternoon, Anne:

      Hush, hush, listen who dares,
      Little Anne Allan is saying her prayers.

      1. Little boy kneels at the foot of the bed
        Hand working overtime – face going red
        Plink plank into the hankie
        Christopher Robin is having a ****ie

        2. Little boy kneeling at the foot of the bed
          Lily white hands caressing his head.
          Oh My! Couldn’t be worse!
          Christopher Robin is shagging his nurse!

          2. Here’s another:-

            Little boy siting at the foot of the stairs,
            In his hand is a bundle of hairs,
            Oh My! Fancy that!
            Christopher Robin’s castrated the cat!!

    2. Little boy says he’s going to say prayers like his Mummy…….”Oh God, God Yessss, Jesus, Yessss, Oh God , God Yesss……..

  49. A couple of possibilities for the future.
    1. You will have to display a sign on your front door as to whether or not you have been vaccinated.
    2. Slightly further off, when we all have to accept an in body device that will tell all and manage everything about us, including money, password, location and so on, it will not apply to rich folk. They will be able to hire “personal servants for life” (aka slave) who will be implanted with that information and will be a constant companion of the rich person. It will be a much sought after job.

    1. The in body device is already a fact, just not mandatory.

      Maybe like the covid passports, not mandatory but unless you have one …

        1. “Et faciet omnes pusillos et magnos et divites et pauperes et liberos et servos habere caracter in dextera manu aut in frontibus suis
          Et ne quis possit emere aut vendere nisi qui habet caracter nomen bestiae aut numerum nominis eius”
          — Apoc. 13:16-17
          :¬(

    2. As long as you sit outdoors 6 feet apart, regardless of your choice, the police won’t touch you.

      1. But if you walk 6′ apart in the middle of nowhere, each carrying a cup of coffee, they’ll be on you like a ton of bricks pricks.

        1. Mostly they won’t. It’s just here and there that there’s a real problem. Unfortunately, given the attitude of Dyfed Powys Police, here is one of those places. Fortunately I can get to most of the places where I need to go via minor roads.

          2. No, mining coal in South Wales and slate in North Wales, but no mining here in mid-Wales.

          4. Believe me, living with Dyfed Powys Police tactics is not a joke. The have fined even more people in the last 10 months than Derbyshire’s plods.

          6. Some police forces have issued almost no fines relating to SARS-CoV-2. My sister tells me that Police Scotland (at least in their area) have operated with a very light hand except for the most obvious and outrageous behaviour.

    1. I rather suspect that the dems and their Antifa/BLM supporters are planning a festival of violence celebration at which likely targets will be guarded by half a dozen coppers armed with rubber truncheons.

  56. Julie Burchill in the DT:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/17/pettiness-vindictive-eu-daily-reminder-brexit-worth/

    “The pettiness of the vindictive EU is a daily reminder of why Brexit was worth it

    The EU was a fantasy founded in order to make little men feel big – and for Germany to be the boss of Europe

    17 January 2021 • 10:00am

    As a youngster on the pop press, I coined the term “non-specific epic-ness” to sum up a certain sort of music which was all bombast and no bite, U2 being the best example. So it was a match made in heaven when their frontman Bono exhibited extreme BDS (Brexit Derangement Syndrome) on tour a few years ago. Previously, pop stars had shown us fun things onstage (i.e Jim Morrison’s genitalia) but the only thing Bono managed to reveal was his barmy levels of virtue-signalling.

    There was: “Its values and aspirations make Europe so much more than just a geography. They go to the core of who we are as human beings, and who we want to be”. Then: “That idea of Europe deserves songs written about it, and big bright blue flags to be waved about”.

    But perhaps my favourite example of Bono’s wit and wisdom was: “Europe is a thought that needs to become a feeling.”

    What a joke! Europe – or rather the EU, which pulled off the con of all times in convincing a significant number of Europeans that they were one and the same thing – was only ever a feeling. A fantasy founded in order to make little men feel big – and for Germany to be the boss of Europe without risking a third bloody nose from Britain – where mediocrities with delusions of adequacy could rise swiftly through the ranks without ending up in an international court when it all went wrong.

    We Brexiteers are accused of nostalgia for an empire, but how the heck did that ever equate with the desire to break away from a monolith and re-assert ourselves as the small dynamic country we’ve been all our lives – from Magna Carta to the Swinging Sixties – except for a few mostly miserable decades? It’s the Remainers who always craved being part of an empire by another name.

    They say you never really know someone till you break up with them; their generosity or pettiness when it comes to dividing friends and possessions (in this case, who gets custody of the fish) can make you fall in love all over again or reinforce the reasons you wanted to get shot of them.

    Gaslighting us like an errant partner (“No one else will want you!”) didn’t work so, like many a rumbled narcissist, the EU is coming from a different direction and treating us like a naughty child – while revealing their own immaturity in the face of not getting what they wanted for Christmas.

    It was a revelation to see the Dutch customs official “Martijn” bullying that poor lorry driver last week over the contents of his lunch box, finally confiscating a ham sandwich and announcing that it must be destroyed because it contains undeclared British foodstuffs with a sniggering “Welcome to the Brexit!”

    Such playground petty-mindedness of the EU reminds us every day why Brexit was worth it, as does Chancellor Merkel’s reference to “the British virus”. Is she going to start sniggering about French letters and Dutch ovens when other countries stand up for themselves? And if we’re so immature, how come we never felt the need to call our female leaders “Mutti” as do Merkel’s electorate?

    The danger of desiring leaders to boss them about often ends badly for nations; Alexander von Schoenburg, editor-at-large of Germany’s biggest-selling newspaper Bild, wrote recently: “The sclerotic and sluggish EU machine has botched the roll-out of the vaccines…delays, in-fighting, national self-interest and sheer bungling bureaucracy have combined to cripple the EU’s vaccine efforts.” There’s nothing infantile about wanting to break free from a stifling fetid comfort blanket and seeking to strike out into the big wide world.

    If we are juvenile, then it’s in the manner of the kid who saw that the Emperor had no clothes – childlike, not childish, curious and questing. We are the eternal youngsters of Europe and we have the oldest parliamentary democracy, uninterrupted by dictators, behind us; the best of both worlds. Behind all the brotherhood of man braggadocio, the EU were only ever a gang of playground bullies, their impotent rage revealed in their spite as we extricate ourselves from their moribund grasp, the end of the Big Sulk (La Grande Boude) nowhere in sight.”

    1. When the UK refused to join Schengen, I was passing through Frankfurt airport. The Bundesgrenzschutz at passport control made a big show of examining my passport (taking over 5 minutes to do so, lloking at each page like he was using it to learn new languages), then finally waved me through saying “Wilkommen in Schengen!”.
      Arse.

      1. When I used to travel on a car ferry to France, the passport control was surprisingly strict because of course we were half-europeans entering Sacred Schengen territory; if they make it any tougher&slower, the queue of vehicles would soon stretch back to the actual ferry.
        Should the Brits ever learn to leave a generous gap between them and the car in front, it might take quite a while to clear the decks.

    2. 328593+ up ticks,
      Afternoon Anne,
      Let us make no mistake the peoples re-set
      the UK politico’s rubber stamp too a two worded message, the second word being off, they were pro eu until the count was read out, my belief is since the 24/6/2016
      we are being taught lessons in obedience.

    1. “Sed ante haec omnia inicient vobis manus suas et persequentur tradentes in synagogas et custodias trahentes ad reges et praesides propter nomen meum”
      — Luke 21:12

  58. Beware! Priorities for Mr. Biden!

    President-(un)elect Joe Biden vowed to his supporters that, on his first day in office, he will begin removing any legal recognition of the two sexes by adopting pro-transgender polices. He will restore transgender students’ access to sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity. He will direct his Department of Education to vigorously enforce and investigate violations of transgender students’ civil rights.

    He said earlier “Let’s be clear: Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time. There is no room for compromise when it comes to basic human rights.”

    On his first day, he is also going to reverse Trump’s ‘travel ban’, which is meant to restrict Islamic terrorists from entering the US, not law-abiding citizens. And, of course he is going to re-instate support for the Paris climate accord (which, in my opinion, is nothing but extremely expensive hot air)!

    I think the new leader of the free world (if such a thing still exists) is going to have other things to worry about on his first day in office. One of them will be his impeachment! Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announced on Wednesday night she will introduce articles of impeachment against Joe Biden on January 21, 2021 over his abuse of power. She said: “We cannot have a President of the United States that is willing to abuse the power of the office of the presidency and be easily bought off by foreign government, Chinese energy companies, Ukrainian energy companies. So on January 21st I will be filing articles of impeachment on Joe Biden. And for millions of Americans it will be the first time they’ve ever heard about Joe and Hunter Biden and their deals with China or Ukraine!”

    As for Pelosi’s push for Trump’s impeachment, even the left-wing MSM think that it will unnecessarily impede and distract from Biden’s first 100 days!

    This would all be material for a comedy TV show if it wasn’t so serious.

    1. Let’s be clear: Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time.

      Let’s be clear, anyone who could say something so stupid should not be President of the United States!

          1. Yep , they can get back on their inflatables , and the border force can point them in a Westerley direction , where they can sail across the Atlantic to Biden land , where he will welcome them with open arms , greeting them with hog roasts , and beans and bacon!

          2. I really must clean my glasses more carefully – I thought you wrote “bears and bacon”!!

    2. Let’s be clear: Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time.

      Let’s be clear, anyone who could say something so stupid should not be President of the United States!

    3. The new politics: through the courts. Never mind who voted for what. Most visible at Brexit, now Trump & Biden.
      That really will cancel democracy. Why bother, if some smartarse will overturn it in the courts?

    5. This civil rights issue will get very interesting as it makes its way through the courts to SCOTUS and the Democrats have to change the make up of the SCOTUS, by packing the bench to get it through.

      1. They are just putting off the inevitable though. People will never accept the demands of the trans cult. All my lefty friends and rellies without exception do not accept it.
        The nonsense will be reversed.

        1. I hope so.

          I suspect it will be when the woke suddenly realise that their gifted daughters are not getting sports scholarships to college and university and that their places in teams are going to men and their professional sport prizes and the money goes to men, pretending to be women.

          For example, if I was ranked in the top 500 male tennis players or golfers, I would be sorely tempted to pretend to be a woman.
          No chance of making a living as a man, a very good chance of becoming rich as a woman, unless lots above me in the rankings came to the same conclusion.

    7. A quick search uncovers the little known fact that 0.42% of adults in the USA identify as transgender. So, Biden is going in to bat for a tiny % of the adult population and upset many of the remaining 99.58%, especially women who do not want themselves and their daughters to share facilities with men identifying as women. A vote winner if ever there was one, however, Sleepy Joe doesn’t need to wi…

      1. It’s not just the sharing facilities. It’s the attack on one’s identity as a woman. Not sure if men feel threatened by trans men in the same way that women feel threatened by trans women?

        1. Agreed. Obviously transgender people need the protection of the law but it’s simple minded politicians who by deciding these minority issues become a cause célèbre for their own ends who eventually make things worse for the minority.

          1. https://transanityca.wordpress.com/2017/08/13/synanon-the-brainwashing-game-and-modern-transgender-activism-the-orwellian-implications-of-transgender-politics-by-jenn-smith/
            This is a bit long to read unless one is personally involved, but the gist of it is that the trans movement is acting as a cult, and sucking in vulnerable people, detaching them from their families and re-building them as “new” people.

            The standard left wing feminist line is that trans men are really all lesbians who have been brainwashed into thinking they are men.
            I think the cult theory is more likely, i.e. that they are people looking for a group to belong to.

            There have always been trans people, and they have tried to keep as quiet as possible for obvious reasons, but the political trans movement is a new thing.

    8. Pelosi still refuses to accept that she is responsible for the chaos and carnage in the US.

      Her frenzied arrogance will cause more disruption that she knows. How did someone so immensely stupid get into office?

  59. 328593+up ticks,
    Are the politico’s in-house aware of this, may one ask how long before they ALL come into the open as in the islamic ideology followers amalgamate with labour, & the pretendee tory’s with “nige” ?

    Greek Archbishop: Islam Is a ‘Political Party’, Not a Religion

    1. The Greeks, under the Ottoman Empire, have had a much more painful experience of Islamic domination than have we in Western Europe.

        1. “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes,”
          — Virgil

          Makes Christmas a very ‘iffy’ occasion in Greece.

          1. “Yes Minister” The Bed of Nails (TV Episode 1982) Poster
            Yes Minister (TV Series)
            The Bed of Nails (1982)
            Derek Fowlds: Bernard Woolley

            Sir Humphrey Appleby : Formulating policy means making choices. Once you do that, you please the people that you favour, but infuriate everybody else. One vote gained, ten lost. If you give the job to the road services, the rail board and unions will scream. Give it to the railways, the road lobby will massacre you. Cut British Airways investment plans, they’ll hold a devastating press conference that same day.

            James Hacker : But I’m going to be Transport Supremo!

            Sir Humphrey Appleby : I believe the Civil Service vernacular is Transport Muggins!

            James Hacker : No, the Prime Minister has asked me to undertake this task, this necessary duty. After all, we must all endeavour to do our duty. Furthermore, Sir Mark thinks there may be votes in it. And if so, I don’t intend to look a gift horse in the mouth.

            Sir Humphrey Appleby : I put it to you, Minister, that you are looking a Trojan horse in the mouth!

            James Hacker : If we look closely at this gift horse, we’ll find it full of Trojans?

            Bernard Woolley : If you had looked a Trojan horse in the mouth, Minister, you’d have found Greeks inside. Well the point is, it was the Greeks who gave the Trojan horse to the Trojans, so technically, it wasn’t a Trojan horse at all, it was a Greek horse. Hence the tag “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes”, which you’ll recall, is usually and somewhat inaccurately translated as “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts”. Or doubtless you would have recalled had you not attended the LSE.

            James Hacker : Greek tags are all very well, but can we stick to the point?

            Bernard Woolley : Sorry, Greek tags?

            James Hacker : “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts”. I suppose the EEC equivalent would be, “Beware Greeks bearing an olive oil surplus”!

            Bernard Woolley : No, the point is, Minister, just as the Trojan horse was Greek, what you call a Greek tag is, in fact, Latin. It’s obvious, really: The Greeks would never suggest bewaring of themselves, if one can use such a participle, and it’s clearly Latin not because “Timeo” ends in “o”, as the Greek first person also ends in “o”. No, there is a Greek word “Timao” meaning “I honour”, but the “os” ending is a nominative singular termination of a second declension in Greek and an accusative plural in Latin, though actually Danaos is not only the Greek for Greek, it’s also the Latin for Greek.

          6. I remember learning Latin and Ancient Greek at university and when I came across these I fell over myself laughing. Whatever happened to intelligent, witty humour that played with words with such glorious abandon?

            I remember the writers saying that when they wrote they assumed the audience was a clever as they were. I cannot claim to be, but I for one am very grateful that they made that assumption.

          10. Well, I least I was one of the few recruits who didn’t need to be told the meaning of the regimental motto – “Utrinque paratus”!
            :¬))

          5. The natives always like it if you attempt the language. I can get around in Greek, but I was often met with wry laughter.

          6. Same here. Funny story – my father, in France, asked a local for directions to the railway station. Trouble is , he pronounced it as “Où est la guerre” instead of “Où est la gare”.

          7. A common mistake. My father spoke fluent French & he put me wise to that one at an early age.

          8. When I was in Greece I used German to communicate (apart from with my friend’s mother, whose second language was French). Many Greeks had worked in Germany.

          9. I used German throughout Yugoslavia – when it was still Yugoland.

            Not a good idea to use German in the remoter parts of Crete.

      2. 328593+ up ticks,
        Afternoon A,
        By adhering to the same voting pattern ours is yet to come for certain on account no notice is taken of history.

      3. It’s only just began…………….again.
        Did you se the TV programme by Simon Sebag Montefiore ?
        https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2015/49/the-making-of-spain#:~:text=In%20this%20rich%20and%20thrilling%20three%20part%20series,journey%20to%20unlock%202%2C000%20years%20of%20Spain%E2%80%99s%20history.

        Muslim pirates use to raid the south west of England and Ireland capturing children with fair hair take them back to Grenada and lock them away for the ‘entertainment’ of the Mullahs. I believe he said that 6.000 were held there at any one time and when they had become ‘obsolete’ they were fed to the inhouse pride of pet lions.
        It’s hard to imagine that happening even in those dark evil days.

    2. He is absolutely right. In fact, he’s so right that they wanted to include this in the list of things you’re not allowed to say about islam or it’s a hate crime.
      IIRC, those islamophbia laws got postponed?

      1. Anyone who consents to participate in Clinical Trials after so little testing in animals must be raving mad.

        1. Many people will take a chance on these dodgy vaccines, simply because, in our risk averse society, they’ve been taught to be afraid of dying. Sadly, there will never be a cure for death.

          “Homo natus de muliere brevi vivens tempore repletus multis miseriis quasi flos egreditur et conteritur et fugit velut umbra et numquam in eodem statu permanet”
          — Job 14:1-2

          1. Atheists and atheist societies have to hang on to this life at all costs, because that is all there is. Christians may look at things differently.

          2. I am an atheist but have always known that death is the end of life as I know it.

            What happens to my body after my death is for others to decide. It will be of no interest to me?

            Edit. Added me

          8. A ‘belief’ is a concept held by a human whilst he is alive. Nothing more.

            Plants and animals are incapable of holding beliefs. When a human dies, his beliefs die with him. All plants and animals, including humans, are organic matter, which decays after death: it’s constituent molecules being redistributed.

            Hypothetically, if every human that ever existed, all umpteen billions of them, goes to either a place called ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’ on death; those places must be unfeasibly overcrowded by now.

          9. Good afternoon Grizz

            ……… those places must be unfeasibly overcrowded by now.

            Yes. It’s called England.

          10. Umm… if we’re the overcrowded place… are we heaven or hell?

            No, don’t answer that. I know.

          11. When we die, that which we are, the entire sum total of our brain’s myriad interconnected neurons ceases to function.

            However, we live on in how we lived. Our experiences, attitudes and values, if passed on to others, live on. We are effectively immortal. I have never believed in a god. I was told to as a child but to anyone vaguely awake all the Church is is a throw back to controlling the oldest man in the village that’s just been written down to become the bible.

            Religion has been the cause of inumerable miseries and wars and yet the weak cling to it furiously. I do not understand why.

          12. I agree, Wibbles but take a different point of view. I do believe in re-incarnation – otherwise what is the point of our lives if not to learn a lesson in order to progress.

            As for passing on our experiences, that is why I have written my autobiography to be passed down to my children and further generations in order for them to understand HOW we lived 1944 – 2014. Not A Bad Life – Tom Hunn, Kindle and I’m now carrying on with Passing Three-Score- Years-and-Ten but not yet published. Could you think of doing something similar?

          14. Called me a liar yesterday, and I edited my comment to show the authoritative source of the quote I had based my comment on. Ho hum.

          15. I am Atheist in the sense that I have an absence of religious belief. That is all. I don’t belong to some Atheist society or alternative belief system.

          17. Bill Bryson mentions that we are composed of atoms (molecules, whatever) ; we are alive but our atoms are not.
            What is life?

      2. “Scientists took a common cold virus that infected chimpanzees and engineered it to become the building block of a vaccine against almost anything.”
        Not to be sneezed at. Achooh ooh ooh ooh!

      3. Thanks for the link but I think it has only been tested on a ‘model’ a la Ferguson. This is what is said

        Has the vaccine been tested on animals?

        Our collaborators at Rocky Mountain Laboratories (NIAID/NIH) have conducted a rapid yet thorough investigation and demonstrated good safety and efficacy of a single dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 in the rhesus macaque model that they had previously established. We were able to review the data before vaccinations in the clinical trial were initiated. There are also animal studies underway in Australia and the UK, and the results will be published once those studies are complete.

        I still won’t have the vaccine if offered to me.

          2. That’s my concern. I’m not keen due to the lack of testing but if I ever want to get on a plane again, I may well have to have it.

          2. Never forget the shock when I first discovered my blood type was O rhesus positive.

            “Ooooh!”, I thought, “Ooooh …. ooooh …. ooooh!”

            Still, it would explain why I have exceptionally long arms…

    2. I read some time ago that an earlier ‘genetic’ vaccinepotion was tested on animals and all were fine until exposed to the ‘wild virus’. All died after the exposure.

    1. Tacos for us tonight. With lemon drizzle cake for afters – cake just going in to the oven.
      Smell is heavenly!

      1. Pan fried venison steak which has been marinated for 24 hours, roast potatoes & sprouts.
        Bakewell tart for pudding.

          2. I’d have thought you would have got over their sinking the British Fleet in the Thames by now….

          13. Met a lot of Dutch people when I saw the England v Holland match in Euro ‘96 at Wembley. Good humoured.

          14. Worked with plenty in offshore- on fixed platform and crane barges. Good engineers, good fun to go drinking with.

          20. I’ve been to Texel. On the ferry’s ramp I met my first Dutch official who refused to speak English, because I had failed to buy my ticket a mile further back along the road.

          28. One of my nieces married an Australian Dutch chap, Dave, we had a super long weekend in Tilberg. Lovely B&B bit strange having the full glass shower compartment at the end of the bed and the toilet in an alcove with out a close able door. The terrace came in handy. 😎 Lovely people very interesting to sit, drink, eat and chat with. Most of the people we spoke to loved coming to England for holidays
            Vincent Van Gough went to school in Tilberg. I have a photograph of him taken from his school class photograph. He looks like a young Michael Gove. I’ll see if i can find it in my archive.

          29. So do I. I was stationed in the Netherlands and became a bit of a Dutchophile.

            And I can pronounce van Gogh correctly! 😉

          30. I was slightly confused to have a “gesondheid” explained to me – “with she, as in holluff”… Took a moment to understand what he was on about :-((
            But now I can at least count in Dutch, and eat out. Most important!

      2. I am married to a Dutch woman and my Dutch family and friends are considerably more pleasant than many British people.

        1. We met a Dutch couple at a camp site when our children were very young and we still keep in touch, a friendship that has lasted 40+ years.

          We get a lot of Dutch people here in the Dordogne. They can be very direct, but I don’t think that it’s rudeness, just less circumspect about saying what they mean.

          5. 1998 – 2000 and then married a Swede until 2016 with many trips to Norrköping and Soderköping

          6. I live among them and have NEVER met a rude Swede.

            I’m guessing that anyone coming across a rude Swede MUST have done something extremely rude to them first to elicit such a reaction!

          8. You’ll just have to wait, George. Do you know the Swedish for ‘Please’?

            The nearest I’ve come to is “Om du vill.” (If you will).

          9. Observed by the sailing fraternity in the Med are more and more newly rich Russians who are renowned for their rudeness, They never say please or thank you and try to push you out of the way in queues.

            The Russians are known as the new Germans.

          10. All my encounters with Russians have so far been pleasant, whether as patients, staff, or otherwise. I did a locum in an all-Russian practice in Germany. The nurses were so conscientious & painstaking it was unbelievable.

          11. The only Russian with whom I have exchanged ritual kisses is Mikhail Gorbachev ...

            The occasion was the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada [‘PDAC’] Convention at the Royal York Hotel, Toronto, in 1993.

            I was attending the ‘Gathering of the Irish’ cocktail party and happened to be wearing the scarlet tie with a fouled anchor (in gold) of the Royal Alfred Yacht Club. ‘Twas a gin-fired wager …

            I met MG in one of the several 6-elevator lobbies on the eighth? floor, did the business, escort him to the main hall and beat a retreat to the Irish party.

            It is fortunate that his several minders accepted or confused my tie insignia …

          12. I spent several pre-Christmas holidays in Cyprus about ten years ago. There were a growing number of Russian residents every year; I would describe them as rude and ruthless. They drove my favourite pub – The Queen Vic in Paphos – out of business by setting up ‘next door’ and undercutting food and drink prices donec exitium.

          13. Is that possible? Better edit that unnecessary remark and say that Norwegians often have a greater sense of humour.

          16. You have to use a phrase e.g. är du så snell? (are you nice enough to…, would you be good enough to…)

          17. är du så snell att recka mig salt? – would you be good enough to pass me the salt?

        3. Israelis are the rudest I’ve come across. Austrians have been fine as have their German cousins (in fact I fell in love with a German girl on holiday aged 15).

          1. Indeed rude but also they have positive characteristics. Effing tough for example.
            When I grumble about ‘the Jews’ in conversation, I carefully exclude the Israelis
            (with the exception of the hyper-religious ones, who like to defecate in Palestinian gardens).

          2. For me, it’s the Swedes, they will barge straight into you should you be going the wrong way in Drottningsgata

        1. As the Edelweiss is a strictly protected plant, it is very unlikely that he would offer me a posy of them.

          5. You clearly missed my slightly ironic allusion to the Sound of Music where the Captain and Maria serenaded the flower in the most sentimental way and all was sweetness and light.

        1. One thing I can say in their favour, they make better coffee than the Bavarians.
          When I worked in Simbach am Inn, I used to cross the river into Braunau on a Sunday morning to enjoy a decent cup of coffee.

      1. As the good doctor pointed (not sure if i really believe it) out in my earlier post, the plan was to reduce the current population. But i’m quite sure in normal circumstances Norwegian people are far kinder to their elderly. Unlike in the UK where most pensioners here would be better off in prison.
        Remember having a conversation with a local on our Fjord cruise he pointed out that the people of Norway had then voted their government back into power 4 times on the trot. Because the government exactly what the people expected.

        1. Our government does exactly what (some) people expect – it’s just not what they actually want! 🙂

    2. We had a chat about it yesterday. They were probably too decrepit to withstand the side effects.

      2. Yes it’s a bit like the Liverpool pathway Anne. I remember seeing my mother in law ‘sent on her way’ after we were asked to leave her bed side and wait out side while the staff ‘made her more comfortable’, she died with in half an hour of my wife and i sitting back along side her.

        1. Yes, I had a Consultant offer to make my mother ‘comfortable’; thank goodness a complete stranger had explained that phrase to me several weeks earlier.
          I am in favour of the concept of euthanasia if it could be authorised by an open judicial process involving the patient and family, but this was a chat in a hospital corridor.

  64. That’s me for the day after The Day. Thank you letters wait to be written…tomorrow…

    One of my treasured presents was a painting by my beloved grand-daughter of Gus and Pickles (when young).

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a95a23bf52a096d160f39b29db4eaf0a5ac1f400eddc1d0ccb6b3530bdc2aa72.jpg

    We showed it to a pal who is a professional artist (her stuff goes for £10,000 plus) and her verdict was that the painting was extraordinary for any amateur artist, let alone a 14 year old. Pal added that on first sight, she was convinced that it was fabric and not paint. Praise indeed.

    Partridge for supper, thanks to NoTTLers. And the bottle of Domaine Thomas. We decided to risk a Chateau Lynch-Moussas 1986 last night. Even I could tell it was good! The MR rejoiced in it.

    A demain.

    4. Excellent painting, Bill.
      It does have that slightly faded look of fabric. Talented lass! :-D)

    7. Bill,

      Your beloved grand-daughter is as talented as her beloved grandfather .

      It really does look like fabric .. or just painted in Trompe l’Oeil fashion.. brilliant . Clever girl.

    8. Beautiful painting, what a lovely thing to have of their kittenhood, which is so short. Your grand-daughter has captured the essence of your two little rascals.

  65. So Phil Specter has died:-

    Musician and convicted murderer Phil Spector dies of coronavirus
    Spector was jailed for murdering a Hollywood actress in 2003 but was also a prominent music producer

    By Our Foreign Staff 17 January 2021 • 4:14pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2021/01/17/TELEMMGLPICT000248841373_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqKjggCdpvXjoraOzAlyzu1Oy2J3UvWd4k5utKGy_UMGI.jpeg?imwidth=1280

    Rock producer Phil Spector, who changed the sound of pop music in the 1960s with his “Wall of Sound” recordings and was convicted of murder for the 2003 murder of a Hollywood actress, has died at age 81 of COVID-19, according to authorities and media reports.

    Spector produced 20 top 40 hits between 1961 and 1965 and went on to work with the Beatles on “Let It Be,” as well as Leonard Cohen, the Righteous Brothers and Ike and Tina Turner.

    He was diagnosed with COVID-19 four weeks ago and transferred to a hospital from his prison cell, where he had been serving a 19 years-to-life sentence for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson, the Daily Mail newspaper said.

    In a brief statement, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Spector died of natural causes at an outside hospital, and that his official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner in the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.

    Advertisement
    Clarkson, 40, was killed by a shot to the mouth, fired from Spector’s gun in the foyer of his mock castle home outside Los Angeles on Feb. 3, 2003. The two met hours earlier at a Hollywood nightclub.

    Spector was convicted of second-degree murder in a second trial, after the first trial deadlocked in 2007. The case drew worldwide interest because Spector was widely known as a rock music pioneer. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

    He began his career as a performer, recording a hit single as a teen with his band the Teddy Bears, but found his true calling as the producing genius behind 1960s girl groups such as Crystals and the Ronettes.

    His signature production technique was the “Wall of Sound,” which layered pop and even classical instruments into a full, lush sound that was new to pop records. He called it “a Wagnerian approach to rock & roll: little symphonies for the kids.”

    By the late 1970s Spector, who once said he had “devils that fight inside me,” had become something of a recluse, retreating behind the walls of his 33-room hilltop mansion near Los Angeles where Clarkson was killed years later.

    Advertisement
    Prosecutors charged Spector with murder despite his assertions that Clarkson, star of such films as “Barbarian Queen” and “Amazon Women on the Moon,” had shot herself for reasons he could not grasp.

    He told Esquire magazine in an interview that Clarkson had “kissed the gun” in a bizarre suicide.

    Spector had a troubled early life. His father committed suicide, his sister spent time in mental institutions and Spector suffered bouts of severe depression.

    Spector had a long-standing reputation for gunplay. He carried a pistol and a biographer said he often placed it on the recording console as he worked. He reportedly fired a shot in the studio during an acrimonious recording session with John Lennon.

    This is breaking story, more to follow.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/17/music-producer-phil-spector-dead-81-prison-authorities-say/

        1. Reminds me of sitting on my old mates balcony in JHB giggling
          In the smokey atmosphere after a night out at Michael’s Tavern in Hillbrow. And waking up in the morning in the bath.

      1. I’m no stranger to profanity, but I didn’t approve when I heard it being played at weddings or other gatherings.

        1. It was very unexpected and inappropriate. Malta is predominantly Catholic. The open air market was open to children. It was quite shocking.
          We went to Mass on the Sunday. We arrived in time and the steps to the church were crowded. The people on the steps saw us and ushered us forward, into the church, through the crowd and into seats, us and the kids. It was extraordinary as it was just as if it was co-ordinated without any words spoken.
          A really kind and welcoming action.

    4. Awful bland rubbish pushed out constantly by the BBC whilst they refused to play proper music.

  68. “SIR – Upon receiving my letter from the NHS inviting me to book a vaccination appointment, I went online to do so.

    Once I had submitted my postcode, I was offered four venues ranging from 20 to almost 100 miles away. Taken aback, I dialled the phone number provided and was told that the closest centre was indeed 20 miles away. I was advised to keep trying.

    Surely the NHS should be trying to protect the most vulnerable members of society, rather than expecting them to drive half-way across the country so that an ambitious vaccination target can be met by February.

    Rosemary Dane
    Walton-on-Thames, Surrey”

    There’s a mass vaccination centre at Epsom Racecourse which is 14 1/2 miles from Walton on Thames; hardly halfway across the country!

    1. So why was she told the nearest was 20 miles away? Somebody not communicating properly? Hardly her fault, I would have thought.

        1. #Me Too. I’m not signing up for something that hasn’t been tried and tested over a decent period of time. I’m no guinea pig.

  70. Mass fight involving 40 people brandishing SWORDS and bottles breaks out in London street
    Police broke up a massive street fight involving 40 men in west London
    Two men carrying swords were arrested by Ealing force in Southall this morning
    Met Police has been contacted for further information
    By JACK WRIGHT FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 19:14, 17 January 2021 | UPDATED: 19:17, 17 January

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9157357/Mass-fight-involving-40-people-brandishing-SWORDS-bottles-breaks-London-street.html?ito=push-notification&ci=69163&si=7271111

      5. There was a case many years ago when some Civil War Re-enactors and Morris Dancers decamped to a pub near the home of one of the re-enactors after the event they’d been attending.
        When a gang of idiots began taking the mickey out of their costumes and started getting very abusive, they all beat a retreat to where the Civil War lad lived.
        The gang followed them and began kicking the door of the house, so the lad unlocked it and, when the leading lout kicked it open, walloped him over the head with the flat of his sword!

      1. Hi Anne,
        According to the article , the police only arrested 2..

        I bet they were too scared to intervene. It is much easier arresting dozens of whities I guess!

        They daren’t upset the knife wielders just in case things kick off… The Lambo and Ferrari noisemakers are just as bad.

        1. Hmmm, Mags, If you were one of the Keystone Kops, would you take on a sword-wielding, infuriated Sikh?

    1. Beginning of the end for the €uro and the EU. If you have any Euros, I’d change them PDQ.

  72. Evening, all. Been quite mild here; I’m wondering when “the Beast from the East” is going to show up.

        1. We had snow yesterday morning. Must have landed between 4am and 8am. All gone before lunch.

          1. Just spoken to my sister in Athens. Last week they were down at Vouliagmeni beach with their granddaughter, paddling, making sandcastles etc in shorts and T shirts! Temp. 25c. Yesterday it snowed and its -4c! It’s quite East!

        2. So a brief cold snap in winter is perceived as a “Beast” and sunshine in summer is viewed as a “climate catastrophe”.
          Confusing, except for Liberals.

          1. There are no seasons any more, only catastrophic events (in the minds of the climate change crew).

    2. Connors. I thought of you today at 1:30 for no apparent reason long after breakfast but no lunch. Out of nowhere I had reflux. Into the fruit basket I went. Washed and sliced a medium apple. Ate it slowly chopped up the core, fed it to the birds in the garden.
      No problems all afternoon.

      1. That’s good to hear. I must try that. Today has (touch wood!) not been too bad. It remains to be seen what happens when I lie down in bed.

    3. It has been really mild here as well, slight breeze and managed to dry washing on the line .

      We thought we were due for a blast from the beast from the east, but so far no sign!

    4. The Beast from the East and the Pest from the West are as nothing compared with the threat from the North.

      When Quinn the Eskimo gets here, everybody’s gonna want to doze.

      2. I guess, Duncan, you’re talking about the Sturgeon fishwife. In the words of a popular (modified) Air Force song:

        Virgin Sturgeon
        Needs no urging,
        That’s why caviar
        AIN’T my dish!

  73. Spoilt for not much choice I’ve been watching bargain loving brits abroad. It’s quite amusing. I wonder how much longer their fun will last.
    Spain might go bankrupt if they chuck out the vibrant British elders.
    They seem to enjoy life.

    1. Yes. The finances of some parts of Spain and Italy are only kept afloat by the ex-pat communities.

      1. My younger sister and BiL a golfer use to live in Spain in a really nice apartment overlooking a decent golf course. Nice to visit oh booger they came back to the uk 18 months ago.
        Shame eh.

    2. Wealthy, civilised folk on the way out to the north.
      Poor as shit, uncivilised folk on the way in from the south.
      What could go wrong?

    4. Well, that’s a totally normal preparation for the inauguration of the most popular President in the history of the US!

      1. I came across Hoare at university, and this attack is absolutely typical of the man. Simon Hoare represents the weakest side of the Conservative Party in my opinion.

    4. I’d suggest, Simon Whore that you are obviously afraid for the future of your lard-arsed seat.

    5. Simon Hoare will obviously have his account suspended for posting offensive comments as Twitter is on a drive to remove such posts………… oh wait, his name does not start with Donald does it, the other rules must apply to him.

      1. 328628+ up ticks.
        BB2,
        On par with the peoples continuing to give support & succour to the lab/lib/con coalition party, as in adding another tail to the cat.

        It’s like many in society, when funding various issues need a rod for a bit of self inflicted punishment.

    1. Perhaps if this lady were to cut-off one of her breasts, she might be able to get around the problem by claiming she was an amazon ….

      ….I’ll get me Herodotus.

      1. She was reported to the police for doing remote shoe fittings! On the customers drive, behind a screen with a hole in it for the feet! People are soo petty!

  79. 328593+ up ticks,

    Dt,
    Fifth of staff in some care homes refuse Covid vaccine believing they are ‘invincible’
    The NCA is seeking legal advice on whether care workers could be forced to take the jab

    Should read IMO proving they are sensible, more like.

    1. The NCA and its lawyers should study the Nuremberg Code, which states unequivocally “The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.”.

      For further reading I would recommend to them Article 7 of the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ,to which the UK is party.

      1. 328593+ up ticks,
        Evening DM,
        Many I believe only adhere to material that seemingly gives substance to whatever they are pushing at the time.

      1. 328593+ up ticks,
        Evening AA,
        Better leave them in place so as they are there to receive another coating of being called foolish ,
        thinking they are invincible, when in truth it is their right / prerogative if they wish to refuse.

    3. The NCA is being ridiculous. The vaccine doesn’t stop the staff from getting the virus or passing it to residents. So there is no reason for young, healthy staff to have it.

      1. 328628+ up ticks,
        Morning BB2,
        To my way of thinking a successful annealing campaign has been run by the governance coalition party’s minus the toughing element for decades.

        Taking the place of self reliance & replacing it with
        government dependency are tools of control.

  81. Woohoo! Just heard via text from hospital that my covid test this morning, was negative! All systems go!

      1. Thank you all for your good wishes! I shall, of course, be wearing what the Scots refer to as a “goonie”! My left hip will be replaced by titanium, and I shall be tap dancing again before you know it! Many thanks!

        1. Our neighbour had that done a few years ago. She said she never felt better afterwards, now to be seen rushing about like a misguided firework.

        2. A 95 year old relative had this op a few months ago and is indeed tap dancing again. Fingers crossed all goes well for you, and we confidently expect tap dancing! Well, maybe not in the first few days 🙂

  83. God Almighty, the DT is STILL pumping out comment-free anti-Trump articles, this time about lobbyists trying to gain Presidential pardons, which even the author admits isn’t illegal.

  84. All quiet on the President non-elect Biden front I see.

    Yesterday, or early this morning to be precise, I was admonished by Geoffrey Woollard, sometime of this Parish, for stating that the breach of the Capitol was facilitated by Pelosi and undertaken by Antifa and Black Lives Matter.

    My supposition is now seen to be accurate. There is ample video evidence to demonstrate the incursion was organised by Antifa and BLM activists. One of the arrested BLM activists is a dead ringer for ‘Sir’ Lewis Hamilton, missing only the blood diamond earrings.

    I mention this because if you avoid MSM and the perverted, self interested, pronouncements of the chiefs of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Apple and Amazon there remain many outlets issuing and reporting on actual news as opposed to Democrat-sanctioned disinformation.

    Rumble is an obvious alternative site, also gab. There are others seeking to report the truth.

    The wide deployment of the National Guard in major cities might have two separate indications. The most obvious is that Biden is shit scared as an illegitimate president elect, but he is probably too thick to realise his inadequacy, the second that President Trump is about to declare Martial Law owing to mounting evidence of electoral fraud and foreign interference in the elections.

    I would hope it is the latter, but either way Biden and his family will eventually wind up in gaol along with the Clintons and Obama’s and their associates. The release of the evidence against them viz. the Obamagate files, will upset the Democrat Apple cart for good.

    Edit: within a minute of my post the usual pathetic downvoter, lurking in her cellar, has exposed herself again as a cowardly idiot.

    1. I’m sure, Cori, that you will get an apology from the woolly mind in the woolly name and the insipid downvoter will withdraw it’s unwarranted downvote and replace it with a cogent argument.

      Well, I can dream…

    2. I’m using an introductory subscription to the DT. However, in all its main pieces on the invasion of the Capitol not once have I seen the possibility that there were agitators from the left causing trouble. Also BTL comments are not permitted. What the DT is doing is no better than the Censorship by Social Media outfits. I have a note in my diary to cancel the DT subscription shortly.

      1. I just use a made-up id and the esc key, but rarely go there anyway.

        esc key – Australian cold box for keeping yer stubbies cool.

  86. Mr Biden’s ‘good intentions’ on day one of his inauguration:

    On his first day in the Oval Office he intends to “restore our leadership on the world stage” by taking actions including rejoining the World Health Organisation.

    He said recently: “Day one, if I win, I’m going to be on the phone with our Nato allies saying we’re back. We’re back and you can count on us again.”

    He has also vowed to strike out Mr Trump’s Muslim ban on day one, and then work with Congress to pass a law on hate crime.

    In regard to dozens of Mr Trump’s executive orders affecting the climate, Mr Biden said he would “do away with all [Mr Trump’s] executive orders. I mean, not figuratively. Literally, all of them.”

    It was unclear whether that includes orders relating to commercial fishing and oil pipelines.

    He is set to immediately sign an executive order rejoining the Paris climate accord, which the US originally joined when he was vice president.

    To me, that sounds like an incitement to wage (the second) US Civil War.

Comments are closed.